It's mourning in America; The American civil war in fiction.(Books and Arts)(A memorable first novel confirms that the American civil war still has a tight grip on the nation's psyche)(Review)

Economist (US), The, February, 2001 by Adrian, Chris

GOB'S GRIEF.

THE American civil war has inspired some of the nation's most widely read fiction: "Uncle Tom's Cabin", which virtually forecast the conflict; "The Red Badge of Courage", which still appears on many college reading lists; "Gone With the Wind"; and, more recently, Charles Frazier's runaway success, "Cold Mountain". Each, in its way, reflects the time in which it was written. Yet, what these books have in common, in addition to the setting, is the triumph of the narrative-the story as a journey towards redemption. Now comes a new (first) novel from a young short-story writer, which deals with the same experience but gives it an utterly different treatment; a work, unlike any that has come before it, that raises its characters' imaginative life to...

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