A review by librarianonparade
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, by Allan Gurganus
5.0
Whenever I'm reading this book I remember how much I love it, and yet after I've finished it and moved on to other things I forget it. I don't forget what happens or what it's about - I forgot how much I like it. It's strange.
It's a big old rambling book - the personal recollections of Lucille Marsden, married at fifteen to a Confederate war veteran a good forty years older than her. It's not told in any kind of narrative order, it skips and jumps backwards and forwards through the years, things are repeated, some things only hinted at, some things skirted over, just as person's memory works. It's a strange way to tell a story, but it works.
Because of the nature of Lucille's marriage it really stretches over a broad expanse of time, right from the pre-war days up until the 1980s. And also because of Lucille's marriage, it makes you see that even though the war was over thirty years before she was born, she lived through it as much as her husband did, and came out the other side in a way that he never did. It really makes you realise how long the ramifications of such a war lasts - through Captain Marsden himself to his wife and his children and onwards.
It's a wonderful book, really lively and true, and I should try and remember that for the next time around.
It's a big old rambling book - the personal recollections of Lucille Marsden, married at fifteen to a Confederate war veteran a good forty years older than her. It's not told in any kind of narrative order, it skips and jumps backwards and forwards through the years, things are repeated, some things only hinted at, some things skirted over, just as person's memory works. It's a strange way to tell a story, but it works.
Because of the nature of Lucille's marriage it really stretches over a broad expanse of time, right from the pre-war days up until the 1980s. And also because of Lucille's marriage, it makes you see that even though the war was over thirty years before she was born, she lived through it as much as her husband did, and came out the other side in a way that he never did. It really makes you realise how long the ramifications of such a war lasts - through Captain Marsden himself to his wife and his children and onwards.
It's a wonderful book, really lively and true, and I should try and remember that for the next time around.