A review by wathohuc
Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor

3.0

Done! Phew! This was a difficult one for me to finish. First off, I’m not really keen on Civil War historical fiction to begin with, so there’s that. Second, it’s a thick book of 760+ pages of relatively small print. Third, it’s dreadfully grim. Lots of horrific suffering, illness, inhumanity, and grisly death. Fourth, it suffers from a lack of a coherent storyline and plot. All 61 chapters are independent vignettes. Some of them are repeat characters, some are connected characters, but many of them are not. Some of it is flashback, most is contemporaneous to the moment. And this gives it a chaotic feel and makes the reading harder for lack of a driving narrative. The only constant in the vignettes is the presence of the Andersonville prison. Now, all that said, I do think the writing is good. Kantor is definitely a talented writer. I could see how this could appeal to the Pulitzer Committee, but I would probably not have awarded it the prize. I’m just glad to be done with it. Not for the feint of heart. If you tackle this book, prepare yourself to be depressed and spiritually diminished for the duration.