A review by lfs
A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers

3.0

Maybe more like a 3.5 star? I'm still workin' on it. There's some very pretty and poignant writing here, but many of the writer's attempts at profundity end up getting lost or encumbered in their own obtuseness--in run-on sentences that turn into entire, meandering paragraphs; vague and/or forced metaphors that aim for depth but land shallow and muddy. I also didn't love how the character perspective shifted so frequently, often from paragraph to paragraph. With such a large cast of characters, the effect was almost chaotic. All that being said, I did find the characters themselves and the way they fit together to be interesting enough to push me through the technical 'clunkiness'. The civil war era narrative in particular I found vividly and brutally drawn, the characters complex and fascinating, and at less than 300 pages, it's a fairly brisk read with enough thoughtfulness and heart to make me glad to have persevered.