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The Year of Jubilo: A Novel of the Civil War
Howard Bahr. Picador USA: 2001 (paperback). ISBN: 0312280696. 384 pages.
Guide not available
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Oh, The Year of Jubilo! This one's a beauty. We wonder if Howard Bahr,
in his impetuous youth, told his friends that he was going to write a Great American Novel. If any bets were made, now's
the time to pay up, boys. How to explain this very unusual Civil War story? Well, it starts with a vicious double murder, as
described by a blind eyewitness, in the last year of the war, 1864. Next, Bahr jumps forward a year, and we join up with
Gawain Harper, a forty-year-old Confederate veteran making his weary way home, with many a mixed feeling about what he's
going to find when he gets there. He's particularly anxious about the matter of Morgan Rhea, the unusual woman whose fierce
determination propelled Gawain, a peace-loving professor, into serving the Cause. On the way into town, Gawain meets Harry
Stribling, a cheerful, interfering man of unexplained background, who calls himself a philosopher and whose mission appears
to be to shake and stir Gawain's already mixed-up world. And what do they find when they finally arrive in Gawain's
hometown? Let's see, to start with: a Yankee regiment allegedly keeping order, a brilliant, cold-hearted killer who's doing
his best to upset that order, a tortured Rebel spy turned guilty entrepreneur, a fresh-faced young boy who takes a walk and
gets his throat slit, and a barbarian backwoodsman who lurks in the cover of the forest, watching it all. Great cast of
characters, great Small Town novel, great mystery, great story of what happens to defeat, violence, and hatred in light of
a second, brighter chance.
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