Laurie M. (reading-galore) - , reviewed on 9/4/2020 + 115 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This historical novel is centered around the marriage and lives of Confederacy President Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell. It is wrttten by the author of "Cold Mountain" and I really loved that book. However, this Charles Frazier novel never seems to kick into gear and I found the story only mildly interesting. The bulk of the story takes place after the Confederacy has lost the war and we are mostly shown the toll it takes on Varina. The story flashes back to their earlier lives before the war and we learn that when she married him he was a farmer with no political aspirations. With an almost 30 year age difference between them, they had a strained marriage that did best when they lived apart. Varina was a very intelligent woman who could be the life of the party but she made some poor life choices. I wanted to read this book because I thought the story provided an unusual perspective by being told not from Jefferson Davis' point-of-view but instead from his wife's point-of-view. Unfortunately, it seemed to lack focus, wandering through the events of their lives. However, the story does provide an intimate view of their private lives that may have been previously missing from Civil War histories.

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