I'm not sure what I expected with this novel. It wasn't what I got, that much I know.I had to listen to the prologue about three times before I got into the swing of the story. Once that was achieved, I had no further problems in that regards. The book is based on the true story of Carrie McGavock whose home was turned into a hospital during the battle at Franklin, Tennessee in November 1864. After the war was over, Carrie & her husband donated some of their land as a cemetary for the men who lost their lives in the bloody battle. Bodies were exhumed, identified where possible, and reburied in individual plots in the McGavoc Cemetary. I don't know how accurate Robert Hicks was in portraying this woman and the events surrounding the completion of the cemetary. I suspect that the only factual parts were the battle at Franklin, the use of Carnton (the McGavock home) as a hospital and the existance of the cemetary. I could find very little about Carrie on the internet other than the occasional mention.At the beginning of the book, Robert Hicks painted her as a rather weak woman. She isolated herself from the world as she secluded herself in her room, mourning the death of three of her children. I wondered how this woman could be the same woman who would see the horrors of war spilling over in her own home, and who would assist in caring for these dying boys and men. I wondered if Hicks was doing her memory a disservice. Perhaps he was striving for the contrast between Carrie before the war, and Carrie because of the war. Perhaps he wanted to demonstrate that she pulled an iron strength from deep within her to care for the dying, that being the pivotal thing that made her the strong woman she must have been.There was an unlikely romance that had to be purely fiction. However, it served to be the crux of the issue between wanting to live or wanting to die. The second half of the book examined this issue in detail. In fact, I rather tired of it, but I perserved. It picked up towards the end when the idea of reburying the soldiers at Carnton. I do know that Hicks' portrayal of the exhumation, identification, and reburial of the bodies was not accurate to what really happened. Unfortunately, some audiobooks leave off the author's note so I don't know his reasoning for rewriting history.There were a couple of things that were presented and not explained. (view spoiler)[When John McGavock went into town after the fighting had stopped, he found his wife's servant Mariah at another woman's house. They were grinding roots and making some powders that folk speculated were magical. The woman blew some of the power into John's eyes. The reader was left to speculate what that whole scene was about and what significance the powder had. The other thing was that Mariah had the second sight, yet it was never revealed why this fact was repeated throughout the book. The only thing I could think of was that Hicks wanted her to divine who the dead soldiers were in life through her intuition. In my opinion, the two things never added anything to the story. (hide spoiler)]
In Robert Hicks's gorgeously written story of Carrie McGavock, a real-life woman whose plantation's proximity to the deadliest encounter of the Civil War, the Battle of Franklin, caused her home to be commandeered as a hospital and thrust her into importance as she cared for thousands of wounded and dying Confederate soldiers, we are given a searing look at our savagery against each other and the transformative effects it wreaks on our souls.Hicks does not take the easy path as a writer; alternating his multifaceted story between the viewpoints of Carrie, a wounded soldier, Zachariah, whom she befriends, her slave and companion Mariah, as well as several other characters, he presents an all-encompassing portrait of the South's disintegration into the final hours and aftermath of the war - a time when the past is torn apart and the nation struggles to comprehend what has happened to it. Hicks's novel is based on research into actual historical events, and it shows: his careful attention to detail and the haunting, tragic circumstances his characters face are masterful. However, it is his ability to render the depths of their sundered hearts which proves most riveting.In Carrie, he has created an allegory of grief and resilience, a woman already crushed by loss who unexpectedly discovers purpose in the chaos and unimaginable suffering delivered at her door. She is not the archetype of the Southern belle so popularized in our minds. Neither feisty nor particularly gifted, she struggles for solace in a desolate existence, a nascent core within her awakened only by her unexpected rapport with the soldier Zachariah, who has survived the battle due to one reckless act that he himself doesn't understand.In Zachariah, Hicks depicts an unforgettable character: every downtrodden, aimless Southern man conscripted into duty without recognizing the price he will pay, someone who has never been much of anything, now swept up in circumstances that require him to rise above himself. Zachariah commands the narrative when he's present, as he overcomes his plight and embarks on a journey into the devastation and opportunism of a new world rising from the cinders. Likewise, Hicks embeds the soul of his story in the character of the slave Mariah, whose devotion to her troubled mistress renders her both enigmatic and courageous, the one person who realizes that the sudden emancipation of her people will not change her. Other characters such as Carrie's husband, John, are equally well-rendered, people whose gutted lives will either liberate or destroy them.Though not a simple or comforting read, particularly in its portrayal of the horrors of battle, "The Widow of the South" is a masterpiece of American literature, its searing truths about our human condition and the depths to which we can descend, as well as the seemingly-impossible heights we can achieve, lingering long after the final page is read.
What do You think about The Widow Of The South (2006)?
I lived for several years in middle Tennessee and actually visited Stone River Battlefield for a candlelight cemetery tour ... listening to readings of actual letters written by soldiers buried there. I even lived in Franklin, TN and drove past the Carnton Plantation on a regular basis, never knowing the story of Carrie McGavock until reading this book. Carrie was a true heroine of the Civil War and her story should heard so that everyone can recognize the bravery and strength she had. Carrie's days were spent mourning the lives of her children who had succumbed to illness when her town became the scene of a major Civil War battle. Her home was taken over by the Confederate Army and used for a makeshift hospital and her land became the burial grounds for the men who fought and died that day. When a neighboring landowner wanted to plow under graves of soldiers on his own land, Carrie had the corpses moved to her property and worked to identify and record those names of those buried, preserving the honor of those whose lives were lost.
—Suzanne Moore
This was one of the best books I've read this year. It was a beautifully written book about a woman in the south whose home is commandeered and turned into a hospital. It wakes her up from a deep depression and changes her life. In the end, her acreage becomes the cemetary for the thousands of soldiers killed in Franklin, Tennessee. She cared for their graves and mourned for them the remainder of her life. I loved this book and the value the story placed on the lives of those soldiers who fought for their beliefs, and the woman who would never forget them. Beautiful!
—Michelegg
May 7, 2008 - I went to the Carnton Plantation 2 years ago and have been wanting to read this book since then. The visit was amazing and seeing all of the headstones in the cemetary was unbelievable - 1500 (I believe) of them on the property all from one brief battle. The wood floors in the house still contain the bloodstains from this battle that lasted a short time ( a few hours I believe). The floors were completely destroyed by all of the injured and dying soldiers that were brought into thi
—Jodi
