The March: A Novel Summary and Reviews

The March: A Novel
by E.L. Doctorow

The March: A Novel
List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $2.34
You Save: $23.61 (91%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: E.L. Doctorow
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2005-09-20
ISBN: 0375506713
Number of pages: 363
Publisher: Random House

Book Reviews of The March: A Novel

Book Review: "It is an immense organism, this army, with a small brain."
Summary: 5 Stars

When the huge Union Army of General William Tecumseh Sherman burned its way from Atlanta to the Carolinas in 1864 - 1865, it was accompanied by a motley group of freed slaves, entrepreneurs, the dispossessed wives and children of landowners, and even a few turncoats, all of whom saw this army as their protection from the hostile unknown. E. L. Doctorow, in his absorbing novel about this march, focuses on the marchers themselves--their varied interests, conflicts, fears, and goals--creating a powerful and panoramic vision of how civilians, as well as soldiers, responded to the devastation of this terrible war.

Through a series of dramatic vignettes, Doctorow reveals the characters' family lives and stimulates reader interest. Mattie Jameson, the wife of a cruel slaveowner, has closed her eyes to the horrors of slavery, but when her estate is burned, her husband killed, and her 14- and 15-year-old sons conscripted to fight for the Confederacy, she has nowhere else to go. Pearl, whom Mattie describes as "that horrible child," is the mulatto child of her husband John Jameson and one of his slaves, and Pearl, too, becomes a marcher, disguised at a drummer boy.

Emily Thompson, the elegant daughter of a Georgia Supreme Court Justice, helps Dr. Wrede Sartorius, a Union regimental surgeon, renowned "for removing a leg in twelve seconds [without anesthesia]. An arm took only nine." Two turncoats, the devious Arly and the naïve Will, serve as the primary comic relief, opportunistically trading uniforms to suit their circumstances.

Real people mix with fictional characters, giving life to the narrative and a sense of immediacy to the action. General Sherman--"Uncle Billy," to the troops--is the unifying element of the novel, and he comes to life, his own family suffering as much personal hardship as the families he meets on the march. Cameos of Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln enhance the conclusion of the novel, and even Coalhouse Walker makes an appearance. The cast of characters is fluid, with some characters disappearing during the narrative, as they would in reality. Doctorow's eye for detail and ability to convey sense impressions--a severed leg so heavy it has to be carried by two people, or a soldier catching an enemy on his bayonet and being unable to shake it free--create both an atmosphere and the harsh realities of war.

Focusing on the march itself, Doctorow explores broad themes--the human costs of this war and its aftermath throughout the South: the thousands of displaced people, the loss of traditional ways of life, the economic disasters, the cultural shocks, the lack of opportunities for freed slaves, and their need to be taught how to be free. Showing the terrible universality of war, Gen. Sherman notes, "our civil war..is but a war after a war, a war before a war." n Mary Whipple

Historical Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Historical Books
Pirate Latitudes: A Novel ImagePirate Latitudes: A Novel
by Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-11-24; Roughcut; Book
Best price: $2.44
Price in other shops: $27.99
The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel ImageThe Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel
by Louise Erdrich
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.83
Price in other shops: $13.95
The Last Witchfinder: A Novel ImageThe Last Witchfinder: A Novel
by James Morrow
William Morrow; Published: 2006-03-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $25.95
Zorro ImageZorro
by Isabel Allende
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-05-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $3.05
Price in other shops: $39.95
The Hot Kid: A Novel ImageThe Hot Kid: A Novel
by Elmore Leonard
William Morrow; Published: 2005-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops: $25.95
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1) ImageThe Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)
Mass Market Paperback; Book
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3) ImageBones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3)
by Conn Iggulden
Harper Collins Canada; Published: 2008; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.70
March ImageMarch
by Geraldine Brooks
Penguin Books; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Gates of Rome (Emperor 1) ImageGates of Rome (Emperor 1)
by Conn Iggulden
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2003-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Girl With a Pearl Earring ImageGirl With a Pearl Earring
by Tracy Chevalier
Harper Collins Audio; Published: 2002-06-17; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $86.82
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Billy Bathgate ImageBilly Bathgate
by E.L. Doctorow
Random House; Published: 1989-02-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.75
Price in other shops: $19.95
A Short History of Reconstruction ImageA Short History of Reconstruction
by Eric Foner
Harper Perennial; Published: 1990-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops: $14.99
Homer & Langley: A Novel ImageHomer & Langley: A Novel
by E.L. Doctorow
Random House; Published: 2009-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.90
Price in other shops: $26.00
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War ImageConfederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
by Tony Horwitz
Vintage; Published: 1999-02-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.11
Price in other shops: $16.00
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (The Oxford History of the United States) ImageBattle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (The Oxford History of the United States)
by James M. McPherson
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1988-02-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops: $50.00
The Unvanquished: The Corrected Text ImageThe Unvanquished: The Corrected Text
by William Faulkner
Vintage; Published: 1991-10-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.67
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War (Modern Library) ImageThe Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War (Modern Library)
by Michael Shaara
Modern Library; Published: 2004-11-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.20
Price in other shops: $24.00
Ragtime (Modern Library) ImageRagtime (Modern Library)
by E.L. Doctorow
Modern Library; Published: 1994-11-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.90
Price in other shops: $22.00
The Marrow of Tradition (Bedford Cultural Editions) ImageThe Marrow of Tradition (Bedford Cultural Editions)
by Charles W. Chesnutt
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2002-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.74
March ImageMarch
by Geraldine Brooks
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-01-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops: $16.00