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Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1989)

by Allan Gurganus

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,6491810,586 (3.72)63
Allan Gurganus's Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All became an instant classic upon its publication. Critics and readers alike fell in love with the voice of ninety-nine-year-old Confederate widow Lucy Marsden, one of the most entertaining and loquacious heroines in American literature. Lucy married at the turn of the twentieth century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence," Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood. Lucy's story encompasses everything from the tragic death of a Confederate boy soldier to the feisty narrator's daily battles in the Home--complete with visits from a mohawk-coiffed candy striper. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a marvel of narrative showmanship and proof that brilliant, emotional storytelling remains at the heart of great fiction.… (more)
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» See also 63 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)
One of my favorite novels. ( )
  hcubic | Apr 22, 2021 |
Wow I am constantly amazed at how much I dislike books I have a fond memory of enjoying decades ago. ( )
  LoisSusan | Dec 10, 2020 |
I saw the movie years ago and fell in love with the story. When I finally got the chance to read the book, I was very excited. However, the writing style just wasn't my cup of tea and I'm sad to say I wasn't able to get very far into the book. ( )
  book_lady15 | Apr 3, 2020 |
(43) Yikes. This was quite a long book and took me forever to read. As one who loves literature from the Civil War period and who calls central North Carolina home; even knows some of the same people the author does - by all accounts, I should have loved this. But it was just so incredibly rambling. Lucy Marsden married a 55 year old veteran of the Civil War (he joined as a 13 year old bugle boy) when she was 14 - and now at almost 100 years old she carries her husband's eyewitness accounts of the War with her - in all its absurdities and tragedies. She and her husband are from a Mayberry type of small town peopled with characters, including her best friend Castalia Marsden, a former slave of the family. Castalia remembers Africa and her crossing on a slave ship, and Sherman's march through the Marsden's plantation burning all.

Over 700 pages of small print of detailed stories from Lucy, Cap Marsden, and Castalia's lives - all in a frame of the 100 year old Lucy in a nursing home telling some young author. The chronology jumps around and many stories become - well - tedious. Lucy is a fascinating and hilarious character - evoking pathos and admiration, and she is indeed a good story-teller. At times, I will say, I loved the book and certain images haunt - Ned shot from the tree; Lady Marsden playing with the slave children in The Lilacs; Baby Archie's story. But Gawd - some things just dragged - the Africa part, the Shirley interlude, the last weird War story with the Lieutenant that preened in the mirror - WTF.

I have such mixed feelings - I feel that 3 stars is both a stingy and a generous rating for this novel depending on which part I reflect on. Unlike some other books that have been a big time investment where I haven't felt rewarded, (I am thinking of Helprin's 'A Winter's Tale,' and 'Ulysses' to name a few. . .) I am glad I read this and don't begrudge the time. But I really do feel that at times, you can have too much of a good thing. ( )
  jhowell | Oct 5, 2019 |
This is just unbelievable. Gurganus is everything the dust jacket claims. ( )
  Adammmmm | Sep 10, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (11 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Allan Gurganusprimary authorall editionscalculated
Hermstein, RudolfTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Myth is gossip grown old.  --Stanislaw Lec
What the American public always wants us a tragedy with a happy ending. --W. Dean Howells to Edith Wharton in conversation, A Backward Glance
Dedication
To my mother and father, with gratitude for standards and tenderness
And, with love, to Mona Simpson
First words
Died on me finally. He had to.
Quotations
"Whoo," she gave a barricaded smile. "They can *do* it, can't they? But, Lucy honey, we gots to consider the source. Look around you at these men. Ain't never had to axe theyselfs one real question. They start out, they a little boy baby with a congratulations in they didies. They don't got to wonder much (like us). They start out like being a state-ment. They never gots to questions nothing. Gliding, like. They born--they name's already signed down at the bottom of the deed. But, Lucy? They the real losers. Those of us as had to start everything for ourselfs, as has woke up every day with questions right in the bed with us--'how to get through it,' '*why* to get through it'--we done turned ourselves flat *in*to somebody. We our own best answers, we a tribe of answers--we self-made."

"But it's so tir-ing honey, always reinventing the wheel , at the bottom of every blooming hill!"

She laughed, "That do point that out. But they tells me: we gone inherit Mother Earth, us meek. Well, semi-meek. Men like yours, like ours in yonder, why they ain't punished *for* they sins to others--they punished *by* they sins. Some justice in this world! He usually stay tied up, he done lost his mind, and us? why, we free. I free, you free, he all troubled in the spirits." (pp. 705-6)
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Allan Gurganus's Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All became an instant classic upon its publication. Critics and readers alike fell in love with the voice of ninety-nine-year-old Confederate widow Lucy Marsden, one of the most entertaining and loquacious heroines in American literature. Lucy married at the turn of the twentieth century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence," Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood. Lucy's story encompasses everything from the tragic death of a Confederate boy soldier to the feisty narrator's daily battles in the Home--complete with visits from a mohawk-coiffed candy striper. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a marvel of narrative showmanship and proof that brilliant, emotional storytelling remains at the heart of great fiction.

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