Savannah: Or a Gift For Mr. Lincoln

Jakes does a good job of invoking the fear and hopelessness of the people facing the fast moving Sherman army as it tore across Georgia in late1864. His descriptions of the rag tag army of boys & old men facing Sherman outside the city and the starving, helpless populace in the city give one a sense of a city under siege. The myths that both sides had created about the other side as a result of propaganda and ignorance also add to the destruction but these attitudes start to collapse once the City falls and the people starting seeing that the other side is made up of human beings like themselves. If you have been to Savannah, you will enjoy the book that much more as you will easily visualize the city as the action takes place in and around those famous city squares and waterfront. While the violence of war is depicted, there are happy endings to many of the narrative threads to make everyone happy. ( )

This was just so...so...so...
BOOOOOOOOOORING.

Honestly.
I like reading fiction about the South. I like the antebellum South, the South during the Civil War, the South during Reconstruction, the South in the late 19th and 20th centuries, and the lives of modern Southerners. There's just something enchanting about that part of the country. (I think a lot of it is simply because no other region of the United States has such a strong sense of identity.) So I figured that Savannah would be a great introduction to the work of John Jakes, since I wouldn't feel committed to one of his multi-volume series.

But this was so boring, and the problem lay squarely with the wooden, lifeless characters. They're the tired tropes that always seem to be trotted out: the spunky, spirited child, the tired widow, the unattractive spinster, the reluctant hero, the good-hearted but simple negro, the evil slavecatcher, and so on and on and on. Yawn.

The plot was very contrived. Little Hattie befriends Sherman? A man from the North woos a Confederate widow while her unattractive friend frets that all the Northern soldiers will ravish her? Err...

Half-assed, Mr. Jakes. Half-ASSED. ( )

A cute story describin the Christmas of 1864 when General Sherman and his army peacefuly occupied the southern city of Savannah, Georgia. An interesting collection of characters become interconnected as the heartwarming story unravels. An edifying and easy read that will bring a smile to your face as well as enlighten you about the hardships faced civilians during a civil war and military occupation. ( )