Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
by Allan Gurganus
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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 show more 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. Author bio: Allan Gurganus is the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Southern Book Prize, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a finalist of the PEN/Faulkner Award. Adaptations of his fiction have earned four Emmys. He lives in a small town in North Carolina. show lessTags
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Do not be intimidated by the length of this book. Miss Lucille Marsden will keep you entertained through every single page. Even when she is telling you about the horrors of war, she will keep you riveted every paragraph. Even when the story is not from her point of view, she will have you glued to the sentences. Within Lucy's monologue Gurganus lays out the entire southern society from before the Civil War up to the mid-1980s when Lucy is almost one hundred years old. History breathes in and out with every colorful sentence; from the recognition of Baby Africa and every aspect of owning another human being to life in a nursing home.
Lucy herself is a treat. Married at a mere fifteen years old, she saw the world with a sensitivity and show more sweetness. She cared about where people came from (Castalia from Africa) or how displaced a foreigner can feel (Wong Chow from China). Even though her husband was in his fifties when they married, Lucy became a baby factory having nine children in eleven years. Her marriage was painful as her husband could be very abusive. Sleeping with a hatchet was not out of the question for Lucy. But I digress. Take your time with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Know that every character serves a purpose at the moment of introduction but may not need remembering a hundred pages later. show less
Lucy herself is a treat. Married at a mere fifteen years old, she saw the world with a sensitivity and show more sweetness. She cared about where people came from (Castalia from Africa) or how displaced a foreigner can feel (Wong Chow from China). Even though her husband was in his fifties when they married, Lucy became a baby factory having nine children in eleven years. Her marriage was painful as her husband could be very abusive. Sleeping with a hatchet was not out of the question for Lucy. But I digress. Take your time with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. Know that every character serves a purpose at the moment of introduction but may not need remembering a hundred pages later. show less
Long, rambling, sardonic and extravagant — a kind of Gone with the wind for the 1980s. Gurganus worked out that if a young woman had married a man much older than herself around 1900, and if that man had fought as a boy-soldier in the American Civil War, that woman could theoretically still be alive at the time of writing and tell us about the war, slavery, and the history of her own small bit of North Carolina from first- or second-hand experience. Like many older people, 99-year-old narrator Lucille goes on at great length and is easily deflected from one topic to another, but unlike most she is also utterly uninhibited, telling her visitor-with-a-tape-recorder some surprisingly intimate and sensitive things out of her own memories, show more those of her late husband, Confederate veteran “Captain” Marsden (he never actually rose above the rank of private), and those of her Black friend Cassie, formerly a slave in Marsden’s mother’s household.
As well as showing us the horrors of war and slavery as seen by those on the receiving end, and the way those things get distorted through the nostalgia and hindsight of people who never experienced them into something supposedly dignified and noble, Gurganus pokes fun at everything from the position of women in society and American gun-obsessions to the petty jealousy of Baptist ministers. It being the eighties, there is plenty of sex, and even a considerable number of titillating hints at same-sex passion (when it looks to be getting somewhere, however, the participants are invariably interrupted at the critical moment).
Vastly entertaining, but probably too scattershot to make any real serious points. Some of the dozens of anecdotes that make up the story are very moving and I’m sure some will stay with me, but too many are just silly. And of course, if it had been written thirty years later we might have had some hard questions about how appropriate it is for a white man to imagine in some detail how a Black woman might reinforce her self-worth by recreating a narrative of her journey from Africa into slavery, which she experienced at too young an age to have clear first-hand memories herself. show less
As well as showing us the horrors of war and slavery as seen by those on the receiving end, and the way those things get distorted through the nostalgia and hindsight of people who never experienced them into something supposedly dignified and noble, Gurganus pokes fun at everything from the position of women in society and American gun-obsessions to the petty jealousy of Baptist ministers. It being the eighties, there is plenty of sex, and even a considerable number of titillating hints at same-sex passion (when it looks to be getting somewhere, however, the participants are invariably interrupted at the critical moment).
Vastly entertaining, but probably too scattershot to make any real serious points. Some of the dozens of anecdotes that make up the story are very moving and I’m sure some will stay with me, but too many are just silly. And of course, if it had been written thirty years later we might have had some hard questions about how appropriate it is for a white man to imagine in some detail how a Black woman might reinforce her self-worth by recreating a narrative of her journey from Africa into slavery, which she experienced at too young an age to have clear first-hand memories herself. show less
(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 show more 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. show less
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. show less
How did I miss this when it came out? I actually read fiction then! I might have loved it! Of course, I did finish it. I did care a bit about the characters. So maybe I should give it another chance to earn a star. But it has no brain, it has no blood, it has no anima! How can I love that? It is the boy you dated just to piss off your mother, even though his endless stupidity bored you to tears. There are smart bad boys. Go find one of those instead. In nonfiction.
I struggled through 210 pages of this 718-page doorstop before calling it quits. An aging child-soldier marries a blonde child-bride, a reflection of the towheaded boyhood pal killed during the Civil War. You, the reader, are the stand-in for the silent reporter of infinite patience and a gross of blank tapes as the now elderly woman talks . . . and talks . . . and talks. While her anecdotes are satisfying as stories, the book meanders through the characters' lives, interspersed with the old woman's present, in a way that detracted from the whole. Her crustiness and regional diction finally became too irritating for me to continue.
Overall, probably not a bad book, but I just ran out of patience.
Overall, probably not a bad book, but I just ran out of patience.
Lucy, at the age of 15, marries Capt Marsden, a 50 year old Confederate veteran of the Civil War. He proceeds to get her pregnant continually for years until she has nine children. He is a traveling livestock dealer who is rarely home. Her friend Castalia, a former slave of Marsden, helps her through her many trials.
Through Lucy we learn how the Capt. enlisted in the Confederate Army at the age of 13 and some of the traumatic experiences that shaped the strange man he was, how Castalia was brought to America to be a slave, and the strange experiences Lucy had raising her family in the South while married to a man who was still living his experiences in the War.
Capt. shot and then tried to save the life of Union soldier to whom he show more promised to return a heirloom watch to the soldier's New England family. He didn't because he fell in love with the watch. He went to war with his best friend who he saw killed. He was at Appomattox for the final moments. When he returned to his Mother and their plantation, he found Sherman's men had burned it to the ground and his Mother was badly burned and his slaves had fled.
This is a sprawling epic of the tragedy that became the lives of many in the South because of the War. It took me a long time to read this novel because parts of it lacked interest for me and took away from the main narrative. There were some fascinating sections especially Castalia's story of how she came to America which read somewhat differently than other tales of this trip that I have read. Another well written section was the Capt.'s time in battle. The descriptions of life in the Confederate Army were gut wrenching. show less
Through Lucy we learn how the Capt. enlisted in the Confederate Army at the age of 13 and some of the traumatic experiences that shaped the strange man he was, how Castalia was brought to America to be a slave, and the strange experiences Lucy had raising her family in the South while married to a man who was still living his experiences in the War.
Capt. shot and then tried to save the life of Union soldier to whom he show more promised to return a heirloom watch to the soldier's New England family. He didn't because he fell in love with the watch. He went to war with his best friend who he saw killed. He was at Appomattox for the final moments. When he returned to his Mother and their plantation, he found Sherman's men had burned it to the ground and his Mother was badly burned and his slaves had fled.
This is a sprawling epic of the tragedy that became the lives of many in the South because of the War. It took me a long time to read this novel because parts of it lacked interest for me and took away from the main narrative. There were some fascinating sections especially Castalia's story of how she came to America which read somewhat differently than other tales of this trip that I have read. Another well written section was the Capt.'s time in battle. The descriptions of life in the Confederate Army were gut wrenching. show less
Well, after slogging through this book, I can say that the oldest living confederate widow really does tell all! Lucy talks about her husband's experiences in the civil war, her mother in law's plantation, her friend Castalia's abduction from Africa, her own childhood, her parents' childhoods, life in her small North Carolina town, etc. And yet, cutting through all this narrative, what exactly is this book telling us? That slavery is wrong? That wives and mothers aren't properly respected? That war has a crippling effect not only on veterans but society in general? Okay, fine. But did we really need 700 pages to reach those conclusions? It's too much. The book is overdone with parentheticals and wayward reminisces. Picture a piece of show more cloth being embroidered on over and over again until it's too heavy to be practical. That is essentially what Gurganus has done with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. And yet, even though it seems like Lucy has told us every single detail of her life, there are some facets of her character that remain unexplored, like her bisexuality and lack of personal religion. It's like Gurganus wants us to infer these things, which is okay, but he plainly doesn't expect his readers to be smart enough to infer other things, since he bangs us over the head with repeated stories and themes over and over again. In the end, Confederate Widow is readable and engaging enough, but since there are so many ingredients in the mix, coming away from it, I just don't know what to think of it. show less
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Author Information
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In 1966, as a conscientious objector faced with possible charges of draft evasion during the Vietnam War, Allan Gurganus found himself on a four-year tour as a message decoder on an aircraft carrier. While at sea, Gurganus, who had studied to be a painter, developed the idea for his first successful novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All show more (1989) after reading an article that described how Confederate veterans were granted pensions in the 1880s, making them prime marital candidates for much younger women. The novel features Lucy Marsden, a feisty ninety-nine-year-old North Carolina widow, and spans the 1850s to the 1980s. Gurganus's subsequent books include Blessed Assurance: A Moral Tale (1989), The Practical Heart (1993), and Plays Well With Others (1997). He has written a number of short stories that have appeared in periodicals such as Granta, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper's, and Paris Review, and in books such as The Faber Book of Short Gay Fiction (1991). Eleven of his short stories are collected in The White People (1991). Gurganus was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1947 and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College (B.A., 1972) and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop (M.F.A., 1974). He has taught fiction writing at University of Iowa, Stanford University, Duke University, Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and has had his paintings displayed in many private and public collections. (Bowker Author Biography) Allan Gurganus lives in a small town in North Carolina. The title novella of this book won the National Magazine Prize, & his other honors include the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Southern Book Prize, & the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. (Publisher Provided) show less
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- Canonical title
- Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
- Original title
- Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
- Original publication date
- 1989
- Related movies
- Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994 | IMDb)
- 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 ... (show all)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) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"The war is over."
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.54
- Canonical LCC
- PS3557.U814
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