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Loading... The War (1983)by Michael McDowellPaperbacks from Hell (285) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The fourth book in this series is just as good as the others. (Though so far the first one holds the best book in the series spot.) It's hard to review a book from a series without spoiling anything, but suffice it to say, that I'm very late for a group read and I co-moderate that group! I'm also late on a couple of read to reviews. So this means, I have to set this series aside for a brief time while I fulfill my other reading obligations. I'm not happy about that. This type of story, written the way McDowell has written it...it's impossible not to think about. The family is written as such that I think I know them better than I know my own family. I feel connected to them. I love some of them and hate others, but I feel connected just the same. It turns out that one of the family members is gay and this passage explained how that went over in the small Alabama town of Perdido. (*This passage is very slightly spoiler-ish*): "Southerners are an easygoing race when it comes to aberrations of conduct. They will react with anger if something out of the ordinary is presented as a possible future occurrence; but if an unusual circumstance is discovered to be an established fact, they will usually accept it without rancor or judgment as part of the normal order of things. To have informed the men who hung about the seed and feed stores that two women had bought Gavin Pond and were turning it into the biggest farm in the county would have brought out calls to repeal the voting rights amendment; but when confronted with Grace the men were perfectly willing to accept her, her cousin Lucille , and Lucille's little boy." So, all that doesn't tell you much, but that's all I can say without spoilers. There is still a deep mystery hidden within Elinor and within the town of Perdido and its river, and I can't wait to find out what it is. But I have to. Recommended for fans of 80's horror, soap operas, mysteries The War... The War is the fourth book in the Blackwater Saga and continues the story of the Caskey family from Perdido, Alabama. As the title implies, this book focuses on the effect that the war has had on Perdido, the Caskey's Mill and the residents. There have been numerous life changing events happening with the Caskey's including a birth, a separation, a coming out, a marriage and several deaths. There's also been a shift of power in the matriarchy which has substantially changed the family dynamics, for at the moment, the better. If you haven't read the Blackwater Saga before, you really should. It's fantastic and the characters are priceless! It's sort of a mesh of multiple genres- gothic, historical fic., horror, family saga, paranormal/supernatural etc., so I think really anyone would enjoy it. I remain pleasantly and eternally surprised by the multifaceted nature of McDowell's writing within this series. What was marketed 30 years ago as a 'grocery store rack' paperback horror serial continues building towards a position as one of my favorite series ever, certainly within genre. Having just finished the fourth entry, I'm still marveling at the evocative presentation of unexpected pathos that underscores so much of this volume. I'm still a bit too overtaken with it to actually start the fifth book just yet, which will be a first as I have jumped right into the subsequent volume throughout the entire series. Need a bit more time to digest this one, I suppose. Honestly, this series is so much better than it even has a right to be. At this point, it would actually be difficult for me to NOT recommend it to just about any friend I have who enjoys well-written fiction. Lovecraftian horror, ghost story, morality play, Southern Gothic, dynastic family epic, soap opera, romance novel...there are so many elements of good fiction here that I'd be amazed if someone didn't find something significant to like about it, whatever their tastes. While reading the first few volumes in the series, I was mostly sad that I hadn't discovered the books much earlier in my life. Now that I am starting on the penultimate entry, my deepest regret is that I'll be completely done with the whole show by the weekend. no reviews | add a review
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I'm enjoying this soap opera so much more than I ever thought I would. ( )