For me, Shelby Foote has always been that intrepid Civil War historian that wrote the book on the Southern perspective and contributed so much of importance to the Ken Burn’s mini-series. Now I find that he is also a novelist of some power and skill.

Love in a Dry Season was a 5-star novel to me right up to the last two chapters, when it slid down the scale to a still very respectable 4-stars. Written in the Southern Gothic style that echoes with strains of Faulkner and Tennessee Williams, it looks at Mississippi through the eyes of someone who understands even the quirkiest parts of Southern culture and what sets it apart from any other place on earth. Major Barcroft is shudderingly believable here and inconceivable anywhere else.

Foote gives us the willing victim, self-sacrificing Miss Amanda, who has a strength of character and endurance that is as admirable as it is bewildering; the pitiable Jeff Carruthers, who can be as easily despised as pitied; Jeff’s abominable wife, Amy; and the ultimate con-man around whom they all rotate, Harley Drew. He leads us a dance that is hard to watch, but from which we cannot force ourselves to look away.

The end of this novel was not a bad ending. It was not an illogical ending. It was not even an unjustifiable ending. But, for me it was an unsatisfactory ending. It felt as if the story had built to a crescendo and then someone popped the champagne cork to find the champagne itself was flat, had already fizzed out before it could be sampled. Perhaps I wanted a kind of retributive justice that doesn’t show up all that often in life or in novels. Who knows.

I’m pleased that I was brought to this novel by On The Southern Literary Trail book group. I don’t think I would have come across it on my own. It was time well spent and I would not hesitate to read other novels by this great historian, who obviously knows that history is really just the story of people.
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This book from Civil War historian Shelby Foote is pure Southern Gothic delight.

The story centers around 5 main characters, 4 of whom are truly awful people in a fictional town in Mississippi. The story spans across Spanish American war through WWI and into the Jazz Age and follows ill-fated love triangles (is love-quadrangle a thing?).

Loved every minute of this book. ( )

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I got to know about Shelby Foote through the Ken Burns "Civil War" series. His commentary and witty insights led me to his epic book series on the Civil War. I read all three volumes. I then discovered he had written a novel which led be to this book, actually I listened to it on audio.

The story covers interaction and a historical view on the lives of a number of people and a family in particular in the south from around the turn of the 20th century up to and into World War II. The plot somewhat predictable takes us through the intertwined personalities and motives of a number of individuals that I found captivating enough to take to conclusion.

Mr. Foote will always be noted and praised for his historical narrative, but this venture into the purely fictional along with his story telling style lends itself well making it a good read. ( )

First off, I read this book under duress: it was the monthly selection for my local book club and I did not look forward to the experience. The back of the novel compares Shelby Foote to William Faulkner, which immediately inspired within me the following thought: "Oh, crap." For I hates me some Faulkner. However, I've come to realize that, more often than not, a novel being described as "Faulknerian" is really just shorthand for the following: Southern; quirky, dark characters with unhealthy libertine appetites; and a tragic ending--and these are all things with which I'm okay. It doesn't always mean a rampant disregard for punctuation or that a boy falls in love with a cow. Foote's novel has a somewhat stock plot in Southern literature: Yankee comes to the South, tries to make inroads to the gentility and old money, and is destroyed in the process. However, it's the dysfunctional and well drawn chraracters that make the novel such an enjoyable read.

Set in the 1920's, the novel has as its setting a South that is still torn between the traditions of the past and the modernization of the future. This is represented by the two women of the novel: Amy Barcroft, who is symbolic of the new money of industry and the loosening of Bible Belt morals, and Amanda Barcroft, who symbolizes the straightlaced world of old money and respectability. Both women are disconnected from the "Old Miss" of Southern myth and lack a defined role in society. Harley Drew, a Northern banker who longs to live the life of high society, becomes involved with both women. Throw in Jeff, a blind voyeur ("For what could be more pitiful than a voyeur in the dark?") and Amy's violently jealous husband, and it's just a matter of time before the crap hits the fan with particularly cringe-worthy and entertaining results. ( )