October 25, 2006
Civil War St. Louis Reviews...
The Spectre of Death Rode the Land
A
Southern Family Caught Up in the Union Invasion of Missouri, 1861-1865
By Lois Glass Webb
The Spectre of Death
Rode the Land
By Lois Glass Webb
Now available from Amazon.com
and
www.llumina.com |
The Spectre of Death Rode the Land
A Southern Family Caught Up in the Union Invasion of Missouri, 1861-1865
By Lois
Glass Webb
Fiction
Paperback: 472 pages
ISBN:
1-59526-363-2
Hardcover
ISBN:
1-59526-362-4
Publisher: Llumina Press (November 2006)
|
“...no man can stay neutral and keep his self-respect. I won't play up
to them devils, and I won't be called a coward. Why didn't I tell them
to go to hell and leave us alone? Martial law? They'll warp the law to
suit themselves! I kept my mouth shut 'cause I don't want to go to a
Yankee prison. I'm surprised they didn't haul us in. You wait; they'll
find a reason.”--Spectre of Death
 |
Reviewed by D. H. Rule
"The war in Southeast Missouri was
not one of glorious battles fought and chronicled for future reveling
historians. Nevertheless, brave men skirmished daily for their very existence,
died for their cause and were just as dead as those fallen in glorious battles
across the Mississippi..." This passage from Lois Glass Webb's fictional novel
The Spectre of Death Rode the Land could almost be the mission statement
for this website where we try to view the war not as the 'war in the east'
(obviously) but also look to the personal level of the people--from both
sides--involved, their lives and sacrifices.
Whereas we at Civil War St. Louis
try to maintain a neutrality in our presentation, expect no neutrality from this
novel. The Spectre of Death Rode the Land is purely skewed toward the
southern-leaning side, with the Union side and its participants being portrayed
as purely evil. In a non-fiction history this would be cause to criticize the
work, yet as this is a fictional novel this slant of the perspective is actually
one of this work's greatest strengths. This novel offers a strong exploration on
the nature of the place and the time, and a view of the people who lived the
events and how they thought.
The novel begins with sunshine and
pleasantry. The coming conflict, and those engineering it, are remote, distant
things hardly to be considered relevant. There's a sense that St. Louis, with
the critical events and people there, is a place too far removed from this
peaceful, pastoral land to ever have an effect upon it. Yet as the story
progresses, the sense of evil forces, and the inevitable failure of the deluded
notion of 'neutrality', draw nearer and nearer. A dark storm serves as both the
literal and figurative herald of the conflict; both impossible to avoid,
drenching one and all. There is no escaping the war. There is no dodging its
consequences. There is no way to avoid choosing sides, for a side will be
assigned to the people no matter how they seek to avoid it. Across the length of
Spectre of Death this sensation of the war drawing closer and closer
until it is all around is very powerful and quite well done. One of the most
affecting scenes has a young woman, who once walked openly in the sunshine
thinking about boyfriends and frivolity, sneaking through the black woods and
brush to milk their hidden cow. The ominous sense of danger she felt from every
bush and shadow is visceral, indeed--all to protect a single cow whose milk
might be all that separates them from starvation. Such is the view of the times
this novel presents.
Throughout Spectre of Death
are synopsis-like historical interludes to place outside events in relation to
those involving the characters. These bits are well-written and appear
well-researched. They're a welcome addition to a novel of this type.
The individual characters, and
their storylines, are less interesting than is the novel viewed as a whole
canvas. The primary female characters tend to have romantic subplots that did
not particularly interest me. In part this was because these women showed
spectacularly bad taste in their choices of men, with scenes of brutality and
rape becoming almost redundant. As the cast of characters is huge, no particular
character jumps out as being the focal character of the novel. I would have liked
to have seen more depth explored in fewer characters. Some of the most
interesting scenes seemed somewhat short and shallow in their presentation as we
didn't really get deeply into that character's point of view.
The first chapter was a chore to
read and stopped me down several times. No fewer than seventeen characters were
introduced in the first four pages alone, with mini-bios of each attached--human
characters, that is, as several pigs were also introduced by name and history.
It was overwhelming to the point where I almost expected a quiz at the end to
see if I remembered each character's name and story. But get past that and
you'll be rewarded.
Despite some flaws,
The Spectre of Death Rode the Land is a worthwhile addition to the field.
|
From the webmasters of Civil War St. Louis...
Noted Guerrillas and, the extremely rare,
A Terrible Quintette
on a searchable CD-ROM:
Click here for more
information and to order
|
