![\"Hell](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51OopFWj1qL._SX330_BO1%2C204%2C203%2C200_.jpg?w=474&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For all his concerns, his heart leapt at the prospect of fighting again. Lee smelled powder the way a horse smelled oats. There were things he dared not discuss with other men, matters he preferred not to think on too much himself. He loved war, that was the wicked truth. God forgive him, he loved it. Worse, this army had become his greatest love. It was a terrible thing for a man of faith, or any man, to recognize.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I wonder if it\u2019s possible for a novel to be too successful.<\/strong> Not in the marketing sense \u2013 though there are certain authors whose success, in my opinion, is unmerited \u2013 but in the artistic sense. A novel that does such a good job of fulfilling its creative goals that the experience becomes nearly unendurable for the reader. Due to the subject matter.<\/p>\n
That was my problem with Ralph Peters\u2019 Hell or Richmond<\/a><\/em>, a fantastically successful attempt to bring to life the experience of the 1864 Overland Campaign, during the American Civil War. Like his earlier novel, Cain at Gettysburg<\/em> (which I admired greatly and reviewed here), it resurrects the historical events on both the macro and the micro level. Peters is a marvelous prose stylist, and succeeds in conveying not only the sights and sounds, but especially the sensations \u2013 the weariness, the thirst, the pervasive discomforts from an infantryman\u2019s poison ivy to an officer\u2019s inflamed feet, to Robert E. Lee\u2019s digestive ailments. And the suffering goes on and on, far worse than Gettysburg, which seemed bad enough \u2013 through the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse to Cold Harbor, all of them famous slaughters. <\/p>\n
Robert E. Lee is less than a demigod in this depiction, though far from contemptible. But he\u2019s doing a harder and harder job with ever fewer resources, and his bad health interferes with his job performance. Grant is an enigma, sitting far behind the lines, seemingly (though not really, as we learn) unmoved by the appalling losses his Army of the Potomac is suffering. His eye is on the big picture \u2013 on wearing Lee down at any cost. Unlike his predecessor generals, he has no mercy on his own men.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all fascinating, but I found it nearly overwhelming. It\u2019s hard to imagine how anyone survived the Overland Campaign; I almost wondered how I survived reading about it. It wore me down, even in print.<\/p>\n
Hell or Richmond<\/em> is a great, great war novel. But I\u2019m not sure I can bear such another. Cautions for foul language, adult themes, and blood and carnage on a stunning scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For all his concerns, his heart leapt at the prospect of fighting again. Lee smelled powder the way a horse smelled oats. There were things he dared not discuss with other men, matters he preferred not to think on too much himself. He loved war, that was the wicked truth. God forgive him, he loved … Continue reading ‘Hell or Richmond,’ by Ralph Peters<\/span>