4638. The History of Rome Hanks and Kindred Matters, by Joseph Stanley Pennell (read 6 Nov 2009) Max Perkins was the editor for this book, and it was much hyped, I understand, when it came out in 1944. It jumps around chronologically a lot, and the author in a note at the front of the book says he sought to avoid "too much clarity"--and he succeeded. The Civil War scenes are gruesome but of course that is surely realistic. There is a lot of dialect-like prose, which is able to be comprehended but very annoying. Two words are often written as a single word, which is a device which I thought added nothing to the prose. The scene shifts from Iowa to the South to Kansas, and the characters are easily mixed up and a cast of characters would have been helpful. Towards the end the story line seems banal and I found little to excite me about this book--It is one of Karl Bridges' "100 great American Novels you've probably never read", and my reaction is that it is easy to understand why people don't read the jumbled-up mess. ( )

What a great find! One of the best Civil War novels I've ever read. Impressive writing based on extensive research, and excellent story telling. I'm not surprised its publication "the literary event of the year." I'd never heard of Pennell, just ran across the book in a thrift store. It's fun to make discoveries like that, but sad how such gems can fade from public awareness so swiftly. ( )