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The Wolf Pit
A young Confederate soldier retains his humanity in the face of a brutal war by clinging to family pictures, Psalms, and a strange story about mysterious green children discovered in a wolf pit. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.
342 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
75 people want to read
About the author
Marly Youmans
37 books120 followers"Youmans (pronounced like 'yeoman' with an 's' added) is the best-kept secret among contemporary American writers." --John Wilson, editor, Books and Culture
MAZE OF BLOOD (Mercer University Press, 2015.) Novel. Inspired by the life of Robert E. Howard. Profusely decorated by artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Literary / fantastic. "...A haunting tale of dark obsessions and transcendent creative fire, rendered brilliantly in Youmans' richly poetic prose." --Midori Snyder
GLIMMERGLASS (Mercer University Press, 2014) IndieFab BOTYA Finalist. Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Novel. "It’s brilliantly well-written, shockingly raw, and transportingly—sometimes confusingly (but not in a bad way)—weird. Glimmerglass shimmers on the boundaries of the real and the unreal, of poetry and prose, of the ordinary and the fantastic. It’s down to the caprice of the individual reader, therefore, to decide exactly what sort of story it’s trying to tell. It’s difficult to overstate the emotional effect that Glimmerglass has had on me. This is a beautiful, complex, moving book. Marly Youmans’s prose flows like clear water, and every image is, as Cynthia observes, “full of meaning” (p. 39)." -Tom Atherton, "Strange Horizons"
A DEATH AT THE WHITE CAMELLIA ORPHANAGE (Mercer University Press, 2012) The Ferrol Sams Award for 2012; Silver Award in fiction, The ForeWord BOTYA Awards. Novel. "It is seldom that a novel from a small university press can compete with the offerings from the big houses in New York. A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage may be the best novel this reviewer has read this year. Its quality and story-telling remind one of The Adventures of Roderick Random, Great Expectation and The Grapes of Wrath among others. The winner of the 2012 "Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction," A Death has the potential to become a classic American picaresque novel. / One wishes, however, that this novel will not get shunted into the regional box and be seen only as a Southern novel. Its themes and the power of its language, the forceful flow of its storyline and its characters have earned the right to a broad national audience." 30 July 2012 ABOUT.COM Contemporary Literature, John M. Formy-Duval.
THALIAD (Montreal: Phoenicia Publishing, 2012.) Post-apocalyptic long poem combining elements of the novel and the epic. Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. In THALIAD, Marly Youmans has written a powerful and beautiful saga of seven children who escape a fiery apocalypse----though "written" is hardly the word to use, as this extraordinary account seems rather "channeled" or dreamed or imparted in a vision, told in heroic poetry of the highest calibre. Amazing, mesmerizing, filled with pithy wisdom, THALIAD is a work of genius which also seems particularly relevant to our own time. --novelist Lee Smith
THE FOLIATE HEAD (UK: Stanza Press, 2012.) Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Collection of formal poetry.
THE THRONE OF PSYCHE (Mercer University Press, 2011.) Collection of formal poetry. "Youmans is a writer of rare ability whose works will one day be studied by serious students of poetry." Greg Langley, Books editor, The Baton Rouge Advocate, October 2, 2011
VAL/ORSON (P. S. Publishing, 2009.) Novel. "Book of the Year" for 2009 Books and Culture Magazine
INGLEDOVE (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005) Fantasy, y.a.
CLAIRE (Louisiana State University, 2003) Collection of poetry.
THE WOLF PIT (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.) The Michael Shaara Award. Short list, Southern Book Award.
CATHERWOOD (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.)
LITTLE JORDAN (David R. Godine, Publisher, 1995.)
MAZE OF BLOOD (Mercer University Press, 2015.) Novel. Inspired by the life of Robert E. Howard. Profusely decorated by artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Literary / fantastic. "...A haunting tale of dark obsessions and transcendent creative fire, rendered brilliantly in Youmans' richly poetic prose." --Midori Snyder
GLIMMERGLASS (Mercer University Press, 2014) IndieFab BOTYA Finalist. Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Novel. "It’s brilliantly well-written, shockingly raw, and transportingly—sometimes confusingly (but not in a bad way)—weird. Glimmerglass shimmers on the boundaries of the real and the unreal, of poetry and prose, of the ordinary and the fantastic. It’s down to the caprice of the individual reader, therefore, to decide exactly what sort of story it’s trying to tell. It’s difficult to overstate the emotional effect that Glimmerglass has had on me. This is a beautiful, complex, moving book. Marly Youmans’s prose flows like clear water, and every image is, as Cynthia observes, “full of meaning” (p. 39)." -Tom Atherton, "Strange Horizons"
A DEATH AT THE WHITE CAMELLIA ORPHANAGE (Mercer University Press, 2012) The Ferrol Sams Award for 2012; Silver Award in fiction, The ForeWord BOTYA Awards. Novel. "It is seldom that a novel from a small university press can compete with the offerings from the big houses in New York. A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage may be the best novel this reviewer has read this year. Its quality and story-telling remind one of The Adventures of Roderick Random, Great Expectation and The Grapes of Wrath among others. The winner of the 2012 "Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction," A Death has the potential to become a classic American picaresque novel. / One wishes, however, that this novel will not get shunted into the regional box and be seen only as a Southern novel. Its themes and the power of its language, the forceful flow of its storyline and its characters have earned the right to a broad national audience." 30 July 2012 ABOUT.COM Contemporary Literature, John M. Formy-Duval.
THALIAD (Montreal: Phoenicia Publishing, 2012.) Post-apocalyptic long poem combining elements of the novel and the epic. Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. In THALIAD, Marly Youmans has written a powerful and beautiful saga of seven children who escape a fiery apocalypse----though "written" is hardly the word to use, as this extraordinary account seems rather "channeled" or dreamed or imparted in a vision, told in heroic poetry of the highest calibre. Amazing, mesmerizing, filled with pithy wisdom, THALIAD is a work of genius which also seems particularly relevant to our own time. --novelist Lee Smith
THE FOLIATE HEAD (UK: Stanza Press, 2012.) Art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Collection of formal poetry.
THE THRONE OF PSYCHE (Mercer University Press, 2011.) Collection of formal poetry. "Youmans is a writer of rare ability whose works will one day be studied by serious students of poetry." Greg Langley, Books editor, The Baton Rouge Advocate, October 2, 2011
VAL/ORSON (P. S. Publishing, 2009.) Novel. "Book of the Year" for 2009 Books and Culture Magazine
INGLEDOVE (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005) Fantasy, y.a.
CLAIRE (Louisiana State University, 2003) Collection of poetry.
THE WOLF PIT (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.) The Michael Shaara Award. Short list, Southern Book Award.
CATHERWOOD (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.)
LITTLE JORDAN (David R. Godine, Publisher, 1995.)
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 27, 2017
The Wolf Pit contains two somewhat parallel stories. We are first introduced to Robin, a Virginian fighting in the Civil War in the days surrounding the battle at The Crater. Shortly thereafter, we meet a slave named Agate.
Robin and Agate, and the people by whom they are surrounded, are very interesting characters. (There's a thread that runs throughout regarding the characters in a book that Robin is reading that I found much less interesting, sadly.) They each have several dramatic experiences, and Youmans writes with heart and flavour when she tells their stories. Occasionally, there are turns of phrase that require you to go back to re-read, just to run the words through your brain again, in sheer admiration. Soldiers are blasted into a “fountain of fragments,” which is undoubtedly what happened, but seldom, if ever, has such a torturous, ugly thing been described using such beautiful language.
Relationships are built here that make me sad to see the end of the book (and thus the end of my ability to watch a story continue). I wanted to peek in at the end of the book and find out if anything further happened since I'd turned the last page. That doesn't happen all that often, and should be cherished when it does.
I mentioned earlier that one storyline left me rather flat and I found it uninteresting. I wound up skimming those sections after giving them my full attention for the first half of the book. It's the only reason this book gets four stars out of five; I resented these less compelling characters for taking time away that I could have been spending with Agate or Robin.
Robin and Agate, and the people by whom they are surrounded, are very interesting characters. (There's a thread that runs throughout regarding the characters in a book that Robin is reading that I found much less interesting, sadly.) They each have several dramatic experiences, and Youmans writes with heart and flavour when she tells their stories. Occasionally, there are turns of phrase that require you to go back to re-read, just to run the words through your brain again, in sheer admiration. Soldiers are blasted into a “fountain of fragments,” which is undoubtedly what happened, but seldom, if ever, has such a torturous, ugly thing been described using such beautiful language.
Relationships are built here that make me sad to see the end of the book (and thus the end of my ability to watch a story continue). I wanted to peek in at the end of the book and find out if anything further happened since I'd turned the last page. That doesn't happen all that often, and should be cherished when it does.
I mentioned earlier that one storyline left me rather flat and I found it uninteresting. I wound up skimming those sections after giving them my full attention for the first half of the book. It's the only reason this book gets four stars out of five; I resented these less compelling characters for taking time away that I could have been spending with Agate or Robin.
January 13, 2024
Has the poetry of writing I miss in so many other novels, plus plotting and story elements that fit together like a great puzzle. I cared greatly for the main characters, and secondary characters alike. Clues of what’s to come for Agate, and Nash, and Robin are dropped, but I found myself wishing for the best for them, then happy to allow the author to tell the story. Dragged out reading the final 30 pages because I didn’t want it to end.
February 12, 2024
You need to read this book. It's Marly Youmans's poetical skill put into a deeply moving novel about a deeply moving subject. Just read it.
August 7, 2009
A historical novel set during the Civil War, with alternating narrators: a Confederate soldier from the Shenandoah Valley who's captured & taken to a prison camp in Elmira, New York; and a mulatto slave who's had her tongue cut out by her father/owner. The book contains some of the most powerful and moving writing that I've read in a while, and the characters are compelling, but the narrative is occasionally confusing.
July 26, 2014
A powerful and beautifully-written book which brings its character out of the historical context of the Civil War and renders them human. The reader is led to fully understand that the young men who died, the mothers and sisters left behind, the slaves freed, the "masters" challenged were all living, breathing people with multi-layered lives. Good job!
July 5, 2014
This is the type of story that draws you into it. It was two tales in one that left me wanting more after I finished the book. I love historical literature especially about the Civil War. The Wolf Pit showed me a different side of the war. It was more about the people and their heartache. I highly recommend this book.
May 22, 2015
For me a good book needs to reel me in, hold me tight, and feed my soul.
There must be captivating characters that I come to care about,
and storytelling that makes me long to steal away to my Reading Chair,
and if the book teaches me a few things along the way, well that's a plus.
This book, with its multiple storylines, did all of the above.
There must be captivating characters that I come to care about,
and storytelling that makes me long to steal away to my Reading Chair,
and if the book teaches me a few things along the way, well that's a plus.
This book, with its multiple storylines, did all of the above.
April 19, 2015
Riveting. Beautifully explores what violence, separation, loss, loyalty, compassion, and freedom can mean to us. True and fine. The description fails to mention that the book is really two stories, one of the soldier, Robin, and second is of Agate, an enslaved woman. Both stories are compelling and crucial.
April 24, 2008
Only made it about 1/2 way. Not nearly as good as Catherwood.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews