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The Spy Lover
Thrust into the savagery of the U.S. Civil War, a Chinese immigrant fighting for the Union Army, a nurse turned spy, and a one-armed Confederate cavalryman find their lives inextricably entwined.
Johnny Tom, a Chinese immigrant, is promised American citizenship if he serves with the Union Army.
But first he must survive the carnage of battles and rampant racism among the ranks. Desperate to find him, his daughter, Era, becomes a Union spy while nursing soldiers in Confederate camps. She falls in love with Warren, a one-armed cavalryman, and her loyalties become divided between her beloved father in the North and the man who sustains her in the South.
An extraordinary novel that will stand as a defining work on the Chinese immigrant experience, The Spy Lover is a paean to the transcendence of love and the resilience of the human spirit.
Johnny Tom, a Chinese immigrant, is promised American citizenship if he serves with the Union Army.
But first he must survive the carnage of battles and rampant racism among the ranks. Desperate to find him, his daughter, Era, becomes a Union spy while nursing soldiers in Confederate camps. She falls in love with Warren, a one-armed cavalryman, and her loyalties become divided between her beloved father in the North and the man who sustains her in the South.
An extraordinary novel that will stand as a defining work on the Chinese immigrant experience, The Spy Lover is a paean to the transcendence of love and the resilience of the human spirit.
299 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
54 people are currently reading
844 people want to read
About the author
Kiana Davenport
14 books250 followersKIANA DAVENPORT is descended from a full-blooded Native Hawaiian mother, and a Caucasian father from Talladega, Alabama. Her father, Braxton Bragg Davenport, was a sailor in the U.S. Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor, when he fell in love with her mother, Emma Kealoha Awaawa Kanoho Houghtailing. On her mother's side, Kiana traces her ancestry back to the first Polynesian settlers to the Hawaiian Islands who arrived almost two thousand years ago from Tahiti and the Tuamotu's. On her father's side, she traces her ancestry to John Davenport, the puritan clergyman who co-founded the American colony of New Haven, Connecticut in 1638.
Kiana is the author of the internationally best-selling novels, SHARK DIALOGUES, SONG OF THE EXILE, HOUSE OF MANY GODS, THE SPY LOVER, and most recently, THE SOUL AJAR, now available in paperback and on Kindle
Kiana is the author of the internationally best-selling novels, SHARK DIALOGUES, SONG OF THE EXILE, HOUSE OF MANY GODS, THE SPY LOVER, and most recently, THE SOUL AJAR, now available in paperback and on Kindle
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
August 19, 2012
American Civil War fiction is not a genre I seek out, but when I saw Kiana Davenport's name on this one, I couldn't resist. She always provides fresh angles on old stories. I can count on her to teach me something new, with facts as well as points of view.
I didn't know that Chinese immigrant men had been kidnapped and forced into service as Confederate soldiers. I also didn't know that women in the South grew opium poppies hidden among their other crops, providing opium "bull's-eyes" to their fighting men to fuel their victories in battle. This of course left a nation full of dope-addicted veterans when the war was over.
THE SPY LOVER is smaller in scope and time frame than Davenport's sweeping novels of Hawaii. This one is meant as an homage to two of her ancestors who fought in the Civil War, so the focus is more narrow and there is less opportunity to add complex layers to the characters. The story is told almost entirely in the present tense, which is not my favorite, but I was able to adjust to it as the novel progressed.
There are three main characters whose lives are woven together as the novel alternates among their separate experiences of the Civil War.
Johnny Tom is a Chinese immigrant who was taken from his family to fight for the South, but he escaped to fight for the North. As he moves from battle to battle and in and out of prisoner-of-war camps, we learn of his life in China and his peregrinations after arriving in America.
Era Tom is Johnny's teenage daughter. She agreed to spy for the North in exchange for information about her father's whereabouts. Working as a nurse in a Confederate hospital, she meets and falls in love with Warren Petticomb, a Confederate cavalryman who lost an arm at Shiloh.
Era's duties as a spy require her to be duplicitous in her dealings with Warren, but her love is genuine. Can she make him believe in that love when he discovers the truth about her?
Davenport manages to tell the story simply without being simplistic. Her purpose in part is to call attention to those who have not received their due in the historical records. At the same time, she reminds us with brutally precise and unflinching imagery of the tremendous toll we paid as a nation for whatever noble gains may have been achieved by the Civil War.
I didn't know that Chinese immigrant men had been kidnapped and forced into service as Confederate soldiers. I also didn't know that women in the South grew opium poppies hidden among their other crops, providing opium "bull's-eyes" to their fighting men to fuel their victories in battle. This of course left a nation full of dope-addicted veterans when the war was over.
THE SPY LOVER is smaller in scope and time frame than Davenport's sweeping novels of Hawaii. This one is meant as an homage to two of her ancestors who fought in the Civil War, so the focus is more narrow and there is less opportunity to add complex layers to the characters. The story is told almost entirely in the present tense, which is not my favorite, but I was able to adjust to it as the novel progressed.
There are three main characters whose lives are woven together as the novel alternates among their separate experiences of the Civil War.
Johnny Tom is a Chinese immigrant who was taken from his family to fight for the South, but he escaped to fight for the North. As he moves from battle to battle and in and out of prisoner-of-war camps, we learn of his life in China and his peregrinations after arriving in America.
Era Tom is Johnny's teenage daughter. She agreed to spy for the North in exchange for information about her father's whereabouts. Working as a nurse in a Confederate hospital, she meets and falls in love with Warren Petticomb, a Confederate cavalryman who lost an arm at Shiloh.
Era's duties as a spy require her to be duplicitous in her dealings with Warren, but her love is genuine. Can she make him believe in that love when he discovers the truth about her?
Davenport manages to tell the story simply without being simplistic. Her purpose in part is to call attention to those who have not received their due in the historical records. At the same time, she reminds us with brutally precise and unflinching imagery of the tremendous toll we paid as a nation for whatever noble gains may have been achieved by the Civil War.
July 7, 2015
I was amazed again by this writer’s ability to cast a multicultural set of characters into the furnace of a violent chapter of American history and wrench my heart with the challenges for them to forge a path of survival and courage. Moral conflicts collide with dreams and redemption and force them to draw on inner strengths borne from love and family bonds. My experiences with her “The Shark Dialogs” and “Song of the Exile” were satisfying explorations of similar themes, both family sagas of Native Hawaiians from early colonialism through World War 2.
In this tale, we follow the stories of a Chinese immigrant, Johnny Tom, and his half Creek daughter, Era, during the Civil War after their family gets shattered with a Confederate razing of a Chinese settlement in Mississippi. He gets conscripted into their army, from which he escapes and joins the Union forces. His daughter works as a nurse in a Confederate field hospital and spies for the Union under the promise that they will help her find her father. In the meantime, she falls in love with a Confederate soldier who loses an arm from injury at the battle of Shiloh. Both are morally compromised with their desperate involvement in a conflict that seems like a madness come over their world.
The coverage of the plight of Chinese immigrants caught up in the war made this special among much historical fiction about the Civil War. Compared to the virtual slave labor situations he gets in on the way to America (e.g. cane harvesting in Hawaii) and the racism and lynch mobs in California, he thrives on the camaraderie and respect he earns in the army on each side. He’s the kind of guy who helps others keep their courage by telling jokes of parables from his culture or helping starving boys in a prison camp forget their hunger by recounting with tall tales. The need to find out what happened to his Creek wife and reunite with his daughter drives him to stay alive. The same is true of his daughter. She can identify with the situation of black slavery given her mother’s escape as a teenager from enslavement by a plantation owner through the courage of her father. I never knew there were rural Chinese communities that formed in the South, following the same American dream of a better life followed by so many other immigrant groups. The melting pot sure got totally burned and melted in this disastrous war. Caring for the battlefield victims as a nurse is her one hold on sanity. Falling for a youth who fights for the slave owners is a cruel irony and dangerous should he ever find out about her spying.
This book is an odd mix of romanticism and horrific realism. A question for prospective readers is whether you can tolerate these extremes and find a balance in the middle. I could. Here is a sample of a letter from her soldier and her conflicted emotions over her situtation, which I found moving:
”Dearest I try not to think of you but then there is naught to live for. I have drawed your face a hundred times. It looks back & gives me a peaceful astonishment. Though I think when this War is done you will not want a one-armed of little schooling & my talk grows more foul for being in the field.
A lutenant here knows Shakespeer. I lissen when he reads aloud. I don’t grasp most things still the sounds of the words pass thru me with a satisfying ravishment. Just as when you read to me. I picture a little ranch out in the new West half a dozen horses which you love. You could read. I could sketch. We could just be.” …
She has a hard time conceiving of a future with this near illiterate boy killer.
And yet,. She looks up at the stars of a porcelain aching, and is momentarily stabbed by the memory of lying in tall grasses, the singing of bare flesh. His ineffable tenderness. His body over hers, crowding out the moon so it spilled around his shoulders. His soft weeping as they held each other, gasping like infants. …
Now she is swept by waves of panic as she tries to reconcile her loathing of the Confederates, her abiding need for vengeance, with her profoundly impassioned feelings for this man.
I imagine some would find this novel overambitious and melodramatic. I keep homing in on books on love and family in a time of war, those that mine the spaces between “Gone with the Wind” and “Doctor Zhivago.” Some from Bohjalian come to mind, as do the Civil War novels “March” by Geraldine Brooks, Frazier’s “Cold Mountain”, and McBride’s “Song Yet Sung.” I guess I am captivated by how war brings out the best and worst in people and how human bonds make it possible to survive the inhumanity that perpetually overtakes the human race.
In this tale, we follow the stories of a Chinese immigrant, Johnny Tom, and his half Creek daughter, Era, during the Civil War after their family gets shattered with a Confederate razing of a Chinese settlement in Mississippi. He gets conscripted into their army, from which he escapes and joins the Union forces. His daughter works as a nurse in a Confederate field hospital and spies for the Union under the promise that they will help her find her father. In the meantime, she falls in love with a Confederate soldier who loses an arm from injury at the battle of Shiloh. Both are morally compromised with their desperate involvement in a conflict that seems like a madness come over their world.
The coverage of the plight of Chinese immigrants caught up in the war made this special among much historical fiction about the Civil War. Compared to the virtual slave labor situations he gets in on the way to America (e.g. cane harvesting in Hawaii) and the racism and lynch mobs in California, he thrives on the camaraderie and respect he earns in the army on each side. He’s the kind of guy who helps others keep their courage by telling jokes of parables from his culture or helping starving boys in a prison camp forget their hunger by recounting with tall tales. The need to find out what happened to his Creek wife and reunite with his daughter drives him to stay alive. The same is true of his daughter. She can identify with the situation of black slavery given her mother’s escape as a teenager from enslavement by a plantation owner through the courage of her father. I never knew there were rural Chinese communities that formed in the South, following the same American dream of a better life followed by so many other immigrant groups. The melting pot sure got totally burned and melted in this disastrous war. Caring for the battlefield victims as a nurse is her one hold on sanity. Falling for a youth who fights for the slave owners is a cruel irony and dangerous should he ever find out about her spying.
This book is an odd mix of romanticism and horrific realism. A question for prospective readers is whether you can tolerate these extremes and find a balance in the middle. I could. Here is a sample of a letter from her soldier and her conflicted emotions over her situtation, which I found moving:
”Dearest I try not to think of you but then there is naught to live for. I have drawed your face a hundred times. It looks back & gives me a peaceful astonishment. Though I think when this War is done you will not want a one-armed of little schooling & my talk grows more foul for being in the field.
A lutenant here knows Shakespeer. I lissen when he reads aloud. I don’t grasp most things still the sounds of the words pass thru me with a satisfying ravishment. Just as when you read to me. I picture a little ranch out in the new West half a dozen horses which you love. You could read. I could sketch. We could just be.” …
She has a hard time conceiving of a future with this near illiterate boy killer.
And yet,. She looks up at the stars of a porcelain aching, and is momentarily stabbed by the memory of lying in tall grasses, the singing of bare flesh. His ineffable tenderness. His body over hers, crowding out the moon so it spilled around his shoulders. His soft weeping as they held each other, gasping like infants. …
Now she is swept by waves of panic as she tries to reconcile her loathing of the Confederates, her abiding need for vengeance, with her profoundly impassioned feelings for this man.
I imagine some would find this novel overambitious and melodramatic. I keep homing in on books on love and family in a time of war, those that mine the spaces between “Gone with the Wind” and “Doctor Zhivago.” Some from Bohjalian come to mind, as do the Civil War novels “March” by Geraldine Brooks, Frazier’s “Cold Mountain”, and McBride’s “Song Yet Sung.” I guess I am captivated by how war brings out the best and worst in people and how human bonds make it possible to survive the inhumanity that perpetually overtakes the human race.
September 10, 2012
"The Spy Lover" by Kiana Davenport is an extraordinary book. It blew me away with its richness. Johnny Tom is a Chinese immigrant who has an amazing story even before he leaves China. His daughter, Era born from Johnny Tom and her mother, a beautiful Creek Indian, becomes a nurse and a spy during the war. Warren Rowan fights for the South loses his arm and meets nurse and becomes her lover.
Now you have a very short glimpse of the story which was inspired by author Kiana Davenport's search for her roots. She had a Chinese ancestor who fought in the Civil War. The scenes were written so vividly that I kept feeling that I was watching a movie on big screen. There was lots of color, lots of noise, lots of blood and lots of sorrow. This writer is a master at developing her characters; they were so easy to believe that I wanted to shout out "Don't do that"!
Historical fiction can pull you in many ways but the most magnetic for me is to learn. There is so much in the one little book that I did not know about the Civil War! None of that is in textbooks or history books that I have read about it. I had not thought of Chinese immigrants either volunteering or being enslaved in the war. I had not heard of the poppy farms in the South much less the dreadful working conditions there. I knew some of the POW prisons then, but this book opens an even wider door. Think of how dangerous it would be a woman spy of Chinese Creek blood during the war. Think of the state of nursing and medicine at that time period. Think of what goes through a young man's mind when he joins the Confederacy and learns the despair, the shock of killing and the numbness in numbers you have killed.
Please read this informing and deeply moving book. I recommend it very highly to anyone with an interest in Civil War History or Historical Fiction.
I received this book from the Amazon Vine Program but that in no way influenced my review.
Now you have a very short glimpse of the story which was inspired by author Kiana Davenport's search for her roots. She had a Chinese ancestor who fought in the Civil War. The scenes were written so vividly that I kept feeling that I was watching a movie on big screen. There was lots of color, lots of noise, lots of blood and lots of sorrow. This writer is a master at developing her characters; they were so easy to believe that I wanted to shout out "Don't do that"!
Historical fiction can pull you in many ways but the most magnetic for me is to learn. There is so much in the one little book that I did not know about the Civil War! None of that is in textbooks or history books that I have read about it. I had not thought of Chinese immigrants either volunteering or being enslaved in the war. I had not heard of the poppy farms in the South much less the dreadful working conditions there. I knew some of the POW prisons then, but this book opens an even wider door. Think of how dangerous it would be a woman spy of Chinese Creek blood during the war. Think of the state of nursing and medicine at that time period. Think of what goes through a young man's mind when he joins the Confederacy and learns the despair, the shock of killing and the numbness in numbers you have killed.
Please read this informing and deeply moving book. I recommend it very highly to anyone with an interest in Civil War History or Historical Fiction.
I received this book from the Amazon Vine Program but that in no way influenced my review.
November 17, 2018
A mostly meh historical novel with fairly flat characters. There were some interesting aspects (POV of a Chinese immigrant, opium usage by soldiers, etc) but throughout the vast majority of the novel, I really didn't care about any of the characters. I was also a bit ticked that many civil war details were lifted directly from the Ken Burns civil war documentary series which I watched for the second time a week or so ago. Maybe it's a coincidence but I felt like I was reading a summary of the show in several places...
The prose itself was usually very good and some of the writing is gorgeous. But still not enough for me to read another by the author. Unless a friend with good taste in books specifically recommends one.
The prose itself was usually very good and some of the writing is gorgeous. But still not enough for me to read another by the author. Unless a friend with good taste in books specifically recommends one.
December 24, 2013
I have to admit that I struggled to know how to rate this book. I will be up front--this is a very hard book to read. The writing style is fantastic. Kiana Davenport is a very descriptive writer, and you feel as though you are right there experiencing the action as it happens. But that is also what makes this a difficult read. Read on, and you may understand what I mean.
First of all, the story has very little profanity, and it does have some sex scenes (that are not graphic, thankfully). But these are not the disturbing items. The horrors of the Civil War are described in detail, and you may find yourself wanting to look away as though it were a scene in a film. I found myself experiencing cold shivers more than once. But I have to say that I am glad I read those parts. I don't think many of us have any idea of how horrific the Civil War was. And this author does her best to give us a glimpse (and be glad it is only a glimpse)of what it may have been like. And it is told from a perspective I have never considered--Chinese-American. Oh, and Chinese-Native American.
The story is tragic--I will warn you. It is not a feel-good romance that makes you feel all bubbly inside. This is a book full of reality, and you may long for the ending. But I believe I can say I am coming away from this book with a better understanding of the Civil War than I did. I would have liked some light-hearted moments, but it occurs to me that this period of history was not light-hearted. It is a heavy topic. I found myself reliving some of the images from "Gone With the Wind" even though that movie couldn't do this time period true justice either.
So if you are ready for a history lesson in a chilling story, ths may be the book for you. Don't enter it lightly, but I believe you will come away from the book with a deeper understanding of a tumultuous time in American history.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.
First of all, the story has very little profanity, and it does have some sex scenes (that are not graphic, thankfully). But these are not the disturbing items. The horrors of the Civil War are described in detail, and you may find yourself wanting to look away as though it were a scene in a film. I found myself experiencing cold shivers more than once. But I have to say that I am glad I read those parts. I don't think many of us have any idea of how horrific the Civil War was. And this author does her best to give us a glimpse (and be glad it is only a glimpse)of what it may have been like. And it is told from a perspective I have never considered--Chinese-American. Oh, and Chinese-Native American.
The story is tragic--I will warn you. It is not a feel-good romance that makes you feel all bubbly inside. This is a book full of reality, and you may long for the ending. But I believe I can say I am coming away from this book with a better understanding of the Civil War than I did. I would have liked some light-hearted moments, but it occurs to me that this period of history was not light-hearted. It is a heavy topic. I found myself reliving some of the images from "Gone With the Wind" even though that movie couldn't do this time period true justice either.
So if you are ready for a history lesson in a chilling story, ths may be the book for you. Don't enter it lightly, but I believe you will come away from the book with a deeper understanding of a tumultuous time in American history.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.
July 14, 2015
THE SPY LOVER brings to life the blood and guts of the Civil War in a vivid, unforgettable way. A few decades ago, high praise for her writing would have been: she writes like a man, because the Civil War was bloody awful and Davenport does not shy away from depicting it as such, blood, guts and gore. The first chapter plunges you right into that reality, and those who would turn away should read on. There is so much to admire here.
The writing is raw, the images searing, the insights profound.Davenport has written well-regarded novels before, but this is her masterpiece and catapults her into a whole new category. I wish it had a different title so it didn’t sound like merely a romance novel, but by any name, THE SPY LOVER-historical novel, expose, love story–is destined to become one of the classic novels about the Civil War.
The writing is raw, the images searing, the insights profound.Davenport has written well-regarded novels before, but this is her masterpiece and catapults her into a whole new category. I wish it had a different title so it didn’t sound like merely a romance novel, but by any name, THE SPY LOVER-historical novel, expose, love story–is destined to become one of the classic novels about the Civil War.
July 22, 2013
When most of us think of the Civil War we don't think of Chinese immigrants. This book takes a look at the war through the eyes of a Chinese woman, Era Tom, whose father was in the Union Army. In order to find out information about him she is required to spy on the Confederates. So she does. But this novel never resonated with me. It was well read. The accents sounded natural not forced or caricatures. But at the same time, I never found the story that interesting. That said, if the Civil War fascinates you, reading this novel will open your eyes to a discrimination that most of us never even though about because we are so focused on the war as a war against the enslaving of African blacks, whites were not kind to the Chinese either. There were simply fewer of them.
January 15, 2013
Review by John originally posted at Layers of Thought.
4.5 stars actually.
A fascinating, gritty and brutal story about relationships and human resilience set mainly during the American Civil War. Learn about some of the awful history behind Chinese immigration in America. And don’t be deceived by the cover – this is not a cutesy love story.
About: Johnny Tom is a Chinese immigrant in the US during the mid-1800s, and like most Chinese is subject to the most brutal and horrendous racial discrimination. He eventually escapes slavery and runs away with a native Indian woman, living a hard but relatively peaceful life in a hideaway settlement out in the wilds. When the Civil War breaks out, the Confederate army sweeps through and forces Johnny and other men to join up.
Detested and ill-treated by the Confederates, he manages to escape and offers his services to the Union army, fervently believing in their anti-slavery cause. Unfortunately he finds his treatment at the hands of the Federals isn’t much better than he received from the Confederates, but he is tough and determined and manages to start making a name for himself thanks to his wisdom, kindness and fierce fighting abilities. Twice he is captured by the Confederate army and manages to survive stints in their abysmal prisoner-of-war camps; he also survives several battles before finding himself lined up with the Union army at Gettysburg.
Meanwhile Era, the daughter that he had with his Indian wife, had to survive her own horrors. But she eventually goes in search of her beloved father which leads to her becoming a battlefield nurse for the Confederate army, while secretly spying on behalf of the Union. She experiences the worst butchery, both as a result of the fighting and at the hands of an ill-equipped medical system that hacks away at survivors in crude attempts to save their lives. Exhausted, horrified and depressed, she forms a bond with an amputee whom she helps recuperate, eventually falling in love with the Confederate soldier. She is now tremendously conflicted – her father and her lover fight for different sides in the war, and she is forced to secretly undermine the efforts of her lover’s army in exchange for the Federals supposedly helping her to track down her father.
As the murderous war heads towards a bloody climax, so too does her increasingly fraught relationship with her lover.
John’s thoughts: This is a powerful novel. I was somewhat misled by the book’s cover which might lead you to expect romance and chivalry; but what you get is one of the most brutal accounts of war and discrimination that I have ever read. Certainly at the book’s heart are powerful, complex and loving relationships, but the backdrop and the circumstances are truly horrific – which I have to say made for a riveting read.
The three main characters in the book are all fascinating and Davenport does a great job of fleshing out their complex personalities. Johnny Tom in particular is a wonderful person who endures his awful experiences with a wisdom and purity that shines from the pages. Era and her lover are much darker and grittier characters that are nonetheless quite believable. It’s interesting and intriguing to learn that two of the three are based on actual ancestors of Davenport. Clearly she had to create and embellish the story around them, but some of the factual foundations are true.
As I got through the book I had no idea how things were going to end up - which is a good thing. I don’t want to spoil the read for anyone so I can’t say much about the ending. Personally I wasn’t quite sure that I liked the ending, as the tale went from gritty realism to something that wasn’t quite so believable. But a few days after finishing the book I’ve come to appreciate it more.
The book was educational for me on a few fronts. For example, I hadn’t realized the depths of discrimination that Chinese immigrants faced in America; and, while I was already well aware of the brutality and mass destruction of the Civil War, I hadn’t realized quite how barbaric was the medical treatment of soldiers that survived the battles.
All in all this is a very good and highly recommended read. I’d rate it 4.5 stars. Seek it out if you like historical fiction, Civil War literature, realistic war novels or really gritty love stories. In particular, if you want to learn more about some of the sad history of Chinese immigration in America, this is a good place to start.
4.5 stars actually.
A fascinating, gritty and brutal story about relationships and human resilience set mainly during the American Civil War. Learn about some of the awful history behind Chinese immigration in America. And don’t be deceived by the cover – this is not a cutesy love story.
About: Johnny Tom is a Chinese immigrant in the US during the mid-1800s, and like most Chinese is subject to the most brutal and horrendous racial discrimination. He eventually escapes slavery and runs away with a native Indian woman, living a hard but relatively peaceful life in a hideaway settlement out in the wilds. When the Civil War breaks out, the Confederate army sweeps through and forces Johnny and other men to join up.
Detested and ill-treated by the Confederates, he manages to escape and offers his services to the Union army, fervently believing in their anti-slavery cause. Unfortunately he finds his treatment at the hands of the Federals isn’t much better than he received from the Confederates, but he is tough and determined and manages to start making a name for himself thanks to his wisdom, kindness and fierce fighting abilities. Twice he is captured by the Confederate army and manages to survive stints in their abysmal prisoner-of-war camps; he also survives several battles before finding himself lined up with the Union army at Gettysburg.
Meanwhile Era, the daughter that he had with his Indian wife, had to survive her own horrors. But she eventually goes in search of her beloved father which leads to her becoming a battlefield nurse for the Confederate army, while secretly spying on behalf of the Union. She experiences the worst butchery, both as a result of the fighting and at the hands of an ill-equipped medical system that hacks away at survivors in crude attempts to save their lives. Exhausted, horrified and depressed, she forms a bond with an amputee whom she helps recuperate, eventually falling in love with the Confederate soldier. She is now tremendously conflicted – her father and her lover fight for different sides in the war, and she is forced to secretly undermine the efforts of her lover’s army in exchange for the Federals supposedly helping her to track down her father.
As the murderous war heads towards a bloody climax, so too does her increasingly fraught relationship with her lover.
John’s thoughts: This is a powerful novel. I was somewhat misled by the book’s cover which might lead you to expect romance and chivalry; but what you get is one of the most brutal accounts of war and discrimination that I have ever read. Certainly at the book’s heart are powerful, complex and loving relationships, but the backdrop and the circumstances are truly horrific – which I have to say made for a riveting read.
The three main characters in the book are all fascinating and Davenport does a great job of fleshing out their complex personalities. Johnny Tom in particular is a wonderful person who endures his awful experiences with a wisdom and purity that shines from the pages. Era and her lover are much darker and grittier characters that are nonetheless quite believable. It’s interesting and intriguing to learn that two of the three are based on actual ancestors of Davenport. Clearly she had to create and embellish the story around them, but some of the factual foundations are true.
As I got through the book I had no idea how things were going to end up - which is a good thing. I don’t want to spoil the read for anyone so I can’t say much about the ending. Personally I wasn’t quite sure that I liked the ending, as the tale went from gritty realism to something that wasn’t quite so believable. But a few days after finishing the book I’ve come to appreciate it more.
The book was educational for me on a few fronts. For example, I hadn’t realized the depths of discrimination that Chinese immigrants faced in America; and, while I was already well aware of the brutality and mass destruction of the Civil War, I hadn’t realized quite how barbaric was the medical treatment of soldiers that survived the battles.
All in all this is a very good and highly recommended read. I’d rate it 4.5 stars. Seek it out if you like historical fiction, Civil War literature, realistic war novels or really gritty love stories. In particular, if you want to learn more about some of the sad history of Chinese immigration in America, this is a good place to start.
May 31, 2013
I didn't hate it but I wouldn't really recommend it either. It was definitely not what I thought it was going to be based on the blurb and reviews I read. The graphic war scenes didn't bother me as much as the disjointed writing. I kind of felt like the author wrote the first half of the book, put it down for a long time and then picked it up and finished it. The first half was very clipped and chopped sentences and then the last half was beautifully fleshed out ideas and thoughts. It was a very strange kind of love story as well and I didn't feel the connection between the characters. It did make me want to explore some of the civil war sites mentioned through-out the story. For me it was just, ehh.
Some good thoughts:
"I once heard a preacher say when you speak out about a thing, you come to know it in a different way than when it just sits on your mind. He said spoken words give events real flesh and blood, real sounds and smells, and help you grasp the certainty..." (1645)
"Things become real only when they are spoken" (1695)
"Every day is memory, like precious grain of rice. At end of each day you must think, I am one grain stronger! One grain richer!" (2919)
"Also, you must learn to listen, so other boys' stories become your memories too." (2923)
Some good thoughts:
"I once heard a preacher say when you speak out about a thing, you come to know it in a different way than when it just sits on your mind. He said spoken words give events real flesh and blood, real sounds and smells, and help you grasp the certainty..." (1645)
"Things become real only when they are spoken" (1695)
"Every day is memory, like precious grain of rice. At end of each day you must think, I am one grain stronger! One grain richer!" (2919)
"Also, you must learn to listen, so other boys' stories become your memories too." (2923)
September 21, 2012
I am so awestruck by this story that it is hard to find words. The tale is phenomenally well-researched, but the reader doesn't feel overwhelmed by the facts - they are simply the backdrop for this passionate epic. Kiana Davenport describes the brutalities of war (and life in general in the mid-1800s) in beautiful, horrible, sometimes extremely graphic detail.
Here are just two of the many things I learned about the Civil War from this book:
Black people were not the only slaves - Chinese and Native Americans were also kidnapped and sold into slavery.
Southern women grew poppies to supply opium to their troops since the Union was blocking shipments at the ports.
The Spy Lover highlights the senselessness of war, the choice of hope and courage in the face of insurmountable odds, and especially the question of what to do with the terrible things you've witnessed when your life goes back to normal. Era and Warren's mismatched romance and Johnny's "fish out of water" experiences help to humanize a story that I had only read before in history books or Gone with the Wind.
I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purposes of review. All opinions are 100% my own.
Here are just two of the many things I learned about the Civil War from this book:
Black people were not the only slaves - Chinese and Native Americans were also kidnapped and sold into slavery.
Southern women grew poppies to supply opium to their troops since the Union was blocking shipments at the ports.
The Spy Lover highlights the senselessness of war, the choice of hope and courage in the face of insurmountable odds, and especially the question of what to do with the terrible things you've witnessed when your life goes back to normal. Era and Warren's mismatched romance and Johnny's "fish out of water" experiences help to humanize a story that I had only read before in history books or Gone with the Wind.
I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purposes of review. All opinions are 100% my own.
September 4, 2012
I was greatly moved that this has pieces of Kiana history, she was able to create a moving and engaging story that complese you to keep reading. As Era is a spy for the Union and is in love with a Confederate soldier, she has to stands both physically and metaphorically changes in a new land. Era is heart torn that she is withholding the truth from Warren. Yet, she cannot bring herself to admit who she really is. Her situation echoes the true cost of this war… of many wars. War's that forces many people into the unnatural position of taking sides, but nothing is ever just what it seems or simple.
This book graphically depicts the many horrors of war, the inhumane treatment of slaves and immigrants, drug addiction among the soldiers and the widespread rape and sexual abuse of women. I enjoyed reading miss Davenports story.
This book graphically depicts the many horrors of war, the inhumane treatment of slaves and immigrants, drug addiction among the soldiers and the widespread rape and sexual abuse of women. I enjoyed reading miss Davenports story.
June 24, 2014
4.5 stars. I loved this book. The story was unpredictable and educated me on aspects of the Civil War I was not aware of in regards to the role that non-whites played in battles, the utter gruesomeness of the battles and the role of field hospitals and the various peddlers, etc. that followed the troops. The story though disturbing in its graphic details was ultimately a beautiful tale of love that surpasses the ravages of war and this world. The characters were well developed and I can't imagine how I would have wanted the story to play out any differently than the way the author crafted it; though I was not able to predict the way she told the stories within.This book would make a most excellent film!
October 29, 2012
If I could give it more then 5 stars I would. Kiana Davenport is one of my favorite authors. This was the first book of hers I have read that did not take place in Hawaii. This was about the civil war. Three main characters, Johnnie Tom, Era and Warren. Johnnie Tom is chinese, the father of Era. He is fighting in the war. Warren is fighting on the opposite side of Johnnie Tom. Era is a nurse on the battlefields. The characters have stayed with me since I finished the book about a week ago. Kiana you never disappoint. I learned things I didn't know about the civil war. I love your writing. I await your next book. Thank you.
February 3, 2015
back and forth between main characters was at first disconcerting, but became smoother. some historical liberties.
July 9, 2018
As a voracious reader if Civil War fiction, I have never come accross a book of this nature. Davenport has spun a unique story and has added pieces of our American history few people probably even realized existed. Her description of the battlefields is moving and graphic, but in a realistic way that brings the full horror of this part of our history to life. Presenting life on both sides of the battlefield is done remarkably well. While many might find the ending contrived and predictable, I found it to be a satisfying ending to a story well written. I enjoyed this book (as I have all of her works) immensely.
March 22, 2019
Never has a book kept me so enthralled and broadened me so much. I was naive to every part of history Davenport wrote about and I've told the plot to twenty people or more in the past four years. The writing fully captures the gruesome history of the time and the complete passion of three people surviving at all costs. This book changed me and I'm so glad it did.
October 8, 2025
Unromantic look at the Civil War
I devoured this book! I know war is hell but the civil war was particularly hellish. Not one part of it was beautiful. The lack of uniforms, clean water, good food, any kind of hygienic norms plus the medical short comings was just horrifying. About the only peaceful part was growing and harvesting opium. That part was just lyrical.
I devoured this book! I know war is hell but the civil war was particularly hellish. Not one part of it was beautiful. The lack of uniforms, clean water, good food, any kind of hygienic norms plus the medical short comings was just horrifying. About the only peaceful part was growing and harvesting opium. That part was just lyrical.
March 28, 2018
Don''t let the title and cover fool you. It is not a romance, though there is a love story as part of the book, and it is not a spy novel. It's historical fiction about the U.S. Civil War and it isn't for the faint of heart. Lots of violence. It is well written, though.
October 11, 2024
Terrific story of US War between the states.
I really think this is a great story covering many areas of life and death during the war between the north and south and its’ aftermath.
I really think this is a great story covering many areas of life and death during the war between the north and south and its’ aftermath.
December 28, 2018
This was set during the Civil War in America. I loved the way the author intertwined the lives of the characters. It was a fascinating book. A quick read and enjoyable.
April 15, 2020
interesting story, but doesn't hold a candle to "Shark Dialogues", "Song of the Exile", "House of Many Gods"
August 7, 2021
Not nearly as good as Song of the Exile.
Civil war. Moderately gory. Less plausible story lines.
Civil war. Moderately gory. Less plausible story lines.
November 2, 2023
The Spy Lover
Interesting read. The detail was great. The characters of Era and Warren stood out for me. What a tragedy the civil war makes. Innocent people lost their lives
Interesting read. The detail was great. The characters of Era and Warren stood out for me. What a tragedy the civil war makes. Innocent people lost their lives
July 25, 2025
4.75 stars. Didn’t give it a 5, because some of the things that happened, I didn’t think were really accurate, but I also am not 100% sure!
October 20, 2012
Winston Churchill said that history is written by the victors. Because of that we too often suffer from the delusion that our side (whatever side that is) were the good guys and their side (whoever they are) got what they deserved. This is rarely true. Ever since I discovered Kiana Davenport's writing back in the early 1990s I have been mesmerized – sometimes painfully so – by her writing and her new novel, The Spy Lover, epitomizes that experience.
Though I am not particularly interested in Civil War novels, I've read my fair share from Gone with the Wind to a few of Bruce Catton's novels. I recently read James Lee Burke's White Doves At Morning, a stunning story about the war and its aftermath for a small group of people from New Iberia, Louisiana. The story is based on two of Burke's ancestors and, like all of Burke's writing, the story is good but the characters are superb. For The Spy Lover Kiana Davenport uses the same inspiration, the experiences of her ancestors, but because her ancestors come from another culture we are offered a perspective on the atrocities of war that has long gone unseen and is shattering in its brutality.
Johnny Tom is a Chinese immigrant who escaped the horrors of drought and famine in his country to come to the United States. He escapes the slave auction-blocks and the vigilante “yellow dogs” who hunt down immigrants to sell into slavery that is even more brutal than that of plantation black slaves. After losing his first wife Johnny marries a Native American – Cree – woman and fathers a daughter he calls Era. Then the War Between the States begins and Johnny is conscripted by the Confederacy. He manages to defect to the Union where he is promised citizenship in exchange for fighting for the Union Army but soon winds up in a prisoner of war camp where conditions are horrific.
Era, now eighteen, has trained as a nurse and she agrees to act as a spy while working in Confederate hospital encampments in exchange for news of her father. In one of these camps she meets Warren Petticomb, a handsome cavalry officer who lost an arm at Shiloh. Their love affair begins.
Ms Davenport's writing is both glorious and shattering in its brutality. She does not back down either from the horrors of war or the even greater horrors of human cruelty. Most of us have heard stories and read books about the atrocities of slave-owners but the cruelty endured by those of other races, including the Chinese and Native Americans, is equally relentless – sometimes more so because they were not offered the protections of a master with an interest in safeguarding valued property.
I have to confess that some of the battle scenes were nearly more than I could handle and yet I read them because I could not help but think, “This is important, we live in perilous times and we need to remember what people are capable of.” Her description of the Battle of Gettysburg is heart-breaking. But through the blood and gore and gunpowder there is always the endless love of a daughter for her father, a man for his lost wife, a young man for a woman he has betrayed. Their love carries them through horror after horror in the search for the beloved.
I will be honest, this is not a story that everyone will be able to handle, but it is a story that many need to read. We need to be reminded not only of what evil we are capable of but also of what lengths people are capable on behalf of those they love. Kiana Davenport has created an extraordinary epic about people forgotten by or overlooked by the history books. Her novel serves as a reminder that the history books don't tell the greater story.
Though I am not particularly interested in Civil War novels, I've read my fair share from Gone with the Wind to a few of Bruce Catton's novels. I recently read James Lee Burke's White Doves At Morning, a stunning story about the war and its aftermath for a small group of people from New Iberia, Louisiana. The story is based on two of Burke's ancestors and, like all of Burke's writing, the story is good but the characters are superb. For The Spy Lover Kiana Davenport uses the same inspiration, the experiences of her ancestors, but because her ancestors come from another culture we are offered a perspective on the atrocities of war that has long gone unseen and is shattering in its brutality.
Johnny Tom is a Chinese immigrant who escaped the horrors of drought and famine in his country to come to the United States. He escapes the slave auction-blocks and the vigilante “yellow dogs” who hunt down immigrants to sell into slavery that is even more brutal than that of plantation black slaves. After losing his first wife Johnny marries a Native American – Cree – woman and fathers a daughter he calls Era. Then the War Between the States begins and Johnny is conscripted by the Confederacy. He manages to defect to the Union where he is promised citizenship in exchange for fighting for the Union Army but soon winds up in a prisoner of war camp where conditions are horrific.
Era, now eighteen, has trained as a nurse and she agrees to act as a spy while working in Confederate hospital encampments in exchange for news of her father. In one of these camps she meets Warren Petticomb, a handsome cavalry officer who lost an arm at Shiloh. Their love affair begins.
Ms Davenport's writing is both glorious and shattering in its brutality. She does not back down either from the horrors of war or the even greater horrors of human cruelty. Most of us have heard stories and read books about the atrocities of slave-owners but the cruelty endured by those of other races, including the Chinese and Native Americans, is equally relentless – sometimes more so because they were not offered the protections of a master with an interest in safeguarding valued property.
I have to confess that some of the battle scenes were nearly more than I could handle and yet I read them because I could not help but think, “This is important, we live in perilous times and we need to remember what people are capable of.” Her description of the Battle of Gettysburg is heart-breaking. But through the blood and gore and gunpowder there is always the endless love of a daughter for her father, a man for his lost wife, a young man for a woman he has betrayed. Their love carries them through horror after horror in the search for the beloved.
I will be honest, this is not a story that everyone will be able to handle, but it is a story that many need to read. We need to be reminded not only of what evil we are capable of but also of what lengths people are capable on behalf of those they love. Kiana Davenport has created an extraordinary epic about people forgotten by or overlooked by the history books. Her novel serves as a reminder that the history books don't tell the greater story.
November 10, 2012
America's Opium War
A Chinese soldier and his mixed-blood daughter are at the center of this unflinching novel of the Civil War
BY DON WALLACE | NOV 7, 2012
[from the Honolulu Weekly]
Let us now praise the woman warrior. For too many years–centuries, actually–writing about war has been a man’s game. And for too many years, reading war fiction has been about as deep an experience as watching a couple of boys play with toy soldiers. Aside from the diligent recreation of Gettysburg in The Killer Angels, it’s usually only the anti-heroic stuff, such as Catch-22, A Thin Red Line, and the Waterloo sequence in War and Peace, that rises above the level of pulp. Americans like their war safely sentimentalized, or even better, played on a game console with plenty of cool special effects.
But merely having a woman author isn’t what makes The Spy Lover, a novel about the Civil War that follows the fortunes of a Chinese infantryman for the Union, Johnny Tom, his daughter Era and Warren, her Confederate lover and patient, so memorable. Sure, it may come as a surprise to her fans that our own Kiana Davenport, who made her bones on sweeping Hawaiian family melodramas like The Shark Dialogues, Song of Exile and House of Many Gods, has written a book steeped in gore, misery, death, drug addiction and bereavement. But the shock is in Davenport’s writing and material.
Like the best historical fiction, the book’s deep research is felt in every line and authenticates every character, no matter how strange or shocking, yet comes across as naturally as breathing. In this The Spy Lover easily joins and even surpasses Cold Mountain and our national real estate love triangle, Gone With the Wind.
Thus, when one-armed cavalryman Warren Davenport (based on one of the author’s Confederate relatives) rides into yet another battle that will resemble a charnel house, he swallows an opium ball to control his pain and his bowels, then “. . . feels the tightening in his buttocks and his testicles as war brings him into its full scrutiny.”
Thus, when his nurse and lover, the Chinese-Native American-Caucasian spy Era Tom, comes upon the mutilated corpses of two women murdered after a gang rape, “she moves closer and examines their fingernails. Under one woman’s nails she finds not skin but bits of cloth. The dark blue wool of Federal uniforms. It could have been the same troopers who escorted her here.” Yet she continues to spy for the Union.
Davenport has never been one to accept limitations, or abide by other’s people’s rules for what a part-Hawaiian, part-haole should write about. Her elan serves her well here, whether summoning the racial hysteria of the South coupled to its unyielding code of valor, or describing the endless carnage of the (painstaking recreated) battlefields. Her depiction of the lives of women during the war, as well as those of mixed race, goes some way towards remedying a century-long gap in the historical, fictional record.
The Spy Lover
Kiana Davenport
Thomas & Mercer, 2012, 300 pages, softcover, $14.95
A Chinese soldier and his mixed-blood daughter are at the center of this unflinching novel of the Civil War
BY DON WALLACE | NOV 7, 2012
[from the Honolulu Weekly]
Let us now praise the woman warrior. For too many years–centuries, actually–writing about war has been a man’s game. And for too many years, reading war fiction has been about as deep an experience as watching a couple of boys play with toy soldiers. Aside from the diligent recreation of Gettysburg in The Killer Angels, it’s usually only the anti-heroic stuff, such as Catch-22, A Thin Red Line, and the Waterloo sequence in War and Peace, that rises above the level of pulp. Americans like their war safely sentimentalized, or even better, played on a game console with plenty of cool special effects.
But merely having a woman author isn’t what makes The Spy Lover, a novel about the Civil War that follows the fortunes of a Chinese infantryman for the Union, Johnny Tom, his daughter Era and Warren, her Confederate lover and patient, so memorable. Sure, it may come as a surprise to her fans that our own Kiana Davenport, who made her bones on sweeping Hawaiian family melodramas like The Shark Dialogues, Song of Exile and House of Many Gods, has written a book steeped in gore, misery, death, drug addiction and bereavement. But the shock is in Davenport’s writing and material.
Like the best historical fiction, the book’s deep research is felt in every line and authenticates every character, no matter how strange or shocking, yet comes across as naturally as breathing. In this The Spy Lover easily joins and even surpasses Cold Mountain and our national real estate love triangle, Gone With the Wind.
Thus, when one-armed cavalryman Warren Davenport (based on one of the author’s Confederate relatives) rides into yet another battle that will resemble a charnel house, he swallows an opium ball to control his pain and his bowels, then “. . . feels the tightening in his buttocks and his testicles as war brings him into its full scrutiny.”
Thus, when his nurse and lover, the Chinese-Native American-Caucasian spy Era Tom, comes upon the mutilated corpses of two women murdered after a gang rape, “she moves closer and examines their fingernails. Under one woman’s nails she finds not skin but bits of cloth. The dark blue wool of Federal uniforms. It could have been the same troopers who escorted her here.” Yet she continues to spy for the Union.
Davenport has never been one to accept limitations, or abide by other’s people’s rules for what a part-Hawaiian, part-haole should write about. Her elan serves her well here, whether summoning the racial hysteria of the South coupled to its unyielding code of valor, or describing the endless carnage of the (painstaking recreated) battlefields. Her depiction of the lives of women during the war, as well as those of mixed race, goes some way towards remedying a century-long gap in the historical, fictional record.
The Spy Lover
Kiana Davenport
Thomas & Mercer, 2012, 300 pages, softcover, $14.95
September 9, 2012
Like earlier stated I read this and reviewed this for CMN. However, I would have tracked this down myself and read on my own if CMN never offered this.
This novel was divided into three POVs: Era's, Johnny Tom's (Era papa), and Warren (the Confederate solider). I loved each POV and I could barely put this book down because I was in desperate need to find out what would happen next. I especially loved Johnny Tom's POV because it was such a different view of the Civil War, a Chinese foot-solider's view.
This was my first book that I've read by Kiana Davenport and I can bet that it won't be the last. I highly enjoyed her style of writing. It flowed nicely and had such great depth in each word. She really made the war and the people come to life. I felt like I was really there watching the events unfold. Yes, it was pretty dark at times, but what do you expect? It's a book about the Civil War and that was a messy, messy war. There was a lot of suffering during that time period.
I felt so bad for Era. All she wanted was to find her father and feel loved. She lost so much! The Confederates killed her mother and kidnapped her father. Warren filled some of the void, but her love for him just made things more complex. Even though Warren loves her and she loves him, I had a hard time liking him. Not because he was a Confederate, but there was something that irked me. I can't say more or I might have a mind to give a spoiler. However, I will say that I did begin to like him near the end and I was rooting for him to get where he needed to go! ^.^ That is all I can say.
There was nothing I didn't really like about this novel. At times I did have to put the book down because I was angry at a couple events. I'm sorry but I must be vague, but during these events made me rather upset and angry. I had to put the book down and do other things. However, I applaud Kiana Davenport for making me such attached to all the characters, even secondary ones.
Overall I highly enjoyed this book and I hope this becomes a movie one day. I loved all the characters in some way shape or form. It was a pretty dark and vivid book, but what would one except for a war novel? Especially during the Civil War, which was the bloodiest war in American history. The three different POVs made the novel special. One from a spy for the Union who's in love with a Confederate, one from a Chinese foot-solider for the Union, and one from a Confederate cavalryman unknowingly in love with a Union spy. I would recommend this for those who love war novels or for those that simply adore a good book.
Out of five stars I grant this 5 stars. Woot woot!
Favorite Character(s): Era, Johnny, and Casey
Not-so Favorite Character(s): Warren (until near the end)
This novel was divided into three POVs: Era's, Johnny Tom's (Era papa), and Warren (the Confederate solider). I loved each POV and I could barely put this book down because I was in desperate need to find out what would happen next. I especially loved Johnny Tom's POV because it was such a different view of the Civil War, a Chinese foot-solider's view.
This was my first book that I've read by Kiana Davenport and I can bet that it won't be the last. I highly enjoyed her style of writing. It flowed nicely and had such great depth in each word. She really made the war and the people come to life. I felt like I was really there watching the events unfold. Yes, it was pretty dark at times, but what do you expect? It's a book about the Civil War and that was a messy, messy war. There was a lot of suffering during that time period.
I felt so bad for Era. All she wanted was to find her father and feel loved. She lost so much! The Confederates killed her mother and kidnapped her father. Warren filled some of the void, but her love for him just made things more complex. Even though Warren loves her and she loves him, I had a hard time liking him. Not because he was a Confederate, but there was something that irked me. I can't say more or I might have a mind to give a spoiler. However, I will say that I did begin to like him near the end and I was rooting for him to get where he needed to go! ^.^ That is all I can say.
There was nothing I didn't really like about this novel. At times I did have to put the book down because I was angry at a couple events. I'm sorry but I must be vague, but during these events made me rather upset and angry. I had to put the book down and do other things. However, I applaud Kiana Davenport for making me such attached to all the characters, even secondary ones.
Overall I highly enjoyed this book and I hope this becomes a movie one day. I loved all the characters in some way shape or form. It was a pretty dark and vivid book, but what would one except for a war novel? Especially during the Civil War, which was the bloodiest war in American history. The three different POVs made the novel special. One from a spy for the Union who's in love with a Confederate, one from a Chinese foot-solider for the Union, and one from a Confederate cavalryman unknowingly in love with a Union spy. I would recommend this for those who love war novels or for those that simply adore a good book.
Out of five stars I grant this 5 stars. Woot woot!
Favorite Character(s): Era, Johnny, and Casey
Not-so Favorite Character(s): Warren (until near the end)
August 27, 2016
First, let me say that as far as narrative goes, I very much enjoyed this book. It hurt in all the right places, and I think it did an excellent job of depicting the divided loyalties and the bone-deep exhaustion and pain that accompany war. Further, it did an excellent job in depicting the plight of non-white peoples caught up in the U.S. Civil War-- from Era to Johnny Tom, Raindance and Zebedee. My heart hurt for the characters.
However, I have a few major quibbles with this book. Let me preface this by saying I'm a PhD student in military history, so things that I simply could not live with are things that probably won't bother most readers.
Ms. Davenport does a remarkable job with the history of Chinese immigrants, persecuted and yes indeed kidnapped for service in the war. Her attention to those details is commendable. Further, it is clear she has read one of the classic books about the Civil War era, Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering. However, for all of her careful research, her treatment of the medicine available during the war is... unfortunate. Some things, she does get right: the bull's eyes, the mountains of arms and legs, the dysentery. Unfortunately, she also describes how the doctors and nurses disinfected instruments and wore masks to contain contagion. Germs weren't discovered until the 1880s, and the U.S. Civil War is known for its abysmal medicine-- a period in which the technologies of destruction far outpaced the technologies of healing. In fact, many of the deaths were the result of gangrene from amputations, because doctors didn't understand how gangrene worked. The modern syringe wasn't patented until the 1890s, so couldn't possibly have been produced and issued en masse to opiate addicted soldiers... I found these errors especially galling because Ms. Davenport was so well-informed in nearly every other way. I fully accept that most works of historical fiction are just that... wonderful imaginings of the past. However, to go to all the trouble to portray such a fraught moment as carefully as possible, and then to treat Civil War medicine as if it were the First World War.
However, I have a few major quibbles with this book. Let me preface this by saying I'm a PhD student in military history, so things that I simply could not live with are things that probably won't bother most readers.
Ms. Davenport does a remarkable job with the history of Chinese immigrants, persecuted and yes indeed kidnapped for service in the war. Her attention to those details is commendable. Further, it is clear she has read one of the classic books about the Civil War era, Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering. However, for all of her careful research, her treatment of the medicine available during the war is... unfortunate. Some things, she does get right: the bull's eyes, the mountains of arms and legs, the dysentery. Unfortunately, she also describes how the doctors and nurses disinfected instruments and wore masks to contain contagion. Germs weren't discovered until the 1880s, and the U.S. Civil War is known for its abysmal medicine-- a period in which the technologies of destruction far outpaced the technologies of healing. In fact, many of the deaths were the result of gangrene from amputations, because doctors didn't understand how gangrene worked. The modern syringe wasn't patented until the 1890s, so couldn't possibly have been produced and issued en masse to opiate addicted soldiers... I found these errors especially galling because Ms. Davenport was so well-informed in nearly every other way. I fully accept that most works of historical fiction are just that... wonderful imaginings of the past. However, to go to all the trouble to portray such a fraught moment as carefully as possible, and then to treat Civil War medicine as if it were the First World War.
January 18, 2015
From the time I was a kid, I have been fascinated by the Civil War and have read a lot of books, visited a lot of battle sites, took in a slew of Hollywood's visions, and felt I had a pretty good knowledge of things. Then I read The Spy Lover and I was knocked off my feet by the grim realities ensconced in the lyrical magic of Kiana Davenport's writing.
Granted, it's easy to get lost in the mythology of the war, as inundated as America is to this crucial moment in our history from Gone with the Wind up through Ken Burn's masterful PBS series and beyond. Yet, in The Spy Lover, I was dizzied by the graphic violence shrouded in an opium miasma that Rhett Butler or Shelby Foote never seemed to address with glib one-liners or homey anecdotes. Despite the fact that Davenport washes out my daguerreotyped images of the war in blood reds and fetid grays, I am grateful for the hard slap in the face that Davenport manages to wrap in her soft gauze of poetry. Her writing kept me going despite the ceaseless brutality and this seems completely fitting. Davenport proves a powerful point that writers of all wars should embrace; you can write beautifully about even the most horrific things. I appreciate that the author bravely gives the reader credit when so few in the media wouldn't dare risk ratings or low sales by attacking sacred cows.
As a nation we're still absorbed by the stylized romanticism of the Civil War, just as we are about WWII. Saving Private Ryan reminded us with shocking visceral imagery that war is a horrific thing and not some John Wayne heroic epic. I nominate Kiana Davenport's breathtaking The Spy Lover to represent the Civil War in the same fashion, and to that end, feel it should be included in history classes to keep the repulsion of war firmly in our collective consciousness. If we are to learn from our past, it is vital that the lessons are genuine and tell the whole story and that's what this book does. Highly recommended.
Granted, it's easy to get lost in the mythology of the war, as inundated as America is to this crucial moment in our history from Gone with the Wind up through Ken Burn's masterful PBS series and beyond. Yet, in The Spy Lover, I was dizzied by the graphic violence shrouded in an opium miasma that Rhett Butler or Shelby Foote never seemed to address with glib one-liners or homey anecdotes. Despite the fact that Davenport washes out my daguerreotyped images of the war in blood reds and fetid grays, I am grateful for the hard slap in the face that Davenport manages to wrap in her soft gauze of poetry. Her writing kept me going despite the ceaseless brutality and this seems completely fitting. Davenport proves a powerful point that writers of all wars should embrace; you can write beautifully about even the most horrific things. I appreciate that the author bravely gives the reader credit when so few in the media wouldn't dare risk ratings or low sales by attacking sacred cows.
As a nation we're still absorbed by the stylized romanticism of the Civil War, just as we are about WWII. Saving Private Ryan reminded us with shocking visceral imagery that war is a horrific thing and not some John Wayne heroic epic. I nominate Kiana Davenport's breathtaking The Spy Lover to represent the Civil War in the same fashion, and to that end, feel it should be included in history classes to keep the repulsion of war firmly in our collective consciousness. If we are to learn from our past, it is vital that the lessons are genuine and tell the whole story and that's what this book does. Highly recommended.
December 27, 2014
One would think that with all of the books that have been published about the Civil War there would be nothing new to say. One would be wrong. Kiana Davenport has written a fascinating novel based on her family history about a Chinese Civil War soldier named Johnny Tom. He was forced to enlist in the Confederate Army, escaped, and signed up to fight with the Union. Like the real life John Tommy, he lost his arms and legs at the Battle of Gettysburg, but remarkably survived another three and a half months. He was remembered as a brave and good soldier.
The story of Johnny Tom is entwined with that of his daughter, Era, whose mother was a mixed race Cherokee who'd escaped from slavery (and a future as her biological grandfather's sex slave). After her mother is brutally slaughtered, Era spies for the Federal Army while nursing Confederate soldiers. She falls in love with one of her patients. Her love for him doesn't stop her from using information gleaned from him to thwart the Confederacy.
Kiana is a skilled storyteller with a lyrical voice, and it's clear that she has done her research. Nevertheless, I do have a few quibbles. At the start of the story, Johhny Tom's thoughts are conveyed in broken English. Wouldn't have have been thinking in fluent Chinese? Also, his knowledge of Kung Fu moves and Old Chinese sayings borders on stereotype. Kiana comes from a multicultural background herself, so I'm willing to give her the benefit of a doubt, but I found these tropes a bit annoying.
My other complaint would be that this novel is relentlessly grim. I udnerstand that war is hell, and the Civil War was particularly hellish, but I would have liked a few more moments of reprieve from the ground carpeted with corpses and the knee-deep blood.
Still, this is a rare glimpse of an underrepresented group of soldiers. Worth the read.
The story of Johnny Tom is entwined with that of his daughter, Era, whose mother was a mixed race Cherokee who'd escaped from slavery (and a future as her biological grandfather's sex slave). After her mother is brutally slaughtered, Era spies for the Federal Army while nursing Confederate soldiers. She falls in love with one of her patients. Her love for him doesn't stop her from using information gleaned from him to thwart the Confederacy.
Kiana is a skilled storyteller with a lyrical voice, and it's clear that she has done her research. Nevertheless, I do have a few quibbles. At the start of the story, Johhny Tom's thoughts are conveyed in broken English. Wouldn't have have been thinking in fluent Chinese? Also, his knowledge of Kung Fu moves and Old Chinese sayings borders on stereotype. Kiana comes from a multicultural background herself, so I'm willing to give her the benefit of a doubt, but I found these tropes a bit annoying.
My other complaint would be that this novel is relentlessly grim. I udnerstand that war is hell, and the Civil War was particularly hellish, but I would have liked a few more moments of reprieve from the ground carpeted with corpses and the knee-deep blood.
Still, this is a rare glimpse of an underrepresented group of soldiers. Worth the read.
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