Theory Of War

by Joan Brady

Page edges tanned. Orders received by 3pm Sent from the UK that weekday.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novels, Literature, American, Roman, Historical

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Joan Brady is an American-British writer. She is the first woman and American to win the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for her novel Theory of War.
She was married to writer Dexter Masters and has a son who is also an author: Alexander Masters.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Ryan Holiday · Rating 5 out of 5]

There isn't much to say about this other than it is long out of print, incredibly strange and one of the best pieces of fiction I've ever read. Calling it fiction is a bit of an insult though because it is based on this woman's actual family history and it feels so damn real that you get lost in it. Here is part of the author's note:

"My grandfather was a slave. This isn't an uncommon claim for an American to make if the American is black. But I'm not black. I'm white. My grandfather was white, too. And he wasn't sold into slavery not in some barbaric third-world country: he was sold in the United States of America."

This book is the pet favorite of someone I know and they've wanted to turn it into a movie forever. It would be a fantastic one because the story is almost as good as Gladiator.

[Katielin317 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such an interesting read. It was heartbreaking and felt so hopeless so much of the time. A story of the very real effects of neglect and abuse throughout the generations of the one directly affected. But so fascinating to read about WHITE slavery in the US.

[Antenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the aftermath of the American Civil War, a penniless soldier sells a small boy called Jonathan, who may or may not be his own son, to Kansas farmer, Alvah Stoke, in search of some cheap and malleable labour. The irony is that, just after America has been torn apart in the cause of abolishing black slavery, a white boy is effectively made a slave, as it appears was actually the case for the author’s own grandfather whose life inspired this novel.

Deprived of love and affection, not merely education but even decent living conditions and food, Jonathan is soon the butt of bullying from Alvah’s son George, jealous of his intelligence, practical ingenuity, good looks and natural grace. So he is inexorably transformed from a sweet, inquisitive chatterbox into a wary and embittered youth, eventually able to make his escape on one of the new steam trains which capture his imagination. Despite his ability not merely to survive but to succeed against the odds, Jonathan’s psyche is poisoned by his very understandable fury over the years of abuse, and the desire for revenge focussed on George. Moving between scenes from Jonathan’s life to that of his granddaughter as she pieces together his life story from his coded diary and the ramblings of his son, alcoholic doctor Atlas, Joan Brady shows how the destructive effects of slavery can blight a family for three generations.

This original, quirky novel drips with cynicism and venom (which happens to be the title of another of Brady’s novels) and includes some at times gratuitously unpleasant scenes, one of which almost caused me to give up. Yet despite this, and the extreme mental or physical ills which seem to beset many of the main characters, this book is a page turner. Apart from being “a good yarn”, with dazzling verbal pyrotechnics and some telling observations, it brings alive a sense of the landscape and pioneering spirit of the States, as railroads are forged west to California, new towns are formed, only to die in a few years, as in the brilliant descriptions of the town of Mogul, “ferried out in the desert” for the purpose of mining stignite. “Mogul was growing up with America, no sewers, no trees, no street lights, no running water: a full-blown boom town geared to the quick sale of everything, alive or dead, worldly or divine. Walls of saloon and Methodist chapel alike advertised whiskey, shaving cream, dried beef and – without so much as a change of paint colour or script style – God Himself and the virtues of cleanliness” and so on for page after page of wry, sparkling prose. Despite the perhaps over-laboured attempt to apply theories of warfare to Jonathan’s battle with George, regardless of the recurring message that life has no meaning, much as we may wish that it did, that "truth’s a convention,a fashion: it changes every year”, being alive is miraculous and wonderful.

It is a pity that this deservedly award-winning novelist, whose own life seems quite intriguing, has not written more and is not better known in this country.

[Abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book. What a sad situation, a white 4yr old boy sold as a slave after the Civil War for 15 dollars. That slave life scarred him so that no one who came near him afterwards could escape from the effects of it!
Makes you think and meditate!

[Jane Hadfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a hard but interesting read.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why has it taken me 25 years to give this astonishingly powerful novel a good read?! I paid 30p.for it...a reject from Croydon library!..
.( that figures!)..in the mid-90s...& it has lain on the top of a wardrobe since then. It is one of the finest American novels I have read...& I've read over two hundred & fifty of those guys!...& in every paragraph it seems to tell a truth of the human quest for self-knowledge...in so many different forms. Joan Brady deserves a wider readership than me: you should read this too.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was combing my shelves in order to add books to my virtual shelf that I've read in the past that had a lasting effect on me. Theory of War was read at a time when I was trying to catch up on the Whitbread winners of the past, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It deals with the selling into slavery of a young Irish boy, and is written by one of his descendants. Since it was so long ago that I read it, I've replaced it in my "to read" area, which is unusual for me.

[Carolina Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very powerful story, it's hard to understand the feeling of being a slave! It applies to the past and future of any generation.. Some may not get to live it in a life time, some may experience the feeling at first hand.

[Géraldine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Une étoile car j'ai appris quelque chose ;)
Mais je ne suis pas parvenue à entrer dans cette histoire de famille.

[Lenaïk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rare. Unusual. I cried, I laughed. I cried a lot. Possibly not a gift, but to be passed on.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant and painful to the bone. Winner of the Whitbread award years ago, this book found me ,in a free pile at a second hand book shop.The story of the generations of suffering induced by one small white boy being sold into bound service,ie slavery,is proof that karma exists. The novel is apparently based on a true story. The prose is knife sharp:

" One of the modern day hostages..held in Lebanon,wrote That The life of a hostage IS a kind of quarter life. A hostage, like any prisoner,is a species of slave.'The mind forming and informing itself in patterns of maniacal exuberance and mind-wrenching despair: the hostage is a convoluted man,a man pushed so far and so deep into himself that he can Do little but experience a kind of mental narcosis,like a diver in rarerified air.' Then comes release: the sudden freedom,the multiplicity of it,the dazzling,dizzying disorder of it.And when the maelstrom settles a little,when There is time to draw in a breath,the ex-hostage finds himself left with what others who delve too deep are left with: this pretty but brittle surface of ours,cheap,artificial, irrelevant. What once fit-What once was life itself-no longer fit,could never be made to fit again.Normality becomes another kind of bondage. "

[Sheila Dailie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this was a tough book to work through, it is probably one that I will think about repeatedly as time goes by. It is important to see how the scars of one generation impact the next few.
One of my favorite parts of the book was the author's note at the end, though the tragedy of four out of seven children committing suicide is unfathomable. This book is a great non-example for the carrying of a grudge, rather than choosing to live in forgiveness. Truthfully, I've never been so deeply disregarded as a human being, but I still think that redeeming love and forgiveness could have changed the outcome of the tale.
Another interesting idea is that Johnny was a white slave in the United States. Sometimes we tend to forget that it was not just the African American that was subjected to cruel, inhumane treatment.

[Wes Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book at the recommendation of Ryan Holiday’s reading list email, otherwise it wouldn’t have come across my path. I’m glad it did.

This book is odd. The story, structure and style all felt foreign in a bizarrely enticing way. Jonathan, the protagonist, is as human as a character can be. You love him always, pity him most of the time and know you should loathe him occasionally, but you find yourself extending grace to him that you wouldn’t give to yourself. I like protagonists of this sort, the kind you’re perplexed by, but in the same kind of way that you’re perplexed by your own humanity.

[A J HOOPER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfectly horrid story of a white slave. Jonathan is bought at the age of 4 and from then on is forced to work hard . He is treated worse than dirt and develops psychological methods of dealing with this. His worst tormentor is George the eldest son of his owner to whom Jonathon develops an implacable hatred .
Jonathan escapes at the age of 16 and works on the trains as an uncoupler. Naturally his best friend dies doing the same job and Jonathan becomes a preacher.
He soon loses his faith but is forced to stick at the job in order to provide for his growing family. It is the remains of that family who tell us of Jonathan's life.

[Cali Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally one of those Amazon 99p book deals that was great! I've read a few that have been fine, but this one I really liked. It's the story of a young, white boy sold into 'slavery' aka indentured labour after the end of the civil war in the US. The book is based on real-life data points of the authors grandfather but re-imagined as biographical fiction. Most of the characters are damaged and not particularly likeable but their pain and struggles and complications are believable and compelling.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most unusual novel. It is based on the author's grandfather, a white man, being sold as a slave shortly after the end of the Civil War when he was 4 years old. It is hard to know how much of the story is based in fact other than the author's grandfather really was sold as a boy. But what the novel does do it show the impact of trauma not only on the first recipient but also in the succeeding generations. Note that the author often changes point-of-view in the middle of a page (or even a paragraph) so it can sometimes be hard to follow.

[Boone Bolinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still wrestling with the idea of the title and how it fits, even what it says about war, but that didn't stand in my way of loving it. It is a little cluttered with the format, but masterfully written and gripping. Sad, but gripping. Still thinking about why Johnathon asked George the question about truth near the end...Powerful story.

[Liber Alvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maravillosamente narrada, te atrapa la trama, las vicisitudes de Jonathan te dejan perplejo. Altamente recomendada!

Aclaratoria : No es Joan Brady la que escribió "Dios vuelve en una Harley", es otra autora también norteamericana y casualmente el mismo nombre y apellido.

[Molly Helm · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a story--and based on the truth that the author's white grandfather was sold to a Kansas family for $15 as a toddler by his veteran father. Painful to read and such a reminder that trauma travels through families, leaving indelible marks.

[AGMaynard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully composed and wrenching. Fictionalized account of her grandfather’s life after being sold at age four, and the cascading generational trauma that birthed. Bought probably 25 years ago and began at the beginning of the year.

[Paula O'Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't think any of the characters in this book were credible and found the prose disjointed rather than impressive.

[Tomek Dyrda]

5/10 "Teoria wojny"

[Colorado22 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great writing.

[Frank Irwin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author comes across as arrogant and angry. It’s a depressing book with almost no redeeming qualities.

[Andrew Myerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary:

Joan Brady's Theory of War is a story regarding the white slave trade which took place in the Reconstruction era of the south after the civil war. The novel has two protagonists: one is the grandfather who is sold into slavery as a child, Jonathan Carrick and the other is the narrator who is the grandaughter investigating the journals left behind by her grandfather as she learns of his story. The parts of the novel in which we are reading about Jonathan, it is being narrated by his grandaughter from a third person perspective. However, the moments in which the novel passes back to the present time where the narrator is listening to the story of her grandfather as told by her Uncle Atlas. THe story is a frame narrative as it begins with the story of the grandaughter and her travels from England to Washington and continuously transitions to the grandfather's story. The story of Jonathan Carrick is of the Bildungsroman genre as it follows the development of his character both psychologically and emotionally when he is sold at 4 to Alvah Stoke, a tobacco farmer with a wife and two children. The story shows Carrick's struggles with the brutality of slavery and how Carrick's status as a slave has affected his family from generation to generation.

Evaluation:

Theory of War is a fantastic novel that sheds light on a subject that has been overlooked in American History. The Author Joan Brady parallels her story of self-discovery with her grandfather's. Brady creates a gripping narrative about slavery and how its scars seem to be carried from generation to generation in the Carrick family. At its core the novel is about Jonathan's rage and how it remains a pedigree for his children and their children, the psychological wounds that never healed and how they shaped Jonathan as a father and husband and how it affected those around him. The chapters which describe Jonathan when he is sold in a general store by his father, a union soldier, is engraved into the reader's psyche, challening them to imagine themselves in similar circumstances. Theory of War is a beautifully and powerfully written story about the worth of one's soul and how precious it is.

Semi-Open Ending:

Theory of War ends on a strange note because of the fact that the primary conflict between George Stoke and Jonathan Carrick has been resolved, while at the same time the psychological conflict continues.
The book wraps around itself as it begins in the 1920s when Carrick and Stoke are old men, Carrick comes to Stoke's residence to end his private war. The very last page of the novel discusses the resolution of Jonathan and Stoke's conflict as well as Atlas' death all of these events are binded by the concept of faith. The last sentence reads "As Jonathan himself said, faith will serve as well as anything," (Brady 257). Theory of War's ending seamlessly blends the non-fiction and biographical genres. The story is based upon Brady's real grandfather and her story about uncovering the truth about her grandfather's past. The truth is creatively blended into the fictional narrative. Many of the themes in Theory of War can be alluded to the old testament. The theme of slavery and Jonathan's escpae after he beats George nearly to death are liken to the exodus of Egypt. Jonathan is like the jews making their march to freedom from Egypt which is the Stoke farm in the context of Jonathan's story.

Read-Aloud
P.248
"You want a map? Answers?" (George)
"No, Only a theory" (Jonathan)
"According to this theory, truth itself can't be seperated from a person's search for it. A process of elimination goes on. If you clear away enough of the underbrush, what's left has got to be the truth." (Jonathan)

P.58
"It was probably 110-proof red, an evil bathtube brew of bourboun touched up with turpentine and lye, enough to take rust off metal, enough to skin cats alive.But Jonathan was only fourteen or so, and young males are among the stupidest of the stupid young, competitive where the prize is worthless and fiercely proud where pride is meaningless..." (Brady 58).

[Teresa Peng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautifully written book about white slavery. The language used is provocative and vivid.

[Paulus Voerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theory of War - Joan Brady 1939 – Abacus 1994

Author's note (gedeeltelijk):

My grandfather was a slave. This isn't an uncommon claim for an American to make if the American is black. But I'm not black. I'm white. My grandfather was white, too. And he wasn't sold into slavery not in some barbaric third-world country: he was sold in the United States of America. A midwestern tobacco farmer bought him for $ 15 when he was four years old; not many people know about such sales, although they were common just after the Civil War. The slave's live my grandfather led until he ran away at sixteen so scarred him that no one who came near him afterwards could escape the effects of it; four of his seven children – including my father – ended up as suicides.

Het boek beschrijft het leven van Jonathan Carrick die als kleuter als slaaf terecht komt in het gezin Alvah Stoke. Hij wordt daar minder dan als een dier behandeld - zelfs al zijn tanden worden verzilverd - en misbruikt door de twee jaar oudere zoon des huizes, een obese sadist met borsten, George Stoke. Op zijn zestiende slaat Jonathan, murwgetreiterd, George dood en vlucht. Met niets. No home, no background, no education, not even a childhood. Like God himself, he had to build up his world from scratch. Na veel boeiende omzwervingen belandt hij bij de familie van zijn collega/vriend College die hem opvangt en voor een opleiding zorgt. De (hoogintelligente) Jonathan studeert binnen de kortste keren af als dominee, maar verliest gaandeweg zijn geloof (zegent in die godloze hoedanigheid het huwelijk in tussen een zeventigjarige man met een jonge hermafrodiet). Hij trouwt met Sarah, met wie hij een noodlijdende boerderij begint en bij wie hij zeven kinderen verwekt. Hij hoort dat George Stoke helemaal niet dood is en als senator furore maakt. Aan het eind van zijn leven gaat Jonathan op bezoek hij de Corona's paffende senator en vermoordt hem alsnog.
Het verhaal wordt verteld door de rolstoelende kleindochter van Jonathan, ingefluisterd door de middelste zoon van Jonathan, de alcoholische arts Atlas en mede aan de hand van (gecodeerde) dagboeken die Jonathan heeft nagelaten.

Een indrukwekkend en soms hartverscheurend verhaal. Vond hooguit de parallellen tussen de Theory of War van Clausewitz met de strijd van Jonathan en George (als rode draad) wat krampachtig. Maar een prachtig boek; begrijp niet dat het niet veel beroemder is.

[The Final Chapter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mid 4. This novel explores a forgotten chapter in the history of slavery in the United States. The devastation and social upheaval resulting from the American Civil War left many orphaned white children with no means of survival aside from being sold as indentured labour to farming communities carving out homesteads further west. The author has our narrator, a woman confined to a wheelchair by a benign tumour on her spine, decide to trace the tragic story of her own grandfather's such slavery through coded diaries left with her Uncle Atlas. Cracking this code, she uncovers the relentless pursuit of vengeance of her grandfather, Jonathan Carrick, against the cruelty and humiliation inflicted upon him by his 'owners', the Stokes family, and in particular in retaliation for the endless torture and taunting he was subject to from their son George. What makes this tale even more moving is the accompanying author's note in which Brady reveals that one of her own ancestors shared a similar servitude, the scars of which led to several suicides, including that of her own father.

[Shana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a very interesting subject. It does not seem to be common knowledge that young white children were sold into slavery after the Civil War. This is a "fictional memoir" of sorts, as the author is trying to recreate what may have happened to her grandfather, who was one of these children sold into slavery. As a social worker, I also thought that the effect that this had on future generations was also interesting. That being said, it took my quite a while to get through this. I did not find it to be a fast paced story. However, I do not always enjoy historical fiction. If you are someone who particularly likes this genre, you may like this book more than I did. I do think it is a well written book on an interesting subject, which is why I gave it three stars.