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A Separate Country
A Separate Country by Robert Hicks, Grand Central Publishing, 2009, First Edition, First printing, NEW/NEW. This is a NEW Hardcover Novel. A stranger in a strange, beautiful, and confounding town, General Hood is ready to find happiness and comfort after losing a war and becoming one of the most controversial generals of the Confederate Army. An Awesome Historical Accounting of the period!
424 pages, Hardcover
First published September 2, 2009
116 people are currently reading
2705 people want to read
About the author
Robert Hicks
100 books245 followersRobert Hicks has been active in the music industry in Nashville for twenty years as both a music publisher and artist manager. The driving force behind the perservation and restoration of the historic Carnton plantation in Tennessee, he stumbled upon the extraordinary role that Carrie McGavock played during and after the Battle of Franklin. He is the author of The Widow of the South and A Separate Country.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 312 reviews
January 21, 2025
The separate country of the title is New Orleans, a place like no other, divided between the Creoles, "americaines," blacks, mixed race people ( including "white negroes"), and Irish and other immigrants. It's the place to which Confederate General John Bell Hood goes to start a new life following defeat in the Civil War. Kentucky-born Hood had been crippled by wounds of flesh and spirit but found the love of an extraordinary Creole woman named Anna Marie. So this is a love story, a story about a remarkable relationship.
Hood faces adversity and failure in a New Orleans going through Reconstruction, then Redemption, as conservative whites imposed their rule once again over the black population. But in the end, John Hood faced an enemy which he could not defeat and which would cause his death---the mosquito which caused yellow fever. Not a spoiler, as the story begins with Hood dying of yellow fever.
Hood faces adversity and failure in a New Orleans going through Reconstruction, then Redemption, as conservative whites imposed their rule once again over the black population. But in the end, John Hood faced an enemy which he could not defeat and which would cause his death---the mosquito which caused yellow fever. Not a spoiler, as the story begins with Hood dying of yellow fever.
April 2, 2012
This book, written by Robert Hicks, is a fictional account of one of the Confederacy's most controversial generals.... John Bell Hood. Hood was promoted by Robert E. Lee to the rank of major general after the Battle of Antietam. He suffered a crippling injury to his left arm at the battle of Gettysburg and lost his right leg at the Battle of Chicamauga. Hood became controversial because some felt that his aggressiveness in battle led to his making very reckless decisions which ended up killing thousands of Confederate soldiers.
Robert Hick's story begins after the war has ended. General Hood journeyed to New Orleans to try to begin his post-military life and figure out how to earn a living. As I discovered in his novel, Widow of the South, Hicks does a marvelous job of drawing you into the setting and the time period. His descriptions of Reconstruction era New Orleans made me feel like I was actually there... the oppressive heat and wilting humidity, poverty, restlessness and unrest between the races, the political corruption and even the mysticism of the Catholic Church... all of this set the scene for this fascinating fictional account of the life of General John Hood.
General Hood was a complex man.... he was filled with guilt over many of what he saw as reckless decisions he had made which led to the death of thousands during the war. Yet, he was arrogant also and seemed to feel slighted when he wasn't treated with the respect he felt he deserved as general and war hero. Hicks tells the general's story through letters written from the vantage point of Hood's wife, Anna Marie Hennen and through writings by Hood himself, in a fictional manuscript he wrote, telling his own story. It became clear through his story that there was a constant battle raging inside General Hood... between his belief that he needed to feel some humility and that arrogance which had made him such a military heavyweight.
No matter what your opinion on the Civil war, this fictional account based on the real life of General John Hood was ultimately one of redemption and atonement. Despite all of his failings (personal and professional), Hood managed to learn to put aside his arrogance and become more of the man he wanted to be. Through the love, compassion and acceptance of his wife, Anna Marie, he tried to make some restitution for the wrongs he had done. Perhaps that is never truly possible, but I cannot help but admire a person for trying. I think, in the end, General John Hood, was simply an imperfect human being.... not always good and not always bad... simply a person like every other person with failings and strengths.
General John Hood, his wife Anna Marie and his oldest daughter Lydia died during an outbreak of yellow fever... 10 other children were left orphaned.
Once again, Robert Hicks has written a superb piece of historical fiction. I very much enjoy reading about this time period and Mr. Hicks really knows how to bring it to life.
Robert Hick's story begins after the war has ended. General Hood journeyed to New Orleans to try to begin his post-military life and figure out how to earn a living. As I discovered in his novel, Widow of the South, Hicks does a marvelous job of drawing you into the setting and the time period. His descriptions of Reconstruction era New Orleans made me feel like I was actually there... the oppressive heat and wilting humidity, poverty, restlessness and unrest between the races, the political corruption and even the mysticism of the Catholic Church... all of this set the scene for this fascinating fictional account of the life of General John Hood.
General Hood was a complex man.... he was filled with guilt over many of what he saw as reckless decisions he had made which led to the death of thousands during the war. Yet, he was arrogant also and seemed to feel slighted when he wasn't treated with the respect he felt he deserved as general and war hero. Hicks tells the general's story through letters written from the vantage point of Hood's wife, Anna Marie Hennen and through writings by Hood himself, in a fictional manuscript he wrote, telling his own story. It became clear through his story that there was a constant battle raging inside General Hood... between his belief that he needed to feel some humility and that arrogance which had made him such a military heavyweight.
No matter what your opinion on the Civil war, this fictional account based on the real life of General John Hood was ultimately one of redemption and atonement. Despite all of his failings (personal and professional), Hood managed to learn to put aside his arrogance and become more of the man he wanted to be. Through the love, compassion and acceptance of his wife, Anna Marie, he tried to make some restitution for the wrongs he had done. Perhaps that is never truly possible, but I cannot help but admire a person for trying. I think, in the end, General John Hood, was simply an imperfect human being.... not always good and not always bad... simply a person like every other person with failings and strengths.
General John Hood, his wife Anna Marie and his oldest daughter Lydia died during an outbreak of yellow fever... 10 other children were left orphaned.
Once again, Robert Hicks has written a superb piece of historical fiction. I very much enjoy reading about this time period and Mr. Hicks really knows how to bring it to life.
February 22, 2011
I feel compelled to make a comment about a book I rated so poorly. I typically like historical fiction, and having been to New Orleans many times, the setting sounded appealing also, BUT I simply could not made myself care about any of the book's main characters -- and I tried, I did. Anna Marie, in particular, came across as unbelievable to me -- I had trouble believing a girl of her social class would have been allowed so much freedom as a child (which is central to one of the sub-plots). And, with all due respect to Mr. Hicks, I had even more trouble believing that any woman bearing 11 children in rapid succession into a world of increasing poverty would still have any real longing for sex. Sadly,I found this book tedious and had to force myself to finish it.
April 9, 2010
I really tried to like this book, or even to finish it, but I just had to give up when I realized after struggling through about half of it that I was unconsciously skimming. I picked it up, having read Hicks excellent Widow of the South. Unfortunately, rather than a similar book with characters you grew to know and fascinating historical detail, it was a tedious, slogging through the self-flagellating "journals" of John Bell Hood and his wife Anna Marie. I never got to know either character apart from the fact that they felt guilty about practically everything. This book could have been about any two people in the New Orleans of this era, yet even as a story about the city it failed. Hicks notes at the end (where I skipped to) that the idea for the book came about after the whole Katrina situation in New Orleans, and I think this explains a great deal as to why the book felt so tortured. He was so eager to set a book in historical New Orleans that he just forced it.
I had planned on giving this book two stars, because I thought maybe I was being unfair due to my disappointment - then I realized I gave New Moon two stars - and as bad as that was, it was at least readable and entertaining.
I had planned on giving this book two stars, because I thought maybe I was being unfair due to my disappointment - then I realized I gave New Moon two stars - and as bad as that was, it was at least readable and entertaining.
June 16, 2011
Even a hard core Civil War fan would find this book difficult to finish. Robert Hicks's first book, WIDOW OF THE SOUTH, was excellent. I was very disappointed in A SEPARATE COUNTRY. It dragged on and on, and soon you don't even care what happens to the characters. As if that weren't bad enough, when you are finished, you still aren't sure what happened to them and why. I continued reading, thinking that it HAS to get better. It did not. Don't bother reading.
October 19, 2009
FICTION Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/sto...
Review | A Civil War figure battles misfortune, himself in 'A Separate Country'
Battered Gen. John Bell Hood settles in New Orleans, fathers 11 children and learns from the errors of his ways.
BY JOHN HOOD
A SEPARATE COUNTRY. Robert Hicks. Grand Central. 432 pages. $25.99
There may be more famous or heroic generals in Civil War history. But there is not a Civil War general whose life was as tragic as that of John Bell Hood, who lost the Battle of Peachtree Creek, and with it Atlanta. He lost the Battle of Franklin, and with that Nashville. He lost the use of his left arm (in the Battle of Gettysburg). And he lost his right leg (in the Battle of Chickamauga). In fact, even when Hood won, his men didn't, as in the Battle of Gaines' Mills, where every one of his officers was either killed or wounded.
In the end, of course, all the Southern generals were losers. Hood, however, seemed to make a mad art of it. Unlike most of his cohorts, he didn't lose his life. After the War, Hood scampered down to New Orleans in order to try to live as fully as possible. That's where Robert Hicks enters in his marvelous new book, which looks back on the legendary and monstrous general of the Civil War with a brand new set of eyes.
Hicks doesn't ever let us forget that this was once a man who ``cared very little for the men [he:] ruined.'' Yet at the same time, this is a work which seems designed to remember Hood neither as a legend nor a monster but as a man.
And Hood was some man, all right, a man who ``wore [his:] wounds proudly, but privately they revolted [him:].'' A man who ``didn't like to see himself,'' and who wasn't too keen on seeing ``the happy and the whole and the ignorant'' either. A man who ``flung himself at his desk to write down every slight he suffered at the hands of the graceless warrior victors and, even worse -- from his Confederates.'' A man whose war memoirs were ``composed in a rage and intended to offend and to destroy: reputations, lives, complacency.''
But by the time Hicks catches up with Hood, the fallen general has written a wholly different sort of memoir, one of family and faith and the freedom that comes with being desperately destitute. This thoroughly humbled Hood is ``a man finished with war,'' and with it, its glories and its spoils. That Hicks has to resort to fiction in order to bring this Hood to life says as much about ``the old warmonger'' as it does about the city of his resurrection and of his ruin.
After the war, ``New Orleans, very simply, was the only Southern city that still worked.'' Writes Hicks: ``Traders and fixers mingled in the red and alabaster lobby'' of the St. Louis Hotel, and ``blacklegs walked the streets like kings.'' And Hood, despite being ``a Kaintuck country cracker,'' feels right at home. Pulling up by train with $10,000 in begged moneys, he falls in among the riff-raff and the hustlers, and he falls in hard.
Hood ``reckoned [himself:] a clever man, cleverer than anyone else,'' and he chooses to get in on cotton. He knows nothing of the crop, and he hasn't a head for business. Naturally, by employing many of the same rash and brash tactics that he employed in battle, the general suffers the same fate in business as he did in war. Hood would later lose again, after inheriting General James Longstreet's insurance business. And again his loss would largely be due to his own obstinacy.
Hicks reveals a Hood made of sterner stuff than the spine and the bravado it takes to charge a battlefield. His Hood has the capacity to love. He marries and fathers 11 children and learns to see that there is great grace and glory in caring for others. He learns from the errors of his ways and oftentimes forgives the errors of those with whom he spent the last years of his life. Not always, of course -- Hicks is writing fiction, not fairy tale -- but often enough to make the story feel real.
A Separate Country is written from three perspectives: Hood, his wife Anne Marie and of a young man named Eli Griffin, who first comes to kill the general and ends up becoming his confidante and protector. Hood entrusts his secret memoir to Griffin, from whom we are best able to get some perspective. Behind the three lie a mad priest, an unscrupulous dwarf, an albino octoroon and a rabid assassin. And while these four are not the entire core of the story, each leaves a mark on the story in strange and savage aspects, much like the strange and savage tale of John Bell Hood himself, the legend, the monster, and now, the man.
John Hood is a Miami-based columnist and correspondent.
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/sto...
Review | A Civil War figure battles misfortune, himself in 'A Separate Country'
Battered Gen. John Bell Hood settles in New Orleans, fathers 11 children and learns from the errors of his ways.
BY JOHN HOOD
A SEPARATE COUNTRY. Robert Hicks. Grand Central. 432 pages. $25.99
There may be more famous or heroic generals in Civil War history. But there is not a Civil War general whose life was as tragic as that of John Bell Hood, who lost the Battle of Peachtree Creek, and with it Atlanta. He lost the Battle of Franklin, and with that Nashville. He lost the use of his left arm (in the Battle of Gettysburg). And he lost his right leg (in the Battle of Chickamauga). In fact, even when Hood won, his men didn't, as in the Battle of Gaines' Mills, where every one of his officers was either killed or wounded.
In the end, of course, all the Southern generals were losers. Hood, however, seemed to make a mad art of it. Unlike most of his cohorts, he didn't lose his life. After the War, Hood scampered down to New Orleans in order to try to live as fully as possible. That's where Robert Hicks enters in his marvelous new book, which looks back on the legendary and monstrous general of the Civil War with a brand new set of eyes.
Hicks doesn't ever let us forget that this was once a man who ``cared very little for the men [he:] ruined.'' Yet at the same time, this is a work which seems designed to remember Hood neither as a legend nor a monster but as a man.
And Hood was some man, all right, a man who ``wore [his:] wounds proudly, but privately they revolted [him:].'' A man who ``didn't like to see himself,'' and who wasn't too keen on seeing ``the happy and the whole and the ignorant'' either. A man who ``flung himself at his desk to write down every slight he suffered at the hands of the graceless warrior victors and, even worse -- from his Confederates.'' A man whose war memoirs were ``composed in a rage and intended to offend and to destroy: reputations, lives, complacency.''
But by the time Hicks catches up with Hood, the fallen general has written a wholly different sort of memoir, one of family and faith and the freedom that comes with being desperately destitute. This thoroughly humbled Hood is ``a man finished with war,'' and with it, its glories and its spoils. That Hicks has to resort to fiction in order to bring this Hood to life says as much about ``the old warmonger'' as it does about the city of his resurrection and of his ruin.
After the war, ``New Orleans, very simply, was the only Southern city that still worked.'' Writes Hicks: ``Traders and fixers mingled in the red and alabaster lobby'' of the St. Louis Hotel, and ``blacklegs walked the streets like kings.'' And Hood, despite being ``a Kaintuck country cracker,'' feels right at home. Pulling up by train with $10,000 in begged moneys, he falls in among the riff-raff and the hustlers, and he falls in hard.
Hood ``reckoned [himself:] a clever man, cleverer than anyone else,'' and he chooses to get in on cotton. He knows nothing of the crop, and he hasn't a head for business. Naturally, by employing many of the same rash and brash tactics that he employed in battle, the general suffers the same fate in business as he did in war. Hood would later lose again, after inheriting General James Longstreet's insurance business. And again his loss would largely be due to his own obstinacy.
Hicks reveals a Hood made of sterner stuff than the spine and the bravado it takes to charge a battlefield. His Hood has the capacity to love. He marries and fathers 11 children and learns to see that there is great grace and glory in caring for others. He learns from the errors of his ways and oftentimes forgives the errors of those with whom he spent the last years of his life. Not always, of course -- Hicks is writing fiction, not fairy tale -- but often enough to make the story feel real.
A Separate Country is written from three perspectives: Hood, his wife Anne Marie and of a young man named Eli Griffin, who first comes to kill the general and ends up becoming his confidante and protector. Hood entrusts his secret memoir to Griffin, from whom we are best able to get some perspective. Behind the three lie a mad priest, an unscrupulous dwarf, an albino octoroon and a rabid assassin. And while these four are not the entire core of the story, each leaves a mark on the story in strange and savage aspects, much like the strange and savage tale of John Bell Hood himself, the legend, the monster, and now, the man.
John Hood is a Miami-based columnist and correspondent.
November 3, 2012
There were some things I liked about the book. The characters were well-drawn, and the Hoods are interesting people. But I thought the premise of the book was just too unlikely. The book was told through the journals of three different people. I know people keep journals, but not in the kind of detail in this book. The book was just way too long. I mean, how does a woman with eleven children (and no servants or modern convenciences) find time to write in a journal? She even keeps writing at length when she is dying of yellow fever.
June 21, 2010
After having traveled to new Orleans for the first time last fall, I was stunned by the European flavor this city possesses, and yet it is unlike Europe in many ways as well. It also shares some of the flavor I enjoyed while living in the Caribbean.It is an amalgamation of places and people who live side by side not always bearing each others interests as their priorities, but somehow still getting by.
A Separate Country captures the flavor of this place, the richness of life and the reality that not everyone makes it out. It is set in an earlier era, a post civil war time when the city was still making itself into what it now has become. A time when illness and death went hand in hand with the daily routine of life.
It is a love story of two wild beings,(General Hood and a Society girl Anne Marie) whose thoughtless decisions lead them to meet and tame each other while the friends and family surrounding them also suffer the repercussions of consequence. It is a story of self discovery and regret of things past, of making peace within oneself and shedding off of societal norms that constrict us and seduce us.
What is remarkable about this book is that one meets many out of the ordinary characters who become our friends, leading and sometimes dragging us through a laberynth of streets where we greet all members of the New Orleans society. Where we see with distinction how they all live and die, the causes and the motivations, their secrets and loyalties. Well worth to read...
A Separate Country captures the flavor of this place, the richness of life and the reality that not everyone makes it out. It is set in an earlier era, a post civil war time when the city was still making itself into what it now has become. A time when illness and death went hand in hand with the daily routine of life.
It is a love story of two wild beings,(General Hood and a Society girl Anne Marie) whose thoughtless decisions lead them to meet and tame each other while the friends and family surrounding them also suffer the repercussions of consequence. It is a story of self discovery and regret of things past, of making peace within oneself and shedding off of societal norms that constrict us and seduce us.
What is remarkable about this book is that one meets many out of the ordinary characters who become our friends, leading and sometimes dragging us through a laberynth of streets where we greet all members of the New Orleans society. Where we see with distinction how they all live and die, the causes and the motivations, their secrets and loyalties. Well worth to read...
July 31, 2011
A Separate Country by Robert Hicks is set in post-Civil-War New Orleans. CSA General John Bell Hood commanded the Battle of Franklin, where thousands died; years later he becomes introspective as his life comes to an end.
The tedious tale of misery, cruelty and perversion was a chore to read, taking weeks to finish, when I usually read 2 books per week. The beginning is a telling preview: the book starts with John Bell Hood and his wife Anna Marie dying/dead from yellow fever, in poverty and disgrace. Well buried within the misery is a brief span of their love and joy together.
The book's good points: The chapters alternate points of view between John, Anna and narrator Eli. Anna's chapters are letters to her daughter; John's chapters are entries from his journal. The history of post-war New Orleans is interesting, if grim.
This quote from Anna's letters reveals the mood of the book:
"this is what a killing does: it proves that safety is a wisp, that evil is strong, and that every moment of comfort and peace and beauty rests on a foundation of wishful thinking and ignorance."
When Hood is pressured by criminals to steal his company shareholders' invested money to evacuate poverty-stricken negroes from the annual city epidemic, his compliance is portrayed as his most honorable decision, redeeming his guilt from war crimes and rekindling his wife's love. Perhaps a history buff would know whether the evacuation to "Fish Camp" actually occurred, and if it was historically significant to New Orleans.
The tedious tale of misery, cruelty and perversion was a chore to read, taking weeks to finish, when I usually read 2 books per week. The beginning is a telling preview: the book starts with John Bell Hood and his wife Anna Marie dying/dead from yellow fever, in poverty and disgrace. Well buried within the misery is a brief span of their love and joy together.
The book's good points: The chapters alternate points of view between John, Anna and narrator Eli. Anna's chapters are letters to her daughter; John's chapters are entries from his journal. The history of post-war New Orleans is interesting, if grim.
This quote from Anna's letters reveals the mood of the book:
"this is what a killing does: it proves that safety is a wisp, that evil is strong, and that every moment of comfort and peace and beauty rests on a foundation of wishful thinking and ignorance."
When Hood is pressured by criminals to steal his company shareholders' invested money to evacuate poverty-stricken negroes from the annual city epidemic, his compliance is portrayed as his most honorable decision, redeeming his guilt from war crimes and rekindling his wife's love. Perhaps a history buff would know whether the evacuation to "Fish Camp" actually occurred, and if it was historically significant to New Orleans.
May 27, 2010
2.5, but since I had to really force myself to finish, 2.
Granted, I listened to this via audiobook, which might have hurt my perception of this book. The voices narrating the story were soft and low drawls that easily lulled me into sleep or lethargy. I picked it up at the end of April but it took me until the end of May, simply because I found interest in other books I wanted to read more.
It's an interesting perspective of the South, one that is often forgotten in the stories of the War of Northern Aggression. Many stories focus on the glorified dead and the survival of the war itself. Very few look at the difficult time of reconstruction for the South, illuminating how these years of bitterness and disillusion developed that so often define modern Southern literature. It tells the story of Reconstruction with that balance of beauty and tragedy that permeates Southern culture.
I enjoyed Anna Marie's diary entries and Eli's tale. But the General's entries were hit-or-miss. I found his most compelling entries to be the ones towards the end of the novel, in which we see the overlap with Eli's perspective.
In short, I am more likely to recommend Hicks' other novel, Widow of the South, if you're looking for some historical Southern literature.
Granted, I listened to this via audiobook, which might have hurt my perception of this book. The voices narrating the story were soft and low drawls that easily lulled me into sleep or lethargy. I picked it up at the end of April but it took me until the end of May, simply because I found interest in other books I wanted to read more.
It's an interesting perspective of the South, one that is often forgotten in the stories of the War of Northern Aggression. Many stories focus on the glorified dead and the survival of the war itself. Very few look at the difficult time of reconstruction for the South, illuminating how these years of bitterness and disillusion developed that so often define modern Southern literature. It tells the story of Reconstruction with that balance of beauty and tragedy that permeates Southern culture.
I enjoyed Anna Marie's diary entries and Eli's tale. But the General's entries were hit-or-miss. I found his most compelling entries to be the ones towards the end of the novel, in which we see the overlap with Eli's perspective.
In short, I am more likely to recommend Hicks' other novel, Widow of the South, if you're looking for some historical Southern literature.
May 2, 2018
The Separate Country was powerful, moving piece of brillant work set in journal form. It was more of a psycological study of a man-John Bell Hood and his journey to redemption and atonement. Atonement from the War and all that went with it... lives lost & left on the battlefield, lives forever changed including his. The Indian Wars before the War began... his cowardness, the murders of the innocents. Then his life & family's lives in New Orleans - from having much to losing it all including their lives to the great plague -yellow fever.
The journal style helped create the mood of this book especially by having each chapter be a different character in the book. John Bell Hood, Anne Marie-his wife, Eli Griffin (a character brought from Hicks book, Widow of the South). Then the epilogue and surprise at the end. Well done Mr. Hicks. I look forward to the next book about the deep South and its characters.
The journal style helped create the mood of this book especially by having each chapter be a different character in the book. John Bell Hood, Anne Marie-his wife, Eli Griffin (a character brought from Hicks book, Widow of the South). Then the epilogue and surprise at the end. Well done Mr. Hicks. I look forward to the next book about the deep South and its characters.
June 17, 2021
Many a good artist just does not know when to stop painting thereby spoiling it. Thus it is with this historical novel. Perhaps the author gets paid by the word. One third of this book I found to be unnecessary
March 13, 2017
I really tried to enjoy this novel, but I just had to put it down without finishing. There were some nice points, but they were few and far between. The characters seemed so unrealistic and the plot dragged on.
October 5, 2011
I always love a book with a strong sense of place. In fact some of my favorite books seem to have this quality. The quality of evoking a place and using that place as if it were also a character in the book, psycho geography, how a place influences its characters. That is why I like the Alexandria quartet so much and books like Istanbul. They have a sense of place. This book achieves that perfectly in evoking New Orleans right after the civil war. The sights, sounds and smells of New Orleans come to life in this book and the characters are very complex and multi-layered. It also has that other quality I love about any southern fiction: the atmosphere of the slightly grotesque and gothic. This is not a huge feature of the narrative but it is in there and those who are familiar with southern fiction will definitely notice it. The characters all evoke the atmosphere of the place, the dwarf, the priest, the killer, the general, the creole, the irish whore, the confederate soldier. Each character seems to bring out some detailed aspect of the history of the city at the time. The author also focuses on interesting historical events that I had not previously been aware of such as the yellow fever plagues that ravaged the city and how it effected the citizens (especially the poor blacks who did not have the means to escape the city when the plague hit) The language of the book is poetic and filled with very quotable messages about love, redemption, and war. I also enjoyed how the book was written through the perspectives of different characters. The main perspectives were Eli griffin, Anna marie (the wife of general hood) and John Bell Hood (the confederate general.) This gave the reader the chance to see the city through different eyes and also to experience first hand how the characters experienced their own personal redemptions through time. All in all it was a very good book and I recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction and in Southern history. I will definitely pick up his other book The Widow Of The South.
February 16, 2025
2016 rating: 2 stars
2025 rating: 3.5 stars
This ultimately unsatisfying. The story was muddled and confusing, the format was disorienting, and the characters were unrealistic and vapid.
It has been very difficult to get into "A Separate Country" even though it is about a time period that I am interested in. I am only about 20+ pages into the book and am questioning the need to abbreviate the mistresses name (which I am sure I shall find out) and some of the early description seems overwrought and unnecessary.
Annamarie was the most compelling character, but I struggle with the logic that she and Hood would separately write memoirs and the stranger, Eli, would find both sets and work so hard to get them into the right hands.
Robert Hicks gives us the details of John Bell Hood's death and shows us how he spent much of his time in New Orleans after the war. Hood found and married a seemingly wonderful woman, yet the fact that the novel almost begins with the deaths of both Hoods and their eldest daughter was off-putting for me. I felt as though I was working through the story rather than having it unfold naturally. I also felt the story plodded along at times, particularly so when told by Hood's wife Anna Marie. Maybe what I wanted more was depth; these characters should have been jumping out at me and yet I felt more as though I was reading someone's old diary--and not in a good way.
Still, A Separate Country has its moments, and Hood was indeed a rather tragic figure in our nation's history. Hicks gives a very credible description of New Orleans after the war, and his depiction of the horrors of yellow fever were gruesome yet riveting. It's not that I disliked A Separate Country; I just felt as though there was something I was missing from the story. Recommended to those who love Civil War fiction.
2025 rating: 3.5 stars
This ultimately unsatisfying. The story was muddled and confusing, the format was disorienting, and the characters were unrealistic and vapid.
It has been very difficult to get into "A Separate Country" even though it is about a time period that I am interested in. I am only about 20+ pages into the book and am questioning the need to abbreviate the mistresses name (which I am sure I shall find out) and some of the early description seems overwrought and unnecessary.
Annamarie was the most compelling character, but I struggle with the logic that she and Hood would separately write memoirs and the stranger, Eli, would find both sets and work so hard to get them into the right hands.
Robert Hicks gives us the details of John Bell Hood's death and shows us how he spent much of his time in New Orleans after the war. Hood found and married a seemingly wonderful woman, yet the fact that the novel almost begins with the deaths of both Hoods and their eldest daughter was off-putting for me. I felt as though I was working through the story rather than having it unfold naturally. I also felt the story plodded along at times, particularly so when told by Hood's wife Anna Marie. Maybe what I wanted more was depth; these characters should have been jumping out at me and yet I felt more as though I was reading someone's old diary--and not in a good way.
Still, A Separate Country has its moments, and Hood was indeed a rather tragic figure in our nation's history. Hicks gives a very credible description of New Orleans after the war, and his depiction of the horrors of yellow fever were gruesome yet riveting. It's not that I disliked A Separate Country; I just felt as though there was something I was missing from the story. Recommended to those who love Civil War fiction.
January 6, 2010
I really liked The Widow of the South and was excited when I saw that Robert Hicks had published a new book. This book does not disappoint. Set in New Orleans in the Reconstruction South, Confederate General John Bell Hood is trying to reinvent himself, deal with the demons of the Civil War, and rescue his reputation. Hood, for whom the Texas Army base is named, was a tragic and extremely controversial commander in the Confederate Army. He lost the use of his left arm because of wounds received at the Battle of Gettsburg and his right leg was amputated after the Battle of Chickamauga. Moving to New Orleans after the war, he married Anna Marie Hennen, a Creole society beauty, and had 11 children, including three sets of twins in ten years. In New Orleans, Hood and his wife have to deal with the corruption of the Reconstruction period, the intricate politics of New Orleans while also facing business failures, outbreaks of yellow fever, old scores, old friends, and numerous attempts at redemption. I highly recommend this book. I couldn't put it down.
July 2, 2014
While this book was somewhat entertaining, it was a lot of work to stay engaged reading it. it is not nearly as "tightly" written as Widow of the South, Robert Hicks' other historical fiction. There was so much extraneous stuff going on, I sometimes lost the thread of what I was reading about. Was it murder, was it the thugs, was it yellow fever? Who were the bad guys, who were the good? And I thought I might be reading more about the actual General John Bell Hood. I wanted to know more about the controversial Confederate general who commanded the troops in Franklin, TN where numerous of my ancestors fought with him, and died. I need to go searching now, to find out more about Hood to see what was real (I suspect not much) and was was fiction in Mr.Hicks' story.
December 3, 2014
I really hate to bash this author, as I saw him on CBS "Sunday Morning" earlier this week. He does tremendous work in trying to save Civil War battlegrounds. Sadly, I really didn't like this book. It was a tale of misery and woe from start to finish, without much of interest in between. I'm not a speed reader by any means, but it seemed I would never finish this book. I think I might have enjoyed a non-ficiton book about General Hood more than I did this fictional account. I did really enjoy Hicks' book, "Widow of the South," and would take another chance on him if he writes any other novels in the future.
October 9, 2016
I really did not care that much for this book. It took me a while to finish it. The only reason I finished it was because it was a book club book and I did want to see how it ended. (I'm not one to read the ending before I've finished the book unless it's a book I really can't stand and don't want to read at all.) Overall, I found it boring and disappointing.
I kept thinking how much I really liked the author's previous book, "The Widow of the South". This book didn't make me want to visit New Orleans and check out the history like "Widow" did. In fact, when we moved to TN, the first place we visited was Carnton Plantation!
I kept thinking how much I really liked the author's previous book, "The Widow of the South". This book didn't make me want to visit New Orleans and check out the history like "Widow" did. In fact, when we moved to TN, the first place we visited was Carnton Plantation!
December 5, 2009
The audio is actually in three voices with three separate narrators for Anna Marie, John Bell and Eli Griffin. This adds a special element to this tale of love and war and heartbreak. Poignant and vivid, the New Orleans setting is a major part of the appeal as well.
Is this version of the story of John Bell Hood, the truth? I think we could hope so -- as this would mean that redemption is possible and that the lives of all people have meaning, even during or after the darkest moments of despair.
Is this version of the story of John Bell Hood, the truth? I think we could hope so -- as this would mean that redemption is possible and that the lives of all people have meaning, even during or after the darkest moments of despair.
June 25, 2016
Following two characters from author Hicks earlier book, Widow of the South, this tale tells of General John Bell Hood's last ten years of life, love, and family in New Orleans, the city that was and perhaps is a "separate country" from the rest of the southeastern states that were the Confederacy if the Civil War. Odd characters people the pages, and there is a fascination with crippling characteristics --- almost a mysticism---in the story line.
A good read for its historical background and for the psychological questions raised about life, death, war, revenge, and religion.
A good read for its historical background and for the psychological questions raised about life, death, war, revenge, and religion.
March 10, 2010
Just heard I won today! I can't wait for my book to arrive!
So, I've been reading this for months now and I'm still about 25% of the way through. I normally like historical fiction but this just seems so dry and I don't really like any of the characters. It keeps switching back and forth between narrators and I'm just bored.
I think at this point I'm going to call it quits. I might go back and try again sometime when I'm more in the mood.
So, I've been reading this for months now and I'm still about 25% of the way through. I normally like historical fiction but this just seems so dry and I don't really like any of the characters. It keeps switching back and forth between narrators and I'm just bored.
I think at this point I'm going to call it quits. I might go back and try again sometime when I'm more in the mood.
Read
December 5, 2018I hate to review a book I have not completed. I really tried with this one. I really wanted to like it. It started off okay and just went nowhere. I found myself not being interested in what I was reading and after pushing through 160+ pages, I just decided it was time to quit. So, sorry for reviewing a book I have not read in full. I just couldn’t get into this one. Maybe I’ll try it again later.
September 21, 2019
The characters that inhabit “A Separate Country” are compelling, to say the least. (Although using the word character when referring to real people always feels odd to me.) Confederate General John Bell Hood and his wife Anna Marie Hennen are the main characters of this novel set in New Orleans after the Civil War. Their words, their stories and the lives they lived in that time draw the reader in…if only because of the sorrow and regret that seems to permeate every page.
These are two people that have lived through and been a part of one of the most horrible times in our country’s history…and the impact of their actions and reactions to what they have seen is what makes up this touching story.
General Hood undergoes the greatest transformation – barely able to recognize the man he was before and during the war. He sees himself as a man apart – a person unlike anyone around him.
“I can remember what I thought standing for the first time in the St. Louis Hotel, watching the traders and fixers mingling in the red and alabaster of the lobby, sharing their whiskey and passing around bills of sale. They were smooth-faced and tailored. Their shoes glowed. They moved lightly between couch and chair and bar. I stood on the precipice, a scarecrow, a lump of earth, a pile of broken things, and watched them flow and slip around each other like dancers. They were full of grace, the earthly kind, and I was full of heaviness.”
Hood has been changed by what he has done and seen, and further changed by his relationship with his wife and children. The horrors he has perpetrated make it hard for a reader to fully accept his transformation, but the actions he takes later in life and the deep regret he feels, make him a more reliable narrator of his own life. He finally sees the connection between his life and others lives, and the weight of that which he cannot fix falls heavy on him.
As reflects on the end of a major battle: “Now I realize what I saw in his eyes: he saw a devil on a black horse, mutilated and fire-eyed, possessed and under the command of Satan himself, towering over the spoils of five thousand souls. The other boys walked across the battlefield, daring each other to look. One by one they broke away and ran into the town and disappeared without a word. But the blond boy, he would not move. I believe he was waiting for me to take him too. I nearly called out to him, but there was fear upon him and it gave me strength. But I know now that fear was only a part of what I saw in that boy. Had I known to look for it, I would have seen hate and shock and the melancholy of knowing he could no longer be a child, now that he had seen what men could do to men.”
Hood is filled with the regret of his actions, and his wife mourns her inaction. Born to a privileged life, it took many years before she understood the impact of the racial hatred and inequality that was happening around her, which she made no effort to stop or change.
“That awful night I closed my eyes and walked. I discovered I had not forgotten. At the end, at the foot of the steps and in the gaslight that wavered behind the wings of moths and an ephemera of mayflies, I stopped and opened my eyes. I watched the last few bloody footprints behind me disappear into the brick…But this is what a killing does: it proves safety is a wisp, that evil is strong, and that every moment of comfort and peace and beauty rests on a foundation of wishful thinking and ignorance.”
There are two other characters in “A Separate Country” that I found almost as interesting as Hood and Anna Marie. One is painted as nearly angelic by most who knew him and one is painted as satanic. As the book unfolds, the angel is revealed to have feet of clay and the devil shows mercy. As in life, there is no black and white, and as the other characters realize this, the message of the book deepens.
The introduction and resolution of the book are strong, but the tension drops a bit in the middle of the book. Since the reader knows (generally) the ultimate end of many of the characters fates, there is some frustration with the length of the journey.
At the end, though, I could appreciate this separate country that Hood and Anna Marie make of their family. They strip away that they thought made life better…and are left with a better life. I cannot say I admired them, but given the times in which they lived:
“He forgave you, I should tell you that, missus. He didn’t think he would have done anything different if it had been him, and for that reason he had to forgive you. I think he was right about that, and it makes me hellfire hot. We would have all done what you did. That’s the evil, you see.”
One can hope for the strength to stand up for that which is right, but when confronted by fear, pain, death…one never knows.
“Soon more onlookers joined in, those passive and cowardly men I knew every mob required, men who, having held back out of fear, now would try to outdo each other. I began to feel sick, and leaned my head against the cool wall. The mob, I am tired of the mob.”
Sorrow and regret, and that which men can do to men. “A Separate Country” is full of these, but in the end, finds salvation in love.
These are two people that have lived through and been a part of one of the most horrible times in our country’s history…and the impact of their actions and reactions to what they have seen is what makes up this touching story.
General Hood undergoes the greatest transformation – barely able to recognize the man he was before and during the war. He sees himself as a man apart – a person unlike anyone around him.
“I can remember what I thought standing for the first time in the St. Louis Hotel, watching the traders and fixers mingling in the red and alabaster of the lobby, sharing their whiskey and passing around bills of sale. They were smooth-faced and tailored. Their shoes glowed. They moved lightly between couch and chair and bar. I stood on the precipice, a scarecrow, a lump of earth, a pile of broken things, and watched them flow and slip around each other like dancers. They were full of grace, the earthly kind, and I was full of heaviness.”
Hood has been changed by what he has done and seen, and further changed by his relationship with his wife and children. The horrors he has perpetrated make it hard for a reader to fully accept his transformation, but the actions he takes later in life and the deep regret he feels, make him a more reliable narrator of his own life. He finally sees the connection between his life and others lives, and the weight of that which he cannot fix falls heavy on him.
As reflects on the end of a major battle: “Now I realize what I saw in his eyes: he saw a devil on a black horse, mutilated and fire-eyed, possessed and under the command of Satan himself, towering over the spoils of five thousand souls. The other boys walked across the battlefield, daring each other to look. One by one they broke away and ran into the town and disappeared without a word. But the blond boy, he would not move. I believe he was waiting for me to take him too. I nearly called out to him, but there was fear upon him and it gave me strength. But I know now that fear was only a part of what I saw in that boy. Had I known to look for it, I would have seen hate and shock and the melancholy of knowing he could no longer be a child, now that he had seen what men could do to men.”
Hood is filled with the regret of his actions, and his wife mourns her inaction. Born to a privileged life, it took many years before she understood the impact of the racial hatred and inequality that was happening around her, which she made no effort to stop or change.
“That awful night I closed my eyes and walked. I discovered I had not forgotten. At the end, at the foot of the steps and in the gaslight that wavered behind the wings of moths and an ephemera of mayflies, I stopped and opened my eyes. I watched the last few bloody footprints behind me disappear into the brick…But this is what a killing does: it proves safety is a wisp, that evil is strong, and that every moment of comfort and peace and beauty rests on a foundation of wishful thinking and ignorance.”
There are two other characters in “A Separate Country” that I found almost as interesting as Hood and Anna Marie. One is painted as nearly angelic by most who knew him and one is painted as satanic. As the book unfolds, the angel is revealed to have feet of clay and the devil shows mercy. As in life, there is no black and white, and as the other characters realize this, the message of the book deepens.
The introduction and resolution of the book are strong, but the tension drops a bit in the middle of the book. Since the reader knows (generally) the ultimate end of many of the characters fates, there is some frustration with the length of the journey.
At the end, though, I could appreciate this separate country that Hood and Anna Marie make of their family. They strip away that they thought made life better…and are left with a better life. I cannot say I admired them, but given the times in which they lived:
“He forgave you, I should tell you that, missus. He didn’t think he would have done anything different if it had been him, and for that reason he had to forgive you. I think he was right about that, and it makes me hellfire hot. We would have all done what you did. That’s the evil, you see.”
One can hope for the strength to stand up for that which is right, but when confronted by fear, pain, death…one never knows.
“Soon more onlookers joined in, those passive and cowardly men I knew every mob required, men who, having held back out of fear, now would try to outdo each other. I began to feel sick, and leaned my head against the cool wall. The mob, I am tired of the mob.”
Sorrow and regret, and that which men can do to men. “A Separate Country” is full of these, but in the end, finds salvation in love.
May 16, 2010
An "after the Civil War" book. I learned about yellow fever in the South and about the way old soldiers suffered from their memories. Not as good as Hicks's Widow of the South, but still worth your time.
May 20, 2014
I absolutely love books and I love historical fiction. Quite bluntly, I didn't like it.
May 19, 2014
See my review on my book blog: http://quirkyreader.livejournal.com/3...
September 6, 2019
Skip this one and read The Widow of the South instead. It is a far better novel and shows what Hicks is really capable of.
December 16, 2017
First off, I need to say....General Hooker was not a Confederate!!!!!!
Robert Hicks wrote this book as a kinda, sorta, maybe sequel to Widow of the South. Although I would never have guessed the connection had he not finally revealed it, having read the book a number of years ago. It's a multi-faceted story written around the last years of John Bell Hood's life - in New Orleans. Failed Confederate General. Hood is on his deathbed when he calls Eli to his side to take his manuscript to be read by a man from his past - Lemule. But in order to find Lemule, Eli must first read the manuscript along with the pages from Anna Marie Hood's diary to try and figure out where to find Lemule. In this reading, we see the connections of a group of friends and their fates leading up to this very moment. We see a General who stops trying to save his reputation and instead turns his attention to redeeming his life. Friends who live and die for their sins are part of their story - and it's all set in Reconstruction-era New Orleans.
I enjoyed this book, perhaps because I've already waded through some of Hood's papers left behind and am sympathetic to his fates both before and after the Civil War, which made it feel very familiar. Hick is also an excellent writer and his story flows almost like prose at times, rich with imagery. All the components of the story, the little pieces, so neatly fall into place. But even as the story is barrelling to its thundering conclusion, the reader is still unsure of how it will all work out.
I recommend to those who enjoy historical fiction and history in general, those who might like a love story woven into their reading, but not necessarily a romance, as a side plot to an action and suspense-filled read.
Robert Hicks wrote this book as a kinda, sorta, maybe sequel to Widow of the South. Although I would never have guessed the connection had he not finally revealed it, having read the book a number of years ago. It's a multi-faceted story written around the last years of John Bell Hood's life - in New Orleans. Failed Confederate General. Hood is on his deathbed when he calls Eli to his side to take his manuscript to be read by a man from his past - Lemule. But in order to find Lemule, Eli must first read the manuscript along with the pages from Anna Marie Hood's diary to try and figure out where to find Lemule. In this reading, we see the connections of a group of friends and their fates leading up to this very moment. We see a General who stops trying to save his reputation and instead turns his attention to redeeming his life. Friends who live and die for their sins are part of their story - and it's all set in Reconstruction-era New Orleans.
I enjoyed this book, perhaps because I've already waded through some of Hood's papers left behind and am sympathetic to his fates both before and after the Civil War, which made it feel very familiar. Hick is also an excellent writer and his story flows almost like prose at times, rich with imagery. All the components of the story, the little pieces, so neatly fall into place. But even as the story is barrelling to its thundering conclusion, the reader is still unsure of how it will all work out.
I recommend to those who enjoy historical fiction and history in general, those who might like a love story woven into their reading, but not necessarily a romance, as a side plot to an action and suspense-filled read.
September 21, 2021
Have to say I wavered between 2 and 3 stars. Flashes of literary brilliance are weighed down by a dark and ponderous plot that became somewhat irritating at times. I give it the benefit of the doubt for ambition and because so many vacuous things are written and published. Yet Hicks previous book 'The Widow of the South' was much better as it focused on the impacts to local people at or near the Battle of Franklin (November 30, 1864), one of the worst CSA defeats of the ACW. In this work, he continues to look at some of the lives and fallout from that horror show and the war in general. Namely, the fate of General John Bell Hood who 'commanded' the Army of Tennessee at Franklin and at the Battle of Nashville some weeks later. 'A Separate Country' has an interesting idea in portraying several very different lives in the aftermath of the war, I just don't think he carried it off all that well. The setting in a post-war New Orleans riven by racial and political strife and the onset of a plague of Yellow Fever which took Hood, his wife and oldest daughter, made for a gothic atmosphere that was almost suffocating. And he called General Hooker a CSA General, which is an almost incredible factual blunder. Not sure how much of this was truly historical--Hood, his wife and oldest (of ten!) did die in the Yellow Fever outbreak of 1878-79. He obviously he served on the Indian frontier and in his various roles in the Civil War but Hood should probably never have commanded above a division. According to Wikipedia, the great Civil War historian Bruce Catton wrote: "the decision to replace Johnston with Hood was probably the single largest mistake that either government made during the war". Which is an astounding statement considering all the blunders that were made!
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