Grant

by Max Byrd

The critically acclaimed Max Byrd is both a best-selling author of historical fiction and an award-winning writer of detective novels. In Grant, he delivers a thoroughly entertaining novel covering the final years of Ulysses S. Grant's troubled life. It is 1880, and Grant has just completed a triumphant world tour. When he decides to try for an unprecented third presidential term, his life begins to fall apart. He loses the nomination during a rowdy convention, goes bankrupt shortly thereafter, and subsequently learns he has throat cancer. While the embattled man fights to save his family from poverty before he dies, two journalists--one supportive and one resentful--shed light on the spectacular life of an extraordinary person. Grant is deeply researched, moving historical fiction that gets to the core of one of the Union's greatest Civil War heroes, and perhaps America's most legendary drunkard. With dramatic flair, narrator George Guidall whisks listeners back to a monumental time in United States history.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Civil War, Presidents

1 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

May Byrd is the author of a number of scholarly books on 18th century English literature, including Visits to Bedlam and London Transformed. Winner of the Shamus Award for best paperback private detective novel, his oeuvre of detective novels include the Book-of-the-Month Club selection Target of Opportunity. Byrd is also the author of four historical novels: Grant: A Novel, Jefferson: A Novel, Jackson: A Novel, and Shooting the Sun. He currently serves as the president of the board of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.

Max Byrd has taught English at Yale and UC Davis, has been a visiting professor at Stanford, and has lectured at UC Berkeley, Warwick University, the Sorbonne, and Monticello. Among the many publications featuring Byrd’s articles and book reviews are the Yale Review, New York Times Book Review, New Republic, and Woodrow Wilson Quarterly. He has served as editor of the scholarly journal Eighteenth-Century Studies.

Reviews

[Dominique · Rating 2 out of 5]

The year is 1880 and General Grant, Civil War hero and former President, is seeking an unprecedented third term as President. Told primarily through a fictitious journalist named Nicholas Trist, the book follows Grant’s campaign. Then the plot fast-forwards to 1883 and what the former President did during that time.

The reader is given an impression of not only Ulysses S. Grant from how others saw him with an occasional glimpse through Grant’s eyes, but we are given an impression of life in the 1880s. Part of the impression of Grant is conveyed with segments of a biography written of him. Our first real encounter with Grant is 100 pages into the book itself.

The book seems to largely focus on the journalist Trist as he pens articles for newspapers and the occasional book to support himself while we get flashbacks of his experiences in the Civil War where he lost an arm at Cold Harbor. It is with Trist the authors spends the most time in character development where the characterizations of the historical figures were adequate enough to paint a picture of these particular people. It made Trist the most believable character and the only one I really cared about.

With the biography segments that are scattered only in the first part of the book, I found them distracting from the rest of the book, to the point when the segments ended (after one chapter) I had to remind myself I was returning to the action of the story.

What I enjoyed the most about the book was the historical background covered. The author definitely did his homework for this book. In the author’s note at the end of the book, he admits to moving certain events around, in the form of bringing certain character back from their actual journeys sooner than they had.

In the end, the book was not what I expected it to be. It was not really about Ulysses Grant. The general was merely what tied the events and the people in the book together. I have read Jackson by this same author and found it to be a much better read for it was actually about Andrew Jackson.

[Cmamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book contains some fine descriptions of life during 1880 as Nicholas Trist, a correspondent who lost an arm during the battle of Cold Harbor, follows Ulysses S. Grant as he seeks to gain the Republican nomination and win election to a third (nonconsecutive) term as US President. Following the inauguration of his presidential successor, Rutherford B. Hayes, Grant and his family departed on a triumphant world tour. Upon his return, a testimonial banquet is held in Chicago to honor Grant and to launch his political comeback. Author Mark Twain acts as the Master of Ceremonies.

Unfortunately, Grant remains distant from the reader throughout the entire novel. He is always in the next room or at the opposite side of an assembly hall. Almost all of the biographical data and quotations employed by the author can be found in Grant's "Personal Memoirs."

Trist meets various historical figures and fictitious characters, suffers from a recurrent case of malaria and engages in a romance. Grant, the presumptive favorite, fails to obtain the nomination after a lengthy convention in which multiple ballots are cast by the delegates. James A. Garfield is the eventual nominee and the next president. Grant opens a brokerage firm, but is nearly bankrupted when a dishonest partner swindles the firm's investors, including many Union veterans. Grant labors to repay the firm's debts, but is stricken by cancer. During this illness, he begins to write his autobiography.

I was somewhat disappointed by this book due to the absence of the eponymous title character. If the subject is of interest to you, read "The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant."

[Graceann · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I were asked to pay for this book on the basis of how much of it is actually about Ulysses S. Grant, I'd ask for 80% of my money back. So here's the thing. I buy a book called "Grant." My copy has an impressive image of the man himself on the cover. Even the endpapers lead me to believe that the book is about one of the most fascinating, and yet elusive, figures of the 19th century.

Not so much.

He's here, don't get me wrong. He's discussed in absentia by other characters. He's sometimes glimpsed at a gathering while others speak. In the second half of the book, we occasionally get chapters wherein the action includes him (imagine that). By and large, however, the story concerns a Civil War veteran, now journalist, who lost his arm at Cold Harbor, and an embittered jerk whose only claim to fame is that he is the grandson and great-grandson of presidents. There are also his far more interesting wife (of whom I would have liked to see more if, you know, the book hadn't been sold as a novel about U.S. Grant), and a drunken senator who, along with his arm-candy wife, just about bored me to tears. I saw way too much of them, and especially her. Everybody who crosses her path almost immediately falls in love with her. Why that is the case is not something I can come close to understanding.

So, if you would like to read a novel that's rich in historical detail, with real-life (bar one) characters who actually said and did most of the things that are portrayed, this might be a good read for you. If you want to read a novel that does "what it says on the tin," like I did, you may wish to look elsewhere.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Max Byrd's "novel" "Grant: a Novel" taught me a lot about one of the presidents that I have included in my project of reading the biographies of all the U.S. Presidents. I went to West Point like he did, and I enjoy stories about lackluster cadets who rule armies and win wars, proving that excellence at The Point means little, with the exception of one of my great heroes, Douglas MacArthur, who sometimes shone as bright as a star and sometimes sank beneath his own depths, and Robert E. Lee, who fought brilliantly, but lost his war, having unwisely chosen the wrong side. Eisenhower and others were regular guys at the Point, who did not make a big deal about it and saved the nation. General Westmoreland and Custer were pathetic disappointments. Where West Point failed Grant was in preparing him to be a president. I would say if a presidential candidate graduated from The Point, we should be very careful and look for almost anyone else.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating portrait of the President and those around him, mainly through the eyes of the sole fictitious character, Nicholas Trist, who lost an arm at Cold Harbor, and covering the 1880 Republican Convention where the political rivalries and intrigues dominate, then the 1884-5 last year of Grant’s life, when Mark Twain persuades Grant to write his life. Characters such as Henry and Clover Adams and young, flighty Elizabeth Cameron come alive as does 1880s life and recent innovations like the telephone and electricity

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started slow. I read this book because I was interested in reading about the political machinations around Grant's presidency and his attempt at a 3rd term. But what ended up being the most fascinating part of this novel was Byrd's depiction of Clover Adams the wife of Henry Adams whose life ended in a tragic suicide.

[Bradley Brill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Capably performed by George Guidall. Held my interest throughout with vivid detail of 19th century life.

[Ryan Halstead · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this I was convinced that Grant was an admirable, upright person who just trusted people too well. I came away completely impressed with the man. He didn't even care when lies were printed about him. Somehow he kept popular support without the approval of the press and the "society" folks in Washington D.C. Like with "Jackson," I could have done without so much side story but this one was largely based on actual associates of Grant's so it had more grounding in history.

[Lynn Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Grant is a fascinating human being. He was a great soldier, truly the man Lincoln neeeded to lead the Union forces. He and Lincoln genuinely liked each other. His friends, like General Sherman and Samuel Clemens were intensely loyal to him, as were his soldiers. While not one of our greatest presidents, he was certainly not one of our worst. His battle against the cancer that finally claimed him was truly heroic.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome historical fiction novel. Just like in "Jackson" and "Jefferson", Byrd does a great job telling an interesting story while including tons of history. I learned a ton about Grant and thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

historical fiction

[Jon Mills · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and hard to follow; too many characters floating in and out.

[Dave Rowney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read. It had many interesting characters and descriptions of that era.