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Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Allan Gurganus's Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All became an instant classic upon its publication. Critics and readers alike fell in love with the voice of ninety-nine-year-old Lucy Marsden, one of the most entertaining and loquacious heoines in American literature.
Lucy married at the turn of the last century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence", Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood. Her story encompasses everything from the tragic death of a Confederate boy soldier to the feisty narrator's daily battles in the Home--complete with visits from a mohawk-coiffed candy-striper.
Lucy married at the turn of the last century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence", Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood. Her story encompasses everything from the tragic death of a Confederate boy soldier to the feisty narrator's daily battles in the Home--complete with visits from a mohawk-coiffed candy-striper.
736 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1984
443 people are currently reading
5654 people want to read
About the author
Allan Gurganus
69 books140 followersSince 1989, Allan Gurganus’s novels, stories and essays have become a singularly unified and living body of work. Known for dark humor, erotic candor, pictorial clarity and folkloric sweep, his prose is widely translated. Gurganus’s stories, collected as “Piccoli eroi”, were just published to strong Italian reviews. France’s La Monde has called him “a Mark Twain for our age, hilariously clear-eyed, blessed with perfect pitch.”
Fiction by Gurganus has inspired the greatest compliment of all: memorization and re-reading. The number of new critical works, the theatrical and film treatments of his fiction, testify to its durable urgency. Adaptations have won four Emmy. Robert Wilson of The American Scholar has called Gurganus “the rightful heir to Faulkner and Welty.” In a culture where `branding’ seems all-important, Gurganus has resisted any franchised repetition. Equally adept at stories and novels or novellas, his tone and sense of form can differ widely. On the page Gurganus continues to startle and grow.
Of his previous work “The Practical Heart”, critic Michiko Kakutani wrote in the New York Times, “Masterly and deeply affecting…a testament to Mr. Gurganus’s ability to inhabit his characters’ inner lives and map their emotional histories.” The Atlantic called the same work, “An entertaining, disturbing and inspiring book—a dazzling maturation.” Of “Local Souls”, Wells Tower wrote: “It leaves the reader surfeited with gifts. This is a book to be read for the minutely tuned music of Gurganus’s language, its lithe and wicked wit, its luminosity of vision—shining all the brighter for the heat of its compassion. No living writer knows more about how humans matter to each other. These are tales to make us whole.”
Gurganus’s first published story “Minor Heroism” appeared in theNew Yorker when he was twenty six. In 1974, this tale offered the first gay character that magazine had ever presented. In 1989, after seven years’ composition, Gurganus presented the novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters). This first book spent eight months on theNew York Times bestseller list; it became the subject of a New Yorkercartoon and remains a clue on “Jeopardy” (Names for $400). The novel has been translated into twelve languages and has sold over two million copies. The CBS adaptation of the work, starring Donald Sutherland and Diane Lane and won and a “Best Supporting Actress” Emmy for Cecily Tyson as the freed slave, Castalia.
Along with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Gurganus’s works include White People, (Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Pen-Faulkner Finalist) as well as the novel Plays Well With Others. His last book was The Practical Heart: Four Novellas (Lambda Literary Award). Gurganus’s short fiction appears in the New Yorker, Harper’sand other magazines. A recent essay was seen in The New York Review of Books. His stories have been honored by the O’Henry Prize Stories, Best American Stories, and The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Gurganus was a recent John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. His novella Blessed Assurance: A Moral Tale, from White People, has become part of the Harvard Business School’s Ethics curriculum. The work is discussed at length in Questions of Character (Harvard Business School Press) by Joseph L. Badaracco.
Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1947 to a teacher and businessman, Gurganus first trained as a painter, studying at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His paintings and drawings are represented in private and public collections. Gurganus has illustrated three limited editions of his fiction. During a three-year stint onboard the USS Yorktown during the Vietnam War, he turned to writing. Gurganus subsequently graduated from Sarah Lawrence College where he’d gone to work with Grace Paley. At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, his mentors were Stanley Elkin and John Cheever. Mr. Gur
Fiction by Gurganus has inspired the greatest compliment of all: memorization and re-reading. The number of new critical works, the theatrical and film treatments of his fiction, testify to its durable urgency. Adaptations have won four Emmy. Robert Wilson of The American Scholar has called Gurganus “the rightful heir to Faulkner and Welty.” In a culture where `branding’ seems all-important, Gurganus has resisted any franchised repetition. Equally adept at stories and novels or novellas, his tone and sense of form can differ widely. On the page Gurganus continues to startle and grow.
Of his previous work “The Practical Heart”, critic Michiko Kakutani wrote in the New York Times, “Masterly and deeply affecting…a testament to Mr. Gurganus’s ability to inhabit his characters’ inner lives and map their emotional histories.” The Atlantic called the same work, “An entertaining, disturbing and inspiring book—a dazzling maturation.” Of “Local Souls”, Wells Tower wrote: “It leaves the reader surfeited with gifts. This is a book to be read for the minutely tuned music of Gurganus’s language, its lithe and wicked wit, its luminosity of vision—shining all the brighter for the heat of its compassion. No living writer knows more about how humans matter to each other. These are tales to make us whole.”
Gurganus’s first published story “Minor Heroism” appeared in theNew Yorker when he was twenty six. In 1974, this tale offered the first gay character that magazine had ever presented. In 1989, after seven years’ composition, Gurganus presented the novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters). This first book spent eight months on theNew York Times bestseller list; it became the subject of a New Yorkercartoon and remains a clue on “Jeopardy” (Names for $400). The novel has been translated into twelve languages and has sold over two million copies. The CBS adaptation of the work, starring Donald Sutherland and Diane Lane and won and a “Best Supporting Actress” Emmy for Cecily Tyson as the freed slave, Castalia.
Along with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Gurganus’s works include White People, (Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Pen-Faulkner Finalist) as well as the novel Plays Well With Others. His last book was The Practical Heart: Four Novellas (Lambda Literary Award). Gurganus’s short fiction appears in the New Yorker, Harper’sand other magazines. A recent essay was seen in The New York Review of Books. His stories have been honored by the O’Henry Prize Stories, Best American Stories, and The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Gurganus was a recent John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. His novella Blessed Assurance: A Moral Tale, from White People, has become part of the Harvard Business School’s Ethics curriculum. The work is discussed at length in Questions of Character (Harvard Business School Press) by Joseph L. Badaracco.
Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1947 to a teacher and businessman, Gurganus first trained as a painter, studying at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His paintings and drawings are represented in private and public collections. Gurganus has illustrated three limited editions of his fiction. During a three-year stint onboard the USS Yorktown during the Vietnam War, he turned to writing. Gurganus subsequently graduated from Sarah Lawrence College where he’d gone to work with Grace Paley. At the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, his mentors were Stanley Elkin and John Cheever. Mr. Gur
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August 4, 2011This book is a gift to anyone who can read English. I realize that many reviews accuse it of being overly long, but it's called Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells ALL, not Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells A Story or Two. The novel is indeed seven-hundred and some pages long, but think of it as an opportunity for settling in and truly getting to know Mrs. Lucille Marsden. Enjoy her narrative while it lasts, because you'll miss her when it's over. Trust me.
It is astounding to me that this was written by a man, as he has such a grasp on the minor incidents and tangled relationships that comprise a lifetime's worth of stories, and all of their emotional truths as experienced by a young -- and then not so young -- woman. The novel is a tribute to the way many women see their individual lives as inextricable from those relationships. Lucie Marsden's story begins before she was born, and shows how her own life was shaped by her parents' histories and her child soldier husband's war years. Her story is a tribute to everyone she ever loved. Beautiful.
It is astounding to me that this was written by a man, as he has such a grasp on the minor incidents and tangled relationships that comprise a lifetime's worth of stories, and all of their emotional truths as experienced by a young -- and then not so young -- woman. The novel is a tribute to the way many women see their individual lives as inextricable from those relationships. Lucie Marsden's story begins before she was born, and shows how her own life was shaped by her parents' histories and her child soldier husband's war years. Her story is a tribute to everyone she ever loved. Beautiful.
June 9, 2012
Have you ever picked up a book simply because the title intrigued you? This was just such a book, and once I cracked it open, it became impossible to put it down. It was one of the most compelling and memorable books I have read in years and it has stayed with me all these years since I read it. It is one of the most unforgettable books I have ever read and tells the story of a 15 year old girl, Lucy, who marries a 51 year old Confederate veteran, naively not knowing what she was getting herself into. Will Marsden, the Confederate soldier, obviously suffers from what we now know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his war experiences, and this proves to make a bit of a nightmarish marriage for this young girl. Tragic things happen to her family as well but she perseveres on and the end of the book will shock you to your shoes. This is one amazing book, filled with the lyrical language of a Southern writer. If you don't fall under its spell when you first open it, I will be most surprised. Hands down one of the best novels I have ever read.
August 26, 2008
I could not finish this book. For the most part, every page was a chore. The few times there was a story relayed from the husband's Civil War experience, I was engaged. Otherwise, I found the main character far too abrasive and obnoxious to enjoy myself. She might be very entertaining to sit and talk with, or listen to on a radio program, but for some reason, by reading in this format we had a personality conflict.
Additionally, there was heavy focus on subjects that didn't feel pertinent. Page after page she went on about orderlies or what soap opera is watched in her nursing home, with less attention to her memories and husband's stories than what felt necessary. There seemed to be an imbalance in that sense. I kept finding myself wondering, "How many more pages about this?" I was continually leafing forward, looking to see how much more there would be to endure about some seemingly irrelevant subject.
I suppose in the author's defense, I must say it is probably fairly accurate to portray the conversation as rambling and with more detail about the irrelevant than what is interesting. Most of the conversations I've had with nursing home elderly are of that nature. If every few chapters repeated, it would be all the more accurate.
Additionally, there was heavy focus on subjects that didn't feel pertinent. Page after page she went on about orderlies or what soap opera is watched in her nursing home, with less attention to her memories and husband's stories than what felt necessary. There seemed to be an imbalance in that sense. I kept finding myself wondering, "How many more pages about this?" I was continually leafing forward, looking to see how much more there would be to endure about some seemingly irrelevant subject.
I suppose in the author's defense, I must say it is probably fairly accurate to portray the conversation as rambling and with more detail about the irrelevant than what is interesting. Most of the conversations I've had with nursing home elderly are of that nature. If every few chapters repeated, it would be all the more accurate.
March 24, 2011
Whenever I'm reading this book I remember how much I love it, and yet after I've finished it and moved on to other things I forget it. I don't forget what happens or what it's about - I forgot how much I like it. It's strange.
It's a big old rambling book - the personal recollections of Lucille Marsden, married at fifteen to a Confederate war veteran a good forty years older than her. It's not told in any kind of narrative order, it skips and jumps backwards and forwards through the years, things are repeated, some things only hinted at, some things skirted over, just as person's memory works. It's a strange way to tell a story, but it works.
Because of the nature of Lucille's marriage it really stretches over a broad expanse of time, right from the pre-war days up until the 1980s. And also because of Lucille's marriage, it makes you see that even though the war was over thirty years before she was born, she lived through it as much as her husband did, and came out the other side in a way that he never did. It really makes you realise how long the ramifications of such a war lasts - through Captain Marsden himself to his wife and his children and onwards.
It's a wonderful book, really lively and true, and I should try and remember that for the next time around.
It's a big old rambling book - the personal recollections of Lucille Marsden, married at fifteen to a Confederate war veteran a good forty years older than her. It's not told in any kind of narrative order, it skips and jumps backwards and forwards through the years, things are repeated, some things only hinted at, some things skirted over, just as person's memory works. It's a strange way to tell a story, but it works.
Because of the nature of Lucille's marriage it really stretches over a broad expanse of time, right from the pre-war days up until the 1980s. And also because of Lucille's marriage, it makes you see that even though the war was over thirty years before she was born, she lived through it as much as her husband did, and came out the other side in a way that he never did. It really makes you realise how long the ramifications of such a war lasts - through Captain Marsden himself to his wife and his children and onwards.
It's a wonderful book, really lively and true, and I should try and remember that for the next time around.
March 3, 2018
While the Civil War battle scenes were very vivid and thrilling, most of the book was about growing up in the South with characters that would bore Tom Sawyer.
March 18, 2015
Horrible book.I waited a few days & looked at this book again. before I made a final review. This is NOT about the Civil War. Supposedly told by a 100 year old woman to a writer. She told her story of being married to a Confederate War veteran.(After the war). He had PTSD & it sure seems she got it from him. I wish it kept on a straighter path. Too much back & forth from the war to her present time. By her age of 24 yrs old, she had 9 children. It does show exactly what the war was like in 2 skirmishes. The husbands best friend, Ned was killed, yet, the husband grieved for Ned for 50 years EVERYDAY. The book repeats this same story many, many times because that is the book! That is all it talks about! I skimmed a lot of it because of rambling about useless things. Such as: how the wife wanted to suck the black maids breast (very vividly described). simple put, it was a crazy mixed up books with no plot. There are better books than this available and I've read plenty. Don't waste your time.
June 29, 2008
Possibly the longest book I've read where, when I finished it, I wanted to go back and read it again. As a Northerner, at the time I read it, I was rather clueless about the Civil War and the South. I'm mildly more clued-in these days, but this book helped open up a voice and an attitude for me that had not been there before.
The writing is dramatic, to the point where I'm sure some readers found it too far over the top to deal with. I have read the "scene" of the heroine's mother's childhood encounter with wasps many times and find it to be uniquely moving and epic in its nature.
As a child from a large extended family, I have always loved novels with many characters and interwoven stories. "Oldest Living..." did not disappoint.
The writing is dramatic, to the point where I'm sure some readers found it too far over the top to deal with. I have read the "scene" of the heroine's mother's childhood encounter with wasps many times and find it to be uniquely moving and epic in its nature.
As a child from a large extended family, I have always loved novels with many characters and interwoven stories. "Oldest Living..." did not disappoint.
January 21, 2021
Wow I am constantly amazed at how much I dislike books I have a fond memory of enjoying decades ago.
August 20, 2020
I rescued this hardbound edition some time ago in the dim past. First copyright is from 1984, and this book/edition was published in 1989. Excerpts as short stories appeared in a number of different magazines. As I recall this was a pretty bit hit in its time. I decided to read it based on a short story in a recent(5/2020) edition of The New Yorker. The narrator in this tale sounds very much like the old lady in the antique store in that short story. Both of these narrators reminded me of the wacky old lady(named Florence Rassmussen acc. to Roger Ebert) facing the camera with her grievances in Errol Morris' little known but awesome documentary "Gates of Heaven." Inscribed inside the cover is " - return to Jacqueline Pinger - / ... 7/92 - pass along to someone else! ... JP"
So far this is a treat to read, but I wonder if I'll feel the same way 500 pages from now. Other G'reads reviewers have complained of the book's length and of being worn out by the droning on and on of the narrator(Lucy Marsden). We'll see. No need to try to go fast. No deadline here.
- This book has a definite connection to "Cold Mountain." Both books have North Carolina as their starting points and both have to do with Petersburg.
- I am old enough to remember a few still-living Civil War vets in the early 1950's.
Moving onward and this is turning out to be all Lucy, all the time. I guess you could say there's a sort-of plot to it, but it's not really a conventional story. Nothing is actually happening in the current time except Lucy talking to tape recorder. This book is all about the Big Look-Back and will obviously be covering a LOT of temporal distance. The author achieves this by having Lucy be so much younger than her Civil War vet husband Will(ie). It's sort of the "War and Peace" of testimonials. So far, so good.
This book is beginning to resemble "Tristram Shandy," which is still sitting in place on my reading table(a bit off to the side - in a corner) only semi-read. Been there for quite a while too. I WILL finish it. This one looks like a long haul commitment as I can't read a lot of it at once. Requires too much concentration. But, I WILL finish this one too, though I may break off and get into something else by-the-by ... just for a break.
Lucy takes us and her interviewer on a painful ride through her wedding night. Of course her mother and aunts had told her NOTHING about sex(come to think of it, neither did my parents tell me anything about it, though my mother did hand me a booklet to read about it). Poor girl ... but there was a gift to her in the aftermath with Will's hart-hitting war-crazy nightmares). Helped her have sympathy for him. One quibble about the painful 15-year old virgin sex thing. Lucy was pretty torn up and sore the next day(remember "Lolita"?), but Will doesn't seem to be bothered at all. Wouldn't it have hurt both of them(remember "Peyton Place")? Just sayin' ...
finally hit the three-digit mark last night. Thank God it's not four. The bit about returning to Falls after the honeymoon is VERY nice writing indeed. And another great scene; the birthing of twin babies in the back of a wagon on the side of the toniest street in Falls.
Since this book is basically plot-less and meanders along with Lucy's memory from vignette to vignette, one is not compelled to aggressively pursue the end of it. So be it. The latest episode related is from Willie's experience of Antietam. Pretty strong stuff and reminiscent of "The Red Badge of Courage."
And so it goes, the life of Lucy(and Will). Seems like we've covered a lot of ground, but I'm barely past the 1/4 pole. For this reason alone I'll lower my rating to 3*. Too ... many ... words ...
- bad writing alert - a head "whips around" - noooooo!
Whew, in her winding, digressive way(I'll bet that Mr. Gurganus is a fan of "Tristram Shandy") our storyteller Lucille is painting a pithy and colorful word-picture of the demise(at the hands of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman) of the plantation home of her husband and mother-in-law. Right now Lucy is up a magnolia tree as the fire is getting started. Lucy/Gurganus is taking her cue from Tolstoy, another writer/story-teller who has a tough time leaving anything out. The author has created a wonderful character in Witch Beale, that ugly but oh-so-smart schoolteacher of long ago. A lover of the semi-colon, the use of which I, for one, have never got the hang of.
In last night's reading Cap takes the family on another Civil War memory trip - in 1910. He searches for and finds the site(in Virginia) of the greatest trauma of his life, the death of his beloved pal Ned, whom he went off to war with. He pretty much loses it and is only barely able to get the family back home to Falls(NC). As ever the writing of Lucy's testimony is vivid and moving, but I have no problem with my current approach of reading through one "event/chapter" and putting the book down. It's going to take a while to finish, but I can't read a lot at one sitting. Don't need to anyway, there's not plot whatsoever!
- After reading some negative reviews on G'reads a vision of Granny Clampett from "The Beverly Hillbillies popped into my head. I can see Lucy looking and talking like her. I wonder if Mr. Gurganus did too?
In the latest episode, Lucy tells the tale(or some of it) of her mother's childhood and while she's at it introduces the character of Bianca's "nurse," an African-Native American woman with the gift of loving troublesome white children whose parents are unwilling or unable to love and raise them. Too bad I didn't have one of those in my life. My parents were both unwilling an incompetent. Too busy drinking and trying to look good. Last night it occurred to me how ambitious this book is. Like Tolstoy, Mr. G. is trying to tell us everything. Everything he can think of to fit into Lucy's testimony and keep it all under a thousand pages.
I'm well into the second half now and Lucy's still cranking out the stories. She's saving Castalia's for later, or maybe even the last.
And so, on to Castalia's story, which the reader knows is coming at some point, the question is when. Near to the end of the book as it turns out. It's a bit of an awkward literary situation, as Castalia herself is called in to tell it. She unburdens herself to Lucy's mother-in-law, soon to be punished(I guess) by the author in the form of Sherman's burning cavalry. No matter how he decided to do this, it was bound to be a bit awkward and jarring to hear this "other" voice after 500 pages of all Lucy all the time. In any case, Castalia's way of speaking is borderline jibberish half the time and the device of having her unspiel all of it in the short span of time allotted to her by the author is only borderline credible, if at all. And so to the end ... tonight? Some random notes ...
- Lucy = Sissy Spacek. Diane Lane ?????? Nope! Donald Sutherland as Will seems like a good enough choice.
- More death is piled on, I assume in service to the reality of very early 20th c. life. The author makes you feel the loos of it. Scarlet fever is the villain, as it was in Little Women.
- That one-sentence thingee/gimmick gets a bit old ...
- I assume that the author abhors sport hunting. I'm there pal. Lucille sure does.
- If "jatter" is a word it's news to me. No need to invent it, sir. Plenty of real words to do the job.
And so ... misery is piled upon misery, the latest provided by stupidity and deceit from Cap Marsden. This might've been described in five pages or so, but the author chooses to over-verbalize ... again. It was late at night and I wanted to find out "what happened" and thus resorted to skimming for the first time. MAYBE I'll go back and read the whole thing, maybe not. The upshot is that Lucy has finally reached the end of her rope, the one that attaches her to the middle-aged, abusive child-husband Cap Marsden.
Hooray! I finally reached the end of this chatty opus the ends last night. Lucy keeps motor-mouthing to the end, telling stories of murky purpose. That old lady was some serious survivor. Near the end we DO get a big surprise. No squealing from me, except to say that it felt right. One abiding question from me: does Lucy seem like/sound like a REAL person????? At any rate, I teared up a bit at then end. The author deserves credit for that. Quite the saga. Many, many bases were covered, not the least of which were a) the Civil War and b) man-woman stuff. Race relations? Not SO much, but there was some of that in there too. And so to the rating ... very difficult. This book is yet another example of how Goodreads ought to provide a 6-star option. If they did, this would be a perfect 4* book. As it is, there were just too many words(Lucy providing most of them) and no plot in any conventional sense. So ... 3.5* is the highest 3* rating I can give, but it still rounds down to 3*, which seems too low, but what are ya gonna do?
- The story of young Prothero made me think of the attempted rape scene in "God Is an Englishman."
- The Toys R Us mention seemed to be an anachronism, but maybe not, according to Wiki.
So far this is a treat to read, but I wonder if I'll feel the same way 500 pages from now. Other G'reads reviewers have complained of the book's length and of being worn out by the droning on and on of the narrator(Lucy Marsden). We'll see. No need to try to go fast. No deadline here.
- This book has a definite connection to "Cold Mountain." Both books have North Carolina as their starting points and both have to do with Petersburg.
- I am old enough to remember a few still-living Civil War vets in the early 1950's.
Moving onward and this is turning out to be all Lucy, all the time. I guess you could say there's a sort-of plot to it, but it's not really a conventional story. Nothing is actually happening in the current time except Lucy talking to tape recorder. This book is all about the Big Look-Back and will obviously be covering a LOT of temporal distance. The author achieves this by having Lucy be so much younger than her Civil War vet husband Will(ie). It's sort of the "War and Peace" of testimonials. So far, so good.
This book is beginning to resemble "Tristram Shandy," which is still sitting in place on my reading table(a bit off to the side - in a corner) only semi-read. Been there for quite a while too. I WILL finish it. This one looks like a long haul commitment as I can't read a lot of it at once. Requires too much concentration. But, I WILL finish this one too, though I may break off and get into something else by-the-by ... just for a break.
Lucy takes us and her interviewer on a painful ride through her wedding night. Of course her mother and aunts had told her NOTHING about sex(come to think of it, neither did my parents tell me anything about it, though my mother did hand me a booklet to read about it). Poor girl ... but there was a gift to her in the aftermath with Will's hart-hitting war-crazy nightmares). Helped her have sympathy for him. One quibble about the painful 15-year old virgin sex thing. Lucy was pretty torn up and sore the next day(remember "Lolita"?), but Will doesn't seem to be bothered at all. Wouldn't it have hurt both of them(remember "Peyton Place")? Just sayin' ...
finally hit the three-digit mark last night. Thank God it's not four. The bit about returning to Falls after the honeymoon is VERY nice writing indeed. And another great scene; the birthing of twin babies in the back of a wagon on the side of the toniest street in Falls.
Since this book is basically plot-less and meanders along with Lucy's memory from vignette to vignette, one is not compelled to aggressively pursue the end of it. So be it. The latest episode related is from Willie's experience of Antietam. Pretty strong stuff and reminiscent of "The Red Badge of Courage."
And so it goes, the life of Lucy(and Will). Seems like we've covered a lot of ground, but I'm barely past the 1/4 pole. For this reason alone I'll lower my rating to 3*. Too ... many ... words ...
- bad writing alert - a head "whips around" - noooooo!
Whew, in her winding, digressive way(I'll bet that Mr. Gurganus is a fan of "Tristram Shandy") our storyteller Lucille is painting a pithy and colorful word-picture of the demise(at the hands of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman) of the plantation home of her husband and mother-in-law. Right now Lucy is up a magnolia tree as the fire is getting started. Lucy/Gurganus is taking her cue from Tolstoy, another writer/story-teller who has a tough time leaving anything out. The author has created a wonderful character in Witch Beale, that ugly but oh-so-smart schoolteacher of long ago. A lover of the semi-colon, the use of which I, for one, have never got the hang of.
In last night's reading Cap takes the family on another Civil War memory trip - in 1910. He searches for and finds the site(in Virginia) of the greatest trauma of his life, the death of his beloved pal Ned, whom he went off to war with. He pretty much loses it and is only barely able to get the family back home to Falls(NC). As ever the writing of Lucy's testimony is vivid and moving, but I have no problem with my current approach of reading through one "event/chapter" and putting the book down. It's going to take a while to finish, but I can't read a lot at one sitting. Don't need to anyway, there's not plot whatsoever!
- After reading some negative reviews on G'reads a vision of Granny Clampett from "The Beverly Hillbillies popped into my head. I can see Lucy looking and talking like her. I wonder if Mr. Gurganus did too?
In the latest episode, Lucy tells the tale(or some of it) of her mother's childhood and while she's at it introduces the character of Bianca's "nurse," an African-Native American woman with the gift of loving troublesome white children whose parents are unwilling or unable to love and raise them. Too bad I didn't have one of those in my life. My parents were both unwilling an incompetent. Too busy drinking and trying to look good. Last night it occurred to me how ambitious this book is. Like Tolstoy, Mr. G. is trying to tell us everything. Everything he can think of to fit into Lucy's testimony and keep it all under a thousand pages.
I'm well into the second half now and Lucy's still cranking out the stories. She's saving Castalia's for later, or maybe even the last.
And so, on to Castalia's story, which the reader knows is coming at some point, the question is when. Near to the end of the book as it turns out. It's a bit of an awkward literary situation, as Castalia herself is called in to tell it. She unburdens herself to Lucy's mother-in-law, soon to be punished(I guess) by the author in the form of Sherman's burning cavalry. No matter how he decided to do this, it was bound to be a bit awkward and jarring to hear this "other" voice after 500 pages of all Lucy all the time. In any case, Castalia's way of speaking is borderline jibberish half the time and the device of having her unspiel all of it in the short span of time allotted to her by the author is only borderline credible, if at all. And so to the end ... tonight? Some random notes ...
- Lucy = Sissy Spacek. Diane Lane ?????? Nope! Donald Sutherland as Will seems like a good enough choice.
- More death is piled on, I assume in service to the reality of very early 20th c. life. The author makes you feel the loos of it. Scarlet fever is the villain, as it was in Little Women.
- That one-sentence thingee/gimmick gets a bit old ...
- I assume that the author abhors sport hunting. I'm there pal. Lucille sure does.
- If "jatter" is a word it's news to me. No need to invent it, sir. Plenty of real words to do the job.
And so ... misery is piled upon misery, the latest provided by stupidity and deceit from Cap Marsden. This might've been described in five pages or so, but the author chooses to over-verbalize ... again. It was late at night and I wanted to find out "what happened" and thus resorted to skimming for the first time. MAYBE I'll go back and read the whole thing, maybe not. The upshot is that Lucy has finally reached the end of her rope, the one that attaches her to the middle-aged, abusive child-husband Cap Marsden.
Hooray! I finally reached the end of this chatty opus the ends last night. Lucy keeps motor-mouthing to the end, telling stories of murky purpose. That old lady was some serious survivor. Near the end we DO get a big surprise. No squealing from me, except to say that it felt right. One abiding question from me: does Lucy seem like/sound like a REAL person????? At any rate, I teared up a bit at then end. The author deserves credit for that. Quite the saga. Many, many bases were covered, not the least of which were a) the Civil War and b) man-woman stuff. Race relations? Not SO much, but there was some of that in there too. And so to the rating ... very difficult. This book is yet another example of how Goodreads ought to provide a 6-star option. If they did, this would be a perfect 4* book. As it is, there were just too many words(Lucy providing most of them) and no plot in any conventional sense. So ... 3.5* is the highest 3* rating I can give, but it still rounds down to 3*, which seems too low, but what are ya gonna do?
- The story of young Prothero made me think of the attempted rape scene in "God Is an Englishman."
- The Toys R Us mention seemed to be an anachronism, but maybe not, according to Wiki.
May 19, 2012
This book was a huge best seller in the 80's when it came out but I can't see the appeal.
Lucy married a 50 year old confederate war veteran when she was 15. Reading this book. I actually stopped reading and I thought, there was no way a woman wrote this because of the way the character spoke and the internal monologue thought process. So I looked at the author, and sure enough, it was a man. I knew it. It comes across as an ill-informed man writing about the inner workings of the female mind. Sorry, but I think he failed.
Neither Lucy nor her husband are especially appealing characters, and I regret spending so much time with them.
Lucy married a 50 year old confederate war veteran when she was 15. Reading this book. I actually stopped reading and I thought, there was no way a woman wrote this because of the way the character spoke and the internal monologue thought process. So I looked at the author, and sure enough, it was a man. I knew it. It comes across as an ill-informed man writing about the inner workings of the female mind. Sorry, but I think he failed.
Neither Lucy nor her husband are especially appealing characters, and I regret spending so much time with them.
March 2, 2012
I read Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All *once* years and years ago (maybe more than 20(?) years ago, now). I can't quite pinpoint exactly what impact this story had on me, but there are times that I *still* think about scenes from this book. Something about it just got into me and stayed put. And I tell you what, give me Lucy Marsden over that annoying Scarlett O'Hara any day.
May 18, 2020
Didn’t like this book, as it was racist, too pro Southern, and was creepy due to the age difference of the main character and her husband. I only read it for school and while on vacation in the MS Delta.
Warning: racism, hatred of the north, and sexual abuse of a 15 year old bride on her wedding night by her husband as well as graphic details of war
Warning: racism, hatred of the north, and sexual abuse of a 15 year old bride on her wedding night by her husband as well as graphic details of war
August 4, 2011
Quoting excerpts from this extraordinary book: "11 days after the fire comes the afternoon of leaving. Children make extra-secret jaunts to the woods. Like going to a zoo, or visiting some charming friend in jail. How strange the furnishings look resting out here, half under tarps. The Brookside glade makes treasures seem more valuable and perfect. A test for beautiful furniture: Does it still look beautiful in a beautiful woods?"
Gurganus' descriptions are vivid, almost liquid! You can breathe the same air as his humbled or tortured characters. Always had a fixation almost for Civil War history. This is my second novel on the subject I have ever read, however. When I don't know an author I just like to open a book I haven't yet read to some point & start reading there--to hear the writer's voice. That's why I shared the above amazing excerpt; these are the spoken speech of slaves only just being freed...
"Children coax canvas aside. They bounce on upholstery. Inlaid drawers they fill with pinecones. For kids, it all seems some ghosty tea party they've finally been invited to. A red velvet footstool rests beside an even greener velvet moss. Evidence has hung 60 apple-green Spode teacups by their handles from one thorn tree's briars. Honey a breeze convenes a banquet of clinking. Doubled Oriental rugs fly from boughs, patterned bold as flags from Africa.
The coveted ham now soaked, cooked, prepared has now disappeared from out the smokehouse. "Bet It got it," Zelia nodded towards a silent one. "And don't play dumb with me, you. I onto your tricks!..." Excerpt p. 347.
Gurganus' descriptions are vivid, almost liquid! You can breathe the same air as his humbled or tortured characters. Always had a fixation almost for Civil War history. This is my second novel on the subject I have ever read, however. When I don't know an author I just like to open a book I haven't yet read to some point & start reading there--to hear the writer's voice. That's why I shared the above amazing excerpt; these are the spoken speech of slaves only just being freed...
"Children coax canvas aside. They bounce on upholstery. Inlaid drawers they fill with pinecones. For kids, it all seems some ghosty tea party they've finally been invited to. A red velvet footstool rests beside an even greener velvet moss. Evidence has hung 60 apple-green Spode teacups by their handles from one thorn tree's briars. Honey a breeze convenes a banquet of clinking. Doubled Oriental rugs fly from boughs, patterned bold as flags from Africa.
The coveted ham now soaked, cooked, prepared has now disappeared from out the smokehouse. "Bet It got it," Zelia nodded towards a silent one. "And don't play dumb with me, you. I onto your tricks!..." Excerpt p. 347.
April 15, 2018
Many of the reviews complained that the book is too long. This is true, but not because it's 700 pages.
When I picked it up, I knew it was 700 pages, so my problem isn't the page count, it's what's on those pages. The writer writes in a very "writerly" style--you know what I mean--and it' gets old quick. His main character and narrator-when-convenient is Lucy, who at 14 in ~1895 married a Confederate veteran who was about 50. The book bounces between her experiences married to him, his war experiences, some other people war experiences, his long walk home to the plantation and whacko mom he left behind, the Atlantic Slave crossing of Castalia, his former slave who becomes his servant and then Lucy's only friend. Lucy has an accent--she says "ain't" and "onct" instead of "once" which is frankly just grating. Does anyone even use "onct"? her accent woul have gotten annoying in a 300 page novel, but 700 pages of it is just insufferable. *HER* life story is interesting to me, and but the author glides over most of that (she has 9 children, but only of them ever have a name. You know of any woman who doesn't bother to tell you her kids names, but will go on at length about the parties her mother in law threw long before she was born? not effing likely. And don't tell me more kids than that got a name--Louisa, Ned, Archie. "The Twins" and "Baby" don't count as names, esp. since the author is so sloppy he changes which kid gets called "Baby". Someone should have edited him.) That's not his only ridiculousness--he's so intent on being all writer-y that he gets super-repetitive. By the 28th time I read that Lucy's braid ends were like paint brushes, or that the mother in law was white/wore white; or about the endless piano playing, or her parents completely improbable courtship, or that her husband had gray eyes...enough. GET ON WITH IT.
There are also so many things in the novel that made me say "oh come on, those folks in that position wouldn't have done that". The mother in law playing her piano while her neighbors houses were all getting torched; the vet walking home with a jar or bees behind him (?); Lucy's mom marrying a guy she met when she was in a train accident; The whole ridiculous story about the pretty officer going beserk and harassing and stalking a young woman and ruining her harpsicord, but then she shows up at his funeral and plays another instrument for hours?? Please . The dumbest was when Lucy and her best friend Shirley get sprayed by a skunk--because two rural 14 year olds really couldn't tell it wasn't a cat?--and while washing in cold tomato juice have a spicy sexual encounter. Because they hadn't had a million sleepovers where they could have, so they waited until the known eroticism of a skunk-spraying and then a nice soak in cold tomato juice overcame them? Is this author a complete idiot?
Then there is the Vet, Will Marsden. He's a monumental asshole, with zero redeeming qualities. He's rapey. A no point does she say he was a good lay, just that she kept putting up with it. He's a shit father--does nothing with the kids, except wakes them up at night to tell them scary stories. Great. She says he's very charming, but the only evidence of that is...he tells stories about the war. That's the best we can say about him, other than he has money. And then he gets abusive. And then he has a stroke and gets more abusive. He is basically a completely worthless human being, a total shit stain of a person, yet Lucy keeps saying she likes it, she loves him, she's taken in. BY WHAT???? Sounds to me like some asshole male-author's fantasy of what a loyal wife should be. Give her nothing, rape her when you want, and she'll keep your house clean, raise your 9 kids AND love you. And she doesn't leave, or throw a fit, or get her socially connected parents to do something? She just keeps taking it?
Which brings us to Castalia...I am not qualified to speak to slave experience, and I give the author credit for trying to show that the owner/slave relationship was complicated--yes there was cruelty, but these were also folks who had to live together, there were also kindnesses, and some weird stuff that went on. As for the slave ship section...that was outlawed long before 1850, when Castalia was 3ish and came over. And the author said she had kids who played with Lucy's kids, which is odd, since Castalia was 50 when Lucy's first kid was born, and he never really explains how they went from enemies to Castalia getting fired to them being best friends. Her whole story seems pretty fishy all the way around.
Anyway, book bugged the crap out of me, and I'm not sure why I finished it, but I did. If you want weird, arty, writer-y stories of the Civil War, or really like books that have "themes" (music playing, white, "ain't", curly hair) that get repeated ad nauseum, then I guess you might not hate this book. If you were wondering what happened to Lucy and her nine mostly nameless kids, or how she wound up in the poor house, or why she didn't fight back against that useless POS husband, then I got nothing for you.
When I picked it up, I knew it was 700 pages, so my problem isn't the page count, it's what's on those pages. The writer writes in a very "writerly" style--you know what I mean--and it' gets old quick. His main character and narrator-when-convenient is Lucy, who at 14 in ~1895 married a Confederate veteran who was about 50. The book bounces between her experiences married to him, his war experiences, some other people war experiences, his long walk home to the plantation and whacko mom he left behind, the Atlantic Slave crossing of Castalia, his former slave who becomes his servant and then Lucy's only friend. Lucy has an accent--she says "ain't" and "onct" instead of "once" which is frankly just grating. Does anyone even use "onct"? her accent woul have gotten annoying in a 300 page novel, but 700 pages of it is just insufferable. *HER* life story is interesting to me, and but the author glides over most of that (she has 9 children, but only of them ever have a name. You know of any woman who doesn't bother to tell you her kids names, but will go on at length about the parties her mother in law threw long before she was born? not effing likely. And don't tell me more kids than that got a name--Louisa, Ned, Archie. "The Twins" and "Baby" don't count as names, esp. since the author is so sloppy he changes which kid gets called "Baby". Someone should have edited him.) That's not his only ridiculousness--he's so intent on being all writer-y that he gets super-repetitive. By the 28th time I read that Lucy's braid ends were like paint brushes, or that the mother in law was white/wore white; or about the endless piano playing, or her parents completely improbable courtship, or that her husband had gray eyes...enough. GET ON WITH IT.
There are also so many things in the novel that made me say "oh come on, those folks in that position wouldn't have done that". The mother in law playing her piano while her neighbors houses were all getting torched; the vet walking home with a jar or bees behind him (?); Lucy's mom marrying a guy she met when she was in a train accident; The whole ridiculous story about the pretty officer going beserk and harassing and stalking a young woman and ruining her harpsicord, but then she shows up at his funeral and plays another instrument for hours?? Please . The dumbest was when Lucy and her best friend Shirley get sprayed by a skunk--because two rural 14 year olds really couldn't tell it wasn't a cat?--and while washing in cold tomato juice have a spicy sexual encounter. Because they hadn't had a million sleepovers where they could have, so they waited until the known eroticism of a skunk-spraying and then a nice soak in cold tomato juice overcame them? Is this author a complete idiot?
Then there is the Vet, Will Marsden. He's a monumental asshole, with zero redeeming qualities. He's rapey. A no point does she say he was a good lay, just that she kept putting up with it. He's a shit father--does nothing with the kids, except wakes them up at night to tell them scary stories. Great. She says he's very charming, but the only evidence of that is...he tells stories about the war. That's the best we can say about him, other than he has money. And then he gets abusive. And then he has a stroke and gets more abusive. He is basically a completely worthless human being, a total shit stain of a person, yet Lucy keeps saying she likes it, she loves him, she's taken in. BY WHAT???? Sounds to me like some asshole male-author's fantasy of what a loyal wife should be. Give her nothing, rape her when you want, and she'll keep your house clean, raise your 9 kids AND love you. And she doesn't leave, or throw a fit, or get her socially connected parents to do something? She just keeps taking it?
Which brings us to Castalia...I am not qualified to speak to slave experience, and I give the author credit for trying to show that the owner/slave relationship was complicated--yes there was cruelty, but these were also folks who had to live together, there were also kindnesses, and some weird stuff that went on. As for the slave ship section...that was outlawed long before 1850, when Castalia was 3ish and came over. And the author said she had kids who played with Lucy's kids, which is odd, since Castalia was 50 when Lucy's first kid was born, and he never really explains how they went from enemies to Castalia getting fired to them being best friends. Her whole story seems pretty fishy all the way around.
Anyway, book bugged the crap out of me, and I'm not sure why I finished it, but I did. If you want weird, arty, writer-y stories of the Civil War, or really like books that have "themes" (music playing, white, "ain't", curly hair) that get repeated ad nauseum, then I guess you might not hate this book. If you were wondering what happened to Lucy and her nine mostly nameless kids, or how she wound up in the poor house, or why she didn't fight back against that useless POS husband, then I got nothing for you.
December 29, 2008
This is one of my all time favorite books. I read it some years ago, but still have my copy. This should definitely return to my "to read" list.
The narrator, Lucille (Lucy) Marsden, tells the story of her marriage to "Captain" Will Marsden, ostensibly the Civil War's last survivor, whom she married when she was 15 and he was 50. She also tells about her husband's experiences in the war and after, the burning of her mother-in-law's plantation by Sherman's men, and the abduction from Africa of a former Marsden slave, midwife to Lucy's nine children as well as her best friend. But this novel is less about the War Between the States than about the war between the sexes.
Historical fiction, gotta love it.
The narrator, Lucille (Lucy) Marsden, tells the story of her marriage to "Captain" Will Marsden, ostensibly the Civil War's last survivor, whom she married when she was 15 and he was 50. She also tells about her husband's experiences in the war and after, the burning of her mother-in-law's plantation by Sherman's men, and the abduction from Africa of a former Marsden slave, midwife to Lucy's nine children as well as her best friend. But this novel is less about the War Between the States than about the war between the sexes.
Historical fiction, gotta love it.
August 17, 2012
More than a decade after reading- this book has remained clear within memory. Written by a man, but cored exactly within a woman's dimensions and perceptions. War and conflict in culture; this book made them SO real and immediate. One of my all time favorite American reads that are Civil War related- probably my #1 favorite of many, many read.
March 12, 2020
I read this when it first came out in 2001, and it still sticks in my memory!
July 22, 2024
I've been aware of this book for some time but never picked it up. This copy was loaned to me by a friend. It took a while to read as I only read it an hour or so at a time. I call these books my "slow reads."
Allan Gurganus' "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" is the story of Lucy Marsden's life as told by Lucy Marsden. I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked the main character a lot but like talking to a lot of older relatives I let a lot of stuff slide that rubbed me wrong. When I had finished the book I knew Lucy as well as any fictional character I've ever read about but I wasn't too sad to reach the end. More relieved really.
Lucy's story covers a lot of history from a different perspective; a southern civilian during the American civil war. It's a perspective I understood but had difficulty connecting with. I know that part of our history pretty well. "Confederate Widow" has a lot of truth to the story of that era but a truth of a charming, strong willed, and intelligent woman. A lot of truth about slavery and the Civil War doesn't get any attention in "Confederate Widow."
Funny story (but true). While I was reading Jefferson Cowie's "Freedom's Dominion" I couldn't read "Confessions." "Freedom's Dominion" tells the story of a single county in Georgia from the time of President Jackson forward. It's a nonfiction account of how life worked in that county over time and it leaves a bad taste in one's mouth to read about decade after decade of racism, crime, abuse, and race relations (such as they were). It told a truth that "Confederate Widow" evaded.
I'd only recommend "Confederate Widow" to those with in interest in the American Civil War. Don't get me wrong. Gurganus is an excellent writer. The story hangs together and much of "Confederate Widow" is great to read. And it does tell some stories about the people, black and white, that will give the reader pause. How much do I or can I identify with these characters?
In the final analysis I'm glad I've read it.
Allan Gurganus' "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" is the story of Lucy Marsden's life as told by Lucy Marsden. I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked the main character a lot but like talking to a lot of older relatives I let a lot of stuff slide that rubbed me wrong. When I had finished the book I knew Lucy as well as any fictional character I've ever read about but I wasn't too sad to reach the end. More relieved really.
Lucy's story covers a lot of history from a different perspective; a southern civilian during the American civil war. It's a perspective I understood but had difficulty connecting with. I know that part of our history pretty well. "Confederate Widow" has a lot of truth to the story of that era but a truth of a charming, strong willed, and intelligent woman. A lot of truth about slavery and the Civil War doesn't get any attention in "Confederate Widow."
Funny story (but true). While I was reading Jefferson Cowie's "Freedom's Dominion" I couldn't read "Confessions." "Freedom's Dominion" tells the story of a single county in Georgia from the time of President Jackson forward. It's a nonfiction account of how life worked in that county over time and it leaves a bad taste in one's mouth to read about decade after decade of racism, crime, abuse, and race relations (such as they were). It told a truth that "Confederate Widow" evaded.
I'd only recommend "Confederate Widow" to those with in interest in the American Civil War. Don't get me wrong. Gurganus is an excellent writer. The story hangs together and much of "Confederate Widow" is great to read. And it does tell some stories about the people, black and white, that will give the reader pause. How much do I or can I identify with these characters?
In the final analysis I'm glad I've read it.
July 12, 2015
A big novel, both in narrative scope and in heft, this unfortunately didn't come close to living up to some of the praise on the jacket cover. Lucy Marsden, about to celebrate her 100th year of life, tells her story to an unnamed narrator from the bed of her nursing home, flashing back to her wedding at age 15 (circa 1900) to a Civil War vet in her small North Carolina town that's 30 years her senior, and of their life together. More accurately, it's the story of a segment of that time, starting with her tomboy childhood about five years earlier and basically ending a decade later after she's had all of their nine children.
The years from 1910 or so to her nursing home time are essentially glossed over, as are the identities and basically any mention of half of their children. That seems particularly strange in light of Gurganus' decision to spend hundreds of pages on lengthy asides describing the childhoods of Lucy's mother, her husband's mother, and in the most cringe-worthy chapters of the book, the capture of a tribe in Africa and their journey to be sold into slavery in the southern U.S. All of these asides are unnecessary distractions that feel like filler to a book that, at 718 pages, certainly doesn't need any.
The book just didn't work for me. Lucy's would-be sassy tone was tiresome, and her dispensations of wisdom were far too few (and too stale) for someone who'd seen a century of living. Maybe that's unavoidable when a thirty-something first time novelist tries to craft such a lofty protagonist.
The years from 1910 or so to her nursing home time are essentially glossed over, as are the identities and basically any mention of half of their children. That seems particularly strange in light of Gurganus' decision to spend hundreds of pages on lengthy asides describing the childhoods of Lucy's mother, her husband's mother, and in the most cringe-worthy chapters of the book, the capture of a tribe in Africa and their journey to be sold into slavery in the southern U.S. All of these asides are unnecessary distractions that feel like filler to a book that, at 718 pages, certainly doesn't need any.
The book just didn't work for me. Lucy's would-be sassy tone was tiresome, and her dispensations of wisdom were far too few (and too stale) for someone who'd seen a century of living. Maybe that's unavoidable when a thirty-something first time novelist tries to craft such a lofty protagonist.
March 14, 2009
Several of my favorite novels, I have discovered, were written by people who had no business writing a novel like that. This is one of them.
Allan Gurganus managed to write a novel about the past hundred and fifty years in the deep south, in the voice of a woman, while keeping it sincere, engaging, realistic, and entertaining. The characters feel real. Even the people who only inhabit the book for a page. This book takes an historical time and makes it a breathing place; if that distinction makes any sense.
It's sad and funny and a little weird. It's so sincere and unflinching that sometimes it is hard to look at, but you have to. You have to know what happens next. At least, I did.
Allan Gurganus managed to write a novel about the past hundred and fifty years in the deep south, in the voice of a woman, while keeping it sincere, engaging, realistic, and entertaining. The characters feel real. Even the people who only inhabit the book for a page. This book takes an historical time and makes it a breathing place; if that distinction makes any sense.
It's sad and funny and a little weird. It's so sincere and unflinching that sometimes it is hard to look at, but you have to. You have to know what happens next. At least, I did.
May 20, 2009
This library book, besides being already one of the best books I've ever read, had a bonus: someone had saved some flowers in the pages, pressed and dried but still beautiful.
Now that I finally finished reading this book, I can unequivocally say it's the best book I've ever read, based on the quality of the writing, the story, the development of the characters, the insights into human behavior, including mine, the humor, the honesty, the fact that I could have kept on reading for another 700 pages. I recommend this book with 100% certainty that you'll love it too.
That being said, I'm glad I can start a new book. This was a big commitment since I'm reading so slowly these days.
Now that I finally finished reading this book, I can unequivocally say it's the best book I've ever read, based on the quality of the writing, the story, the development of the characters, the insights into human behavior, including mine, the humor, the honesty, the fact that I could have kept on reading for another 700 pages. I recommend this book with 100% certainty that you'll love it too.
That being said, I'm glad I can start a new book. This was a big commitment since I'm reading so slowly these days.
May 28, 2008
Officially, what I consider a tome, Gurganus' masterpiece, is one of the finest examples of historical fiction, and particularly the Civil War.
Forget the dreadful made-for-television movie, forget 'Gone With The Wind'. There is a langorous chapter midway into the story that depicts Sherman's March to the sea, told by the plantation owners and slaves who watched the plumes of smoke from distant homes, knowing their lives would be burned out from under them very soon. The images evoked in this chapter still resonate with me.
I've been a fan of Mr. Gurganus ever since.
Forget the dreadful made-for-television movie, forget 'Gone With The Wind'. There is a langorous chapter midway into the story that depicts Sherman's March to the sea, told by the plantation owners and slaves who watched the plumes of smoke from distant homes, knowing their lives would be burned out from under them very soon. The images evoked in this chapter still resonate with me.
I've been a fan of Mr. Gurganus ever since.
August 11, 2009
I have loaned this book to friends, all of whom couldn't finish it.
Ellen Burstyn opened in a Broadway show of the same name, and it closed that night.
I'm confused. This is a darn good read. And a beautiful first novel!
What do I find fascinating about it? And why don't my friends share?
Ellen Burstyn opened in a Broadway show of the same name, and it closed that night.
I'm confused. This is a darn good read. And a beautiful first novel!
What do I find fascinating about it? And why don't my friends share?
April 22, 2012
I loved this book so much that I ordered the DVD, but then I love stories about the 1800s.
I could identify with Ms. Marsden because I have raised children. I have been a wife. Some of her insight brought me comfort just knowing that someone else walked down similar paths I have, and even worse. Reading this book made me grateful that I live in a time of peace in our nation. Grateful for the modern day comforts we enjoy. I enjoyed the friendship Ms. Marsden and Castilia came to know. I even fell in love with Jerome and Zondra, the caregivers at the elderly home. I enjoyed the book so much that I missed it when it ended. It was like saying good-bye to people I had come to know and love.
I could identify with Ms. Marsden because I have raised children. I have been a wife. Some of her insight brought me comfort just knowing that someone else walked down similar paths I have, and even worse. Reading this book made me grateful that I live in a time of peace in our nation. Grateful for the modern day comforts we enjoy. I enjoyed the friendship Ms. Marsden and Castilia came to know. I even fell in love with Jerome and Zondra, the caregivers at the elderly home. I enjoyed the book so much that I missed it when it ended. It was like saying good-bye to people I had come to know and love.
March 20, 2013
I read this book years ago and found it one of the most poignant , funny and at times, achingly sad books I've ever read.The widow is delivering her recollections to an aide at her nursing home circa early 1970's I believe. She had been born some time after the Civil War but her much older husband had been a Confederate colonel. Her recollections stem from his experiences and her own post war memories. The horrors or the Civil War come alive and yet somehow,there were periods of laugh out loud humor.
February 18, 2025
⭐️⭐️
This book from 1989 was on the New York Times Bestseller List for 8 months. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I had read when everyone was raving about it. Rest assured, in 2025 it did not float my boat.
The author is a Southerner, and this novel is definitely Southern literature. Lucy is a young girl who married a Southern Civil War veteran aged 50 when she was 15. He went to war at age 10 with his same aged best friend. His friend died of a sniper shot at age 11 or 12 and Captain Marsden has never gotten over it.
There are a lot of racial issues, marital abuse, poverty, a slew full of kids (eleven in all). Very glad to be done with it.
ATY Goodreads Challenge - 2025
Prompt #5 - A book with a weird or intriguing title
This book from 1989 was on the New York Times Bestseller List for 8 months. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I had read when everyone was raving about it. Rest assured, in 2025 it did not float my boat.
The author is a Southerner, and this novel is definitely Southern literature. Lucy is a young girl who married a Southern Civil War veteran aged 50 when she was 15. He went to war at age 10 with his same aged best friend. His friend died of a sniper shot at age 11 or 12 and Captain Marsden has never gotten over it.
There are a lot of racial issues, marital abuse, poverty, a slew full of kids (eleven in all). Very glad to be done with it.
ATY Goodreads Challenge - 2025
Prompt #5 - A book with a weird or intriguing title
June 1, 2011
I bought Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All at a thrift store for no reason other than it sounded vaguely familiar. I had zero expectations for this book and overall I'd say it was a good read. It wandered through about 100 years of southern history and told the story of, well, the widow to the oldest living Confederate soldier. There were some pretty problematic things going on though.
The book was written in sort of an interview format, though the only voice we read was that of the widow. She told her story, and that of her late husband, as she sat in a nursing home a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday.
With the exception of one tedious and pointless flashback, the story flowed very well. Despite being 700+ pages I remained engaged, for the most part. The dialect was used effectively, in that it told me a lot about the characters without sounding forced or being difficult to understand.
There were several sections that were incredibly moving. When the widow was 14 years old she was basically given to the ex-Confederate soldier for marriage. He was in his 50s. Initially she was fine with the arrangement – until they went on their honeymoon. The poor girl had absolutely no idea what sex was and was completely horrified when her husband forced himself on her. I found that entire passage very difficult to read.
The author told the story of many people, including the slaves who'd lived on the plantation of the ex-Confederate soldier. Their stories were also incredibly difficult to read. They all wanted freedom so badly and yet when they finally got it, they realized that they weren't so free after all. With no money and no possible way to get jobs, they were basically just totally fucked. The book went back even further and described the slaves being kidnapped and brought to the new world. Once again, very hard to read.
Overall the author did a great job showing all sides of many different conflicts. For example, the ex-Confederate soldier signed up to fight for the Confederacy when he was 13 years old. He really had no concept of what they were fighting for – he just knew he was protecting his family and his property. War was complete and total hell for him and it not only stole his childhood but left him a bitter, angry person. He spent the next 90+ years engulfed in the memories of those few years at war.
While I did appreciate the author showing many sides, I also felt a little uncomfortable during parts of it. I don't know, the idea of a white male showing me the perspective of how these slaves were in some ways better off being slaves, or how their owners were 'good' owners. . . well, it wasn't all good.
I enjoyed this book but was never really completely engrossed in it. I might recommend it to a friend who was specifically looking for a novel about the human costs of the Civil War and the complexity of reconstruction, but I won't be seeking out other works by Mr. Gurganus.
The book was written in sort of an interview format, though the only voice we read was that of the widow. She told her story, and that of her late husband, as she sat in a nursing home a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday.
With the exception of one tedious and pointless flashback, the story flowed very well. Despite being 700+ pages I remained engaged, for the most part. The dialect was used effectively, in that it told me a lot about the characters without sounding forced or being difficult to understand.
There were several sections that were incredibly moving. When the widow was 14 years old she was basically given to the ex-Confederate soldier for marriage. He was in his 50s. Initially she was fine with the arrangement – until they went on their honeymoon. The poor girl had absolutely no idea what sex was and was completely horrified when her husband forced himself on her. I found that entire passage very difficult to read.
The author told the story of many people, including the slaves who'd lived on the plantation of the ex-Confederate soldier. Their stories were also incredibly difficult to read. They all wanted freedom so badly and yet when they finally got it, they realized that they weren't so free after all. With no money and no possible way to get jobs, they were basically just totally fucked. The book went back even further and described the slaves being kidnapped and brought to the new world. Once again, very hard to read.
Overall the author did a great job showing all sides of many different conflicts. For example, the ex-Confederate soldier signed up to fight for the Confederacy when he was 13 years old. He really had no concept of what they were fighting for – he just knew he was protecting his family and his property. War was complete and total hell for him and it not only stole his childhood but left him a bitter, angry person. He spent the next 90+ years engulfed in the memories of those few years at war.
While I did appreciate the author showing many sides, I also felt a little uncomfortable during parts of it. I don't know, the idea of a white male showing me the perspective of how these slaves were in some ways better off being slaves, or how their owners were 'good' owners. . . well, it wasn't all good.
I enjoyed this book but was never really completely engrossed in it. I might recommend it to a friend who was specifically looking for a novel about the human costs of the Civil War and the complexity of reconstruction, but I won't be seeking out other works by Mr. Gurganus.
October 27, 2009
I'd tried to read this book several times. It is one of the slowest paced but still decent books I've ever read. I'm glad I finally finished, but I can't say I would recommend it to... well, anyone I can think of.
I'm a Civil War buff and I'm always intrigued by the female perspective. The title character (Lucy) is a pretty interesting premise to start with... a young boy went off to war, grew up and got old, and married a young girl. Lucy ends up married to a Confederate veteran and living with him through his own senility. It's an interesting perspective - a family and marriage impacted by the shadows of a war that had ended long before the family ever came to be. Lucy pays the price (and reaps the rewards) of her husband's memories, her mother-in-law's tragic meeting with Sherman's forces, and a former slave's attachment to the family.
The book covers such a long length of time... we follow Lucy from childhood to near senility, but stop to flashback to her husband's childhood and war stories, and even her mother-in-law's childhood AND a slave's journey from Africa. It's generations packed into one book, and it all gets to be a little much. It is dense and long and a real effort to plow through. Not because the writing is bad, but because it isn't sparkling and sunshine. The stories read like truth and not too-pretty fiction.
Despite my struggles to finish the book, Gurganus chooses the right tone, I think. A quicker pace, flashier writing, or snappier dialog wouldn't fit with Lucy's almost too-realistic walk through her life. Her story is all about making it through all that life throws at you, and it is often the small things that become her stumbling blocks. Her life is dreary and full of drudgery, but there is plenty of humor to keep her - and the reader - going.
The ending of the book absolutely shocked me, and I was really surprised that I could be surprised by a book that dragged along so slowly. I can't imagine a better ending, since it makes you look at Lucy and her long life story in quite a different light. I can't say the ending made the rest of the long slow effort worth it, but it certainly let me finish the book without feeling cheated.
I'm a Civil War buff and I'm always intrigued by the female perspective. The title character (Lucy) is a pretty interesting premise to start with... a young boy went off to war, grew up and got old, and married a young girl. Lucy ends up married to a Confederate veteran and living with him through his own senility. It's an interesting perspective - a family and marriage impacted by the shadows of a war that had ended long before the family ever came to be. Lucy pays the price (and reaps the rewards) of her husband's memories, her mother-in-law's tragic meeting with Sherman's forces, and a former slave's attachment to the family.
The book covers such a long length of time... we follow Lucy from childhood to near senility, but stop to flashback to her husband's childhood and war stories, and even her mother-in-law's childhood AND a slave's journey from Africa. It's generations packed into one book, and it all gets to be a little much. It is dense and long and a real effort to plow through. Not because the writing is bad, but because it isn't sparkling and sunshine. The stories read like truth and not too-pretty fiction.
Despite my struggles to finish the book, Gurganus chooses the right tone, I think. A quicker pace, flashier writing, or snappier dialog wouldn't fit with Lucy's almost too-realistic walk through her life. Her story is all about making it through all that life throws at you, and it is often the small things that become her stumbling blocks. Her life is dreary and full of drudgery, but there is plenty of humor to keep her - and the reader - going.
The ending of the book absolutely shocked me, and I was really surprised that I could be surprised by a book that dragged along so slowly. I can't imagine a better ending, since it makes you look at Lucy and her long life story in quite a different light. I can't say the ending made the rest of the long slow effort worth it, but it certainly let me finish the book without feeling cheated.
September 22, 2021
While this was not the novel I expected (one with an irascible narrator like Jack Crabbe in Little Big Man or as tart as Mattie Ross in True Grit), Lucy Marsden’s voice and her long-winded, repetitive story was still sufficiently engaging to keep me reading for an entire week. The repetitions in Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All suggest that telling “all” is for some of us a matter of delving deeper and deeper into a few key moments in our lives. What’s interesting, too, is that 99-year-old Lucy Marsden has absorbed her husband’s stories, and she ventriloquizes these for her nursing-home auditor in her husband’s well-worn words.
What’s particularly poignant about the three principals in the story is how young they were when the course of their lives was irrevocably set: “Captain” Will Marsden is 13 when he and his best friend traipse off to join Confederate ranks; Lucy Marsden is only 13 when she marries the 50-year-old Confederate veteran in 1899; and former slave Cassie—personal maidservant to Marsden’s mother, a young widowed plantation owner—is 13 when she flees and is returned forcibly to resume her duties.
Lucy’s story in this novel is largely a recounting/apologia of/for her husband’s life, which came to be more and more defined by his best friend’s death by sniper fire and his close-quarter killing of a young Union soldier (who extracted from him a promise to return an heirloom watch to his family). Similarly, Lucy is particularly vivid in recounting Cassie’s spiteful, horrific story of the comeuppance to her mistress Mrs. Marsden at the tail-end of the war, when Sherman’s progress in North Carolina included the razing of the Marsden mansion.
Even though Marsden and Cassie’s lives/minds are warped by the events of antebellum slavery and the Civil War, Lucy bears and absorbs their troubled histories and recounts her own story with equanimity. Sadly, while Gurganus may have wanted to signal a purification/absolution/reconciliation in Lucy’s triumphant century, our present (36 years since the book’s publication in 1985) indicates we have not yet arrived…
What’s particularly poignant about the three principals in the story is how young they were when the course of their lives was irrevocably set: “Captain” Will Marsden is 13 when he and his best friend traipse off to join Confederate ranks; Lucy Marsden is only 13 when she marries the 50-year-old Confederate veteran in 1899; and former slave Cassie—personal maidservant to Marsden’s mother, a young widowed plantation owner—is 13 when she flees and is returned forcibly to resume her duties.
Lucy’s story in this novel is largely a recounting/apologia of/for her husband’s life, which came to be more and more defined by his best friend’s death by sniper fire and his close-quarter killing of a young Union soldier (who extracted from him a promise to return an heirloom watch to his family). Similarly, Lucy is particularly vivid in recounting Cassie’s spiteful, horrific story of the comeuppance to her mistress Mrs. Marsden at the tail-end of the war, when Sherman’s progress in North Carolina included the razing of the Marsden mansion.
Even though Marsden and Cassie’s lives/minds are warped by the events of antebellum slavery and the Civil War, Lucy bears and absorbs their troubled histories and recounts her own story with equanimity. Sadly, while Gurganus may have wanted to signal a purification/absolution/reconciliation in Lucy’s triumphant century, our present (36 years since the book’s publication in 1985) indicates we have not yet arrived…
March 16, 2018
The only regret that I have after finishing this book is that there is no reward for the good work! Like love, I had to endure so much before getting to the end. One needs a lot of patience with this. The first 500 pages will require a lot of perseverance. Then, the only question I kept asking myself was so what? Otherwise, after page 500, you begin to connect the dots and you start nodding as you say within yourself "now I see". But, to wait you must.
So what is in store for you? A rebel known as Captain Will Marsden returns home from war after loosing the civil war against the north. His only ambition is to marry to hisself a wife and get children so that he can tell them that he walked from Appomatox alive. He was enlisted to fight when he was only thirteen years old. When he returned home he found when the place had been burnt down by Sherman's army. He has to rebuild his life afresh.
He marries Lucy Marsden who is only fifteen at the time. Together, they have nine children. Unfortunately, he is unable to forget his war experiences. He keeps making references to those experiences in his sleep. Equally, in his waking hours he associates everything to what happened in Appomatox. He goes as far as naming one of his children Ned, against the better advice of his wife, and after the death of his friend during the war.
Their marriage is rocky. At some point Captain Marsden physically abuses his wife Lucy. Also, he starts wagering their money, a fact that frustrates his wife. These problems lead her to attempt suicide. Fortunately, she survives and endures a lot during the subsistence of her marriage. She finds solace in God and the bible which she reads regularly. Her friends are few and far between. Apart from her mother, the only other person she can talk to is Castalia, her former slave who was freed after the war.
I recommend the book to everyone. To those who abandoned it I want to tell them to finish. On my part, I still look forward to re-reading it with time.
So what is in store for you? A rebel known as Captain Will Marsden returns home from war after loosing the civil war against the north. His only ambition is to marry to hisself a wife and get children so that he can tell them that he walked from Appomatox alive. He was enlisted to fight when he was only thirteen years old. When he returned home he found when the place had been burnt down by Sherman's army. He has to rebuild his life afresh.
He marries Lucy Marsden who is only fifteen at the time. Together, they have nine children. Unfortunately, he is unable to forget his war experiences. He keeps making references to those experiences in his sleep. Equally, in his waking hours he associates everything to what happened in Appomatox. He goes as far as naming one of his children Ned, against the better advice of his wife, and after the death of his friend during the war.
Their marriage is rocky. At some point Captain Marsden physically abuses his wife Lucy. Also, he starts wagering their money, a fact that frustrates his wife. These problems lead her to attempt suicide. Fortunately, she survives and endures a lot during the subsistence of her marriage. She finds solace in God and the bible which she reads regularly. Her friends are few and far between. Apart from her mother, the only other person she can talk to is Castalia, her former slave who was freed after the war.
I recommend the book to everyone. To those who abandoned it I want to tell them to finish. On my part, I still look forward to re-reading it with time.
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