A Distant Flame: A Novel

by Philip Lee Williams

A young Confederate sharpshooter, Charlie Merrill, has already suffered many losses in his life, but he must find a way to endure―and to grow―if he is to survive the battles he and his fellow soldiers face in July 1864 at the gates of Atlanta. From the opening salvos on Rocky Face Ridge in northwest Georgia through the trials of Resaca and Kennesaw Mountain, Charlie faces the overwhelming force of the Union army and a growing uncertainty about his place in the war.

Framed by a story that finds the elderly Charlie giving a speech on the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Atlanta, A Distant Flame portrays love, violence, and regret about wrong paths taken. With an attention to historical detail that brings the past powerfully to the present, Philip Lee Williams reveals Charlie’s journey of redemption from the Civil War’s fields of fire to the slow steps of old age.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Civil War, War, Fiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

While young Charlie Merrill can hit a target 2,000 yards away with a Whitlock rifle, he is an unlikely soldier. We see him before the war as a frail, sickly teenager who is well-schooled in poetry and classical literature, living in one of the many North Georgia towns that is not altogether convinced of the wisdom of secession, much less war.

We see Charlie Merrill in 1914 as his home town prepares to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Atlanta, thinking back on the loss and the sacrifice and the love that tied them together. And those of us who have walked the old works of Kennesaw Mountain where hikers now commune with a quiet wood and families spread out blankets and picnics on the warm grass of summer afternoons, see Charlie Merrill in in the contrasting bloody hell of 1864 rendered here in graphic detail.

This novel received the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction in 2004. It is a well-deserved honor, for A Distant Flame stands very near the top of the 80,000 books published about the civil war.

[Kyri Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A literary Civil War novel that alternates between Charlie Merrill's grim existence as a sharpshooter in the Army of Tennessee, his sickly but love-touched boyhood and his old age.

I have very mixed feelings about this novel and I note from the other blurbs and reviews it's gotten that my opinion is a somewhat contrarian one.

I certainly have no issue with the research, which appears to have been painstaking. I found, though, that my engagement with the story wavered many times as I read. I honestly can't decide if this is a significant literary work told in a poetic style or if it's essentially sentimental in its themes and given to purple prose in its execution. I had trouble with the narrative's total humorlessness, with the saintly profundity of every character, with the endless repetition of variants on "Slavery was wrong." Yeah, obviously slavery was wrong. Every modern reader, hopefully, realizes that. But I'm not really convinced that the nineteenth-century Georgian character Charlie Merrill would realistically feel so unequivocally about it, and, as ever, the statement would have worked better shown than told. The race relations shown in the novel are all actually (and unrealistically) idyllic.

And along those same lines, I think sophisticated modern readers can deal with protagonists who are fighting for a variety of reasons, some of which we do not consider today to be good. Merrill's lack of commitment to any aspect of his cause (whether resisting invasion or states' rights or his comrades, except for his single companion Duncan, or slavery) actually makes his battlefield actions more, not less, morally questionable for me. If he's opposed to slavery, why doesn't he go fight for the Union, as many Southerners did? It severely undermines the quality of moral spokesmanship that I think the novel is trying to give him.

I was more moved by the failed-romance aspect of the story than I was by the war aspect, which is unusual for me.

I think this would probably appeal to readers who enjoyed books like Cold Mountain more than to readers who enjoy, say, David Poyer's Civil War novels. As for its overall quality, I'm just not sure.

[Jerry Wall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Civil war in the south book, based in area from Chattanooga to Atlanta, then and at the fifty year
reunion of the battle. Very creative use of language e. g. rain light and others.
Battle scenes stress the strains and worry of battlefield. Romance bits also creatively done
For Dawsonville Library book group (Ga. authors emphasis)

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlie is a sickly boy, growing up in a small Georgia town before the Civil War, son of a Baptist preacher. He begins to heal, practices his rifle shooting, at which he is good, and falls in love with a young woman who is sent to live in the town with an uncle. Then the War comes, and Charlie suffers loss after loss: deaths of family members and a friend, and the loss of his love when she is sent abroad. He deals with his losses by joining the Confederate army at the battle of Chickamauga. Thus, he is a part of the tragic retreat of the Confederates toward Atlanta. Because of his shooting skills, he becomes a sniper for the Confederates. A gentle boy, he kills and hates it but does it because it his duty. We see the horror of a war which should not have been fought through Charlie's eyes.

The author does a good job of skipping between time periods: before the War, during it, and years later when Charlie's home town celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Atlanta.

We hate this war but not the characters. We understand them and yearn for them to overcome the tragic mistakes that have come their way. We do find some peace and hope at the end.

[Alberto Beltran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a good read. I enjoyed it because Williams wrote it in such a way which kept me interested the entire way. The method he used to lay out the book and him going back and forth in time to tie ends of the story together made the story interesting. I found the battle descriptions to be great and they definitely kept me reading and helped me visualize what Charlie (main character) went through. The ups and downs in his life were joyful and saddening, and I could almost feel Charlie's emotions as he went through the plethera of events that he did throughout the story. This book is a great book and I recommend it to anyone that enjoyes action stories with suspense.

[Michal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like his writing but the structure put me off.I read most of this. it does that skipping around in time thing that you have to know what you're doing or be a brilliant, amazing writer to pull off. The writing is good,and the story is interesting but three time lines?? This might have been better if he had kept it to one with some flashbacks. I skimmed a bit. the civil war battle scenes are very good. the characterization is good, too. it's one of those frustrating books that I wish I could get someone to edit the kinks out of, you know?

[Allen Jeffreys · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was about a young man who was very sickly as a child but at age of seventeen he entered the Civil War as a Confederate nd became a sharp shooter. He was disturbed about the reasons for men killing each other and his thoughts went from different periods in his life. A love story was interwoven into the story

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of the best books I've read in my 60 years. Wonderful history and evocative emotion and setting.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am plumb crazy about this fine novel.
Highly recommended.