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Title: More Mediocre Civil War Fiction
Review: I was thinking of buying this book when a friend lent me a copy. It was just as well. This is a rather contrived story that puts a Yalie in an Illinois regiment in a sort of weird coming of age narrative ... and then tries, I think in vain, to set it in a "realistic" context. The result is rather contrived, rife with modern assumptions about human behavior that would not be apparent to nineteenth-century inhabitants, and an astute critic would hihghlight some of the problematic claims inherent in the treatment of the historical context. I have checked to see that there was a 7th Illinois Cavalry that was part of this campaign, but other claims don't stack up. Deprived of historical realism, the slimmed-down narrative is devoid of redeeming merit as fiction.I will note that at least one review I saw up here has been removed. It was a critical review. Perhaps the author (an academic by trade) has a thin skin. Is that how it is here? I hope not.
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