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Faith
of Our Fathers, Volume 1: A House Divided
by N. C. Allen
Reviewed
by Jennie Hansen
One of the hottest
books in LDS bookstores this season is A House Divided, the
opening book in the Faith of Our Fathers series.
Recent years have seen the rising success of historical fiction
series in the LDS fiction market, but Faith of Our Fathers
by N. C. Allen, a series on the U.S. Civil war, is unique among
those popular blockbusters for its diverse approach to a segment
of U.S. history most historians pass by as having had little impact
on the people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
It is also the first major series of this magnitude written by a
woman. N. C. Allen also writes under the name of Nancy Campbell
Allen.
Allen covers
the story from the vantage point of six different families from
six different geographical areas; a powerful Northern family, a
prominent Southern family with a son who has left the family to
join the Church, a slave family, a bayou family, an Ohio farm family,
and a New York Irish immigrant family. The viewpoints are as diverse
as the geographic settings. The male and female points of view are
almost evenly divided and the addition of the slaves' points of
view, the farm family, the immigrants, and the isolationist view
of the Mormons building a separate empire in the West gives a broader
picture of a period of American history that nearly tore the nation
apart and left no segment of the population unscathed.
Allen introduces
characters at such a rapid rate in this first book, it becomes difficult
to keep the various storylines straight. It's almost like reading
a Tom Clancy novel to try to figure out where the various plots
and characters will intersect. Though a novel this ambitious requires
a lot of information being introduced in the first volume, I would
have liked to get to know each major player better before moving
on to the next.
Historians
have long since concluded that there was no single reason for the
U.S. Civil war, and Allen recognizes the complex economic and political
reasons behind the conflict, but chooses to highlight race as the
major motivating factor behind the war. In doing so, she doesn't
turn a completely blind eye to the greed and power motives of the
era.
A Clutch
of Characters
The prologue opens the story with Ben Birmingham's failed attempt
to free a group of family slaves. Even more chilling than the punishment
meted out to the slaves who attempted to run away, is the attitude
behind the punishment. The slaves are punished to set an example,
then sent right back to their previous positions on the plantation
and expected to behave as though nothing had happened. Ben, the
oldest son in the plantation owner's family, is kept under close
observation, forbidden contact with his black valet, and is under
constant suspicion from his family and neighbors. The slaves are
considered naughty, but the white son of the plantation owner has
jeopardized a way of life. For that he is ostracized from Southern
society and from his family, especially his mother to whom the plantation
is her life. Sarah owns the plantation, where her word is law, and
her spineless, but affable husband, Jeffrey, has no voice. There
are four other children in the family, besides Ben, who play significant
roles.
In the first
chapter we meet the Boston Birmingham family, ostensibly led by
Jeffrey's brother, James, though his abolitionist wife, Elizabeth,
sets the tone for most of their family's attitude toward the slavery
issue. The two Birmingham men are twins and both are married to
strong-willed women, though the Boston gentleman certainly fared
better than his Southern brother in the marriage sweeps.
The first of
the Boston Birminghams we meet is a young female journalist, Anne,
who masquerades as a boy to get the news for her popular, but anonymously
written newspaper column. Her pursuit of her chosen career leads
her to enlist in the army of the North as a man. She is not the
only strong-willed, independent member of her family. She has three
brothers and a sister who develop their own priorities.
The Birmingham
slaves are led by Ruth, who is the head house servant and one of
the slaves severely whipped when Ben attempted to free her. She
is also the grandmother of two young girls. The 'family' also includes
Ben's valet, Joshua, who has been demoted to a stable hand. He is
also the biological brother to the older granddaughter. Freedom
is their overriding dream.
In New Orleans
Jean-Pierre Brissot owns and serves as editor of a newspaper. When
he writes an editorial from his heart which he has no intention
of publishing, it is lost, then found by some of the South's most
rabid secessionists. He is viciously attacked and left in a coma.
In an attempt to save his life medically and protect him from further
attacks, his wife, Jenny, arranges passage for him and herself to
Boston. This leaves their twenty-three year old daughter, who sympathizes
with the North, alone in New Orleans.
Fresh from
Ireland, the O'Shea family finds themselves victims of their own
share of bigotry and discrimination. The father, Gavin has a great
love for his adopted country, and would enlist in the army if he
were young and fit. His son, Daniel, doesn't feel he owes America
anything.
The Gunderson
family of Ohio seem to have little reason to get involved in the
conflict, being neither Southerners nor having any connection with
the shipping and manufacturing of the North. They are farmers struggling
with the massive work load of running two farms. Per , the father,
pushes himself to do his work in spite of an injury to his leg which
never properly heals. His wife, Amanda, believes anything, even
her husband's disability, can somehow be overcome, if she works
hard enough. Their son, Ivor, is more pessimistic since his wife
abandoned him and their infant daughter, leaving him bitter and
unable to trust another woman. He is determined to raise his daughter
with only his mother's help and to ease his father's burden. Still
he longs to join the military unit leaving Ohio, and his parents
encourage him to leave his daughter with them while he joins the
men marching off to preserve the union. He leaves, expecting a brief
military action that will keep him from his farm no more than a
few months.
Choosing
Sides
A House Divided introduces the reader to the ugliness that was
slavery in a land that prided itself upon the establishment of freedom
and a commitment to individual liberty. Allen astutely points out
that it wasn't just a few Southern plantation owners who grew wealthy
from slave labor. Much of the North's wealth could be traced back
to the same laborers who provided the cotton for Northern mills
and filled the holds of Northern ships. She also addresses in a
minor way the political maneuvering for power that played a key
role in the hostility between differing factions throughout the
country.
This story
begins to take shape as our young country sees its men and women
begin to choose sides in the conflict to come. Allen takes us in
this first volume from the secession of South Carolina in late 1860
to the battlefields of Virginia in December of 1861 and from the
idealistic notion of causes, heroism, and victory to the reality
of fear, shivering in the cold, and seeing men bleed out their lives
in the oozing mud of winter.
Allen does
a commendable job of creating characters the reader can care about
and in introducing a background for her characters that brings the
1860's to life. She uses a storytelling style that blends the smaller
stories of each character's life into a broader story that encompasses
the Civil War years. Civil War aficionados may find fault with some
of the liberties she took in a few instances with places and dates,
but for the most part the events portrayed are historically accurate.
The cover and
a section of photographs at the back of the book, shot from Civil
War reenactments, are interesting and add detail to the book. Each
chapter begins with a significant quote taken from the speeches
and diaries of various people of the Civil War era. A couple of
the quotes Allen uses came from Brigham Young, some from Lincoln,
and others from both ordinary people and well-known historical figures,
both black and white. The quotes not only sum up the events of the
particular chapter, but give rise to serious thought concerning
the issues of that day which still have not been completely resolved
in our day.
There are several
stylistic issues that bothered me in this book which have nothing
to do with the story or how well it is written, though they were
distractions to me. Style manuals I am familiar with place the name
of the person being quoted flush right at the bottom of the quote
rather than indented left. Also, there is no need for a comma when
the old English style of stating a date is used such as in 26 January
1861.
Perhaps the
point that impresses me most with this book is the way Allen sees
inspiration, the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit, or if you will,
the Light of Christ, working in the hearts and minds of those people
who took a stand against evil both in the North and the South. It
is a book destined to take its place as one of the most readable
historical novels published for the LDS market. It is not only a
thought-provoking story, but a spiritual experience.
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