https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/home daily 1.0 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479145046496-DOKGQ7HQEM2T4I5HX3HH/image-asset.png home page 10. Cast two Shadows: The American Revolution in the South by Ann Rinaldi 14-year-old Caroline sees the revolutionary war come to South Carolina, to her town and into her home and, in the face of violence, she is forced to act with courage to protect her loved ones. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1543854315732-Y1ZV1ESDZO23NN53ORGW/blue+half+the+turncoat.jpg home page https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479141833922-4RQGHQ8B9V3ZKXQDYD1Y/image-asset.png home page 6. Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes It is Boston on the brink of revolution, and though 14-year-old Johnny has little interest in or knowledge of the political turmoil that rages around him, he learns fast and achieves both wisdom and maturity. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1543854400928-WEHSVABNWNNQJOHKFWT2/blue+half+tim%27s+excessive.jpg home page 4. Tim’s Excessive Good Fortune by Roddy Thorleifson It is the third year of the American Revolution and Tim Euston, a seventeen-year-old carpenter’s apprentice, has arrived in Morristown, New Jersey. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479144274685-FCGWAQ99JU9UCL10NS2J/image-asset.png home page 8. The Bastard by John Jakes A young Englishman claims the upper-class wealth and title he feels are owed to him, but instead finds himself working as a printer in revolutionary Boston, where he learns of love, danger, and freedom. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1543853581982-214BML0O75H98HNFT21H/blue+half+octavian.jpg home page https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479142069065-43IAAZ83MGVDPRBLG68P/image-asset.png home page 7. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier Spoiler alert! Sam dies! Are you peace-centered? Have you opted out of war? Have you taken a stand against systemic hatred? Then you will find kindred spirits in the authors of what is possibly the most dismal and depressing novel ever to rise up in defiance of organized violence. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479068373998-45IO1IDO3OUKJB7LTP6U/image-asset.png home page 1. Rabble in Arms by Kenneth Roberts The epic tale of Captain Peter Merrill, that tells of his service to the heroic Benedict Arnold, his romance with the lovely Ellen Phipps, and the threat posed by the suspicious Marie de Sabrevois. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1543853811467-V5QC7NLT0ZNT617AU9T3/blue+half+the+fort.jpg home page https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1509532298002-WT0BNOJ9XL6G329OP0HT/blue+half+shadow.png home page https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479098931919-XMEXT4AWCTLZ8H0RB84C/image-asset.png home page 5. April Morning by Howard Fast Fifteen-year-old Adam Cooper comes of age on the grueling first day of war when he is shot at and sees friends die as he marches with minutemen at Lexington, at Concord, and in the deadly British retreat back to Boston. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1509531296482-4GJ9OY3N33TRGZIZ2IEX/blue+half+dawn%27s.png home page https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1543854210849-DLYUTBUBYIKI9V725EUT/blue+half+nineth+daughter.jpg home page https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479083571046-MKC0UNFQRU3FJAY2H2VQ/image-asset.png home page 3. Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara The roles played by four revolutionary leaders, from the initial protests that mothered the Cause of Liberty, through to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and onto a united effort to overthrow one of the world’s greatest military powers. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479083412310-BH8Q177K4U1F4XQ9DRYP/blue+half+drums.png home page 2. Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmonds The war shattered tale of Gil Martin and his newlywed Lana after they venture out to their pioneer home by the Mohawk River in Upstate New York. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479144320659-S73A4USXV24GDXZ2WOH2/image-asset.png home page 9. Johnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution by Jerome Charyn A sad, sordid, and humorous story of an educated young man who was raised in a brothel, and grew to a life of patriotic heroism and perpetual suffering. (more) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1543853920162-IM6A1227VR9HKTSA4B5K/blue+half+brave+enemies.jpg home page https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479137570788-EELEY1MACTIBF5PJGC7T/washington+crosing+2.png home page https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/rabble-in-arms-by-kenneth-roberts daily 0.75 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479098080484-BVD8QBBER7QF7RH7VDMV/image-asset.png Rabble in Arms https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/drums-along-the-mohawk daily 0.75 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479098122276-3YPYBMYJWLC9OOVJDXD2/blue+drums.png Drums Along the Mohawk https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/rise-to-rebellion daily 0.75 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479098159939-QLR1FNAWSR0CSFEDTQV3/blue+rise.png Rise to Rebellion https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/april-morning daily 0.75 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479099045074-UEBGVNPGK0WLG41KZX70/image-asset.png April Morning Fifteen-year-old Adam Cooper comes of age on the grueling first day of war when he is shot at and sees friends die as he marches with minutemen at Lexington, at Concord, and in the deadly British retreat back to Boston. The courage of these citizen soldiers stiffened spines from the icy forests of Maine to the misty swamps of Georgia. Their deeds could inspire noble thoughts in the 1770s and, with slight adjustments of focus, they can do the same today. Read this book and you’ll be a better person for it. April Morning unrolls over 36 hours of brow-furrowing action but, regrettably, begins with a lengthy family debate that really could have been left out. Fortunately it is interrupted by the sound of galloping horses and ringing church bells leads to an “extraordinary town meeting” where Adam’s wise old father persuades the militia to put aside thoughts of trigger-pulling in favor of a parade ground protest. And he accomplishes this with a speech that Abraham Lincoln would have been proud to deliver. “What certainty?” [he asks the committeemen,] “Our duty! Our oath in the holy name of freedom! ...Is our principle flexible? Have we nurtured the Committee only to abandon it at the moment it faces the test? Have we drilled a militia only to sweep it into hiding at the first glimpse of a thieving redcoat?... I say, no! I say that right and justice on our side! Who are these red-coated bandits that we should fear them? Are we strangers to the military curse that strangles England-the monster of conquest and bloodlust that beckons us to equate the fat George to the antichrist? We know where they find their so-called soldiers, the sweepings of the filthy alleys of London, the population of their jails, the men condemned to the gallows and reprieved to teach us legality! We know them, and we fear them not! Our duty remains our duty! Our course remains the just cause!” We can ignore the fact that in this era only a Quaker fanatic would have spoken of a “military curse” or of “the monster of conquest.” We can also assume that Patriot enthusiasts really believed that all redcoats were vagrants and criminals (they weren’t.) We can do this because April Morning is not just a history lesson. It is a post-nuclear, post-holocaust, pacifist parable, and a darned good one. On page 1, after a stern lecture from his father regarding undone chores, Adam thinks: “If just once in all my born days you’d say a good thing to me, then maybe I’d show good to you...and maybe read your mind, or your soul.” Like most young adult novels that find favor with schoolteachers, April Morning is an old adult novel with a young protagonist. Following the traditions of coming-of-age stories, Adam starts out with at least some of the characteristics of a teenager and rapidly develops the values of a middle-aged, 20th century, liberal-minded scholar. If only Howard Fast had put humanistic wisdom and adolescent foolishness on alternating pages, then this might have been a book an ordinary teenager would read for more than a book report. Alas, he did not, but that shouldn’t stop us older and wiser folks from thoroughly enjoying it. Not part of a series. Moderate violence. No disturbing content. P.C. Available in audiobook format. Adapted as a 100 minute movie. Howard Fast on Wikipedia (click here) https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/johnny-tremain daily 0.75 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479137790754-GU11PZLT3B1GEPSVRG3Z/blue+tremaine.png Johnny Tremain It is Boston on the brink of revolution, and though 14-year-old Johnny has little interest in or knowledge of the political turmoil that rages around him, he learns fast and achieves both wisdom and maturity. Johnny is the son of a woman who was cast out by her wealthy family for marrying a man they did not approve of. Before she died, she somehow came up with money enough to have him bound as an apprentice to a silversmith. Johnny is talented and hard working, but that has only made him proud, self-centered, and a little bit cruel. His hopes of a profitable trade are ended by an accident that leaves his right hand disabled. This tragedy is compounded by character flaws. He falls into despair and almost into a life of crime. His luck turns after he accepts humble employment delivering newspapers and starts to meet leaders of the tax protest. But he is still the boy with a bad attitude. Will these opportunities lead to a reformation of his character, a renewal of his career prospects, and a role in the birth of the new nation? Johnny’s new employer is involved with a revolutionary government-in-waiting whose meetings are attended by major historical characters: Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock. Their actions are described in the gentle terms often granted to rebellious groups who eventually succeed in heading up a government recognized as legitimate by major nations. Forbes has them reacting rather than acting, observing rather than spying, and planning rather than plotting. When not on his horse doing his deliveries, Johnny borrows books, listens to political debates, and spends time with 16-year-old Rab Silsbee. This printer’s apprentice is everything that Johnny is not. He is modest where Johnny is proud. He is cautious where Johnny is impetuous. He is open-minded where Johnny is judgmental. Rab, along with others, try to guide Johnny in a personal and political renewal. But is Johnny willing to accept help? Will his immaturity prevent him from gaining their trust? He reads their publications so he must know they believe themselves to be part of a great crusade for human freedom. At such a turning point in history, will Johnny act with the powers of progress, or will he be seduced by those who selfishly cling to the past? A crucial turning point comes where Forbes demonstrates her genius with words accorded to James Otis. After the destruction of tea in Boston’s harbor leads to the closing of the port and the financial ruin of its inhabitants, Otis asks why they need to fight. When disappointed with their response he provides his own: “That’s not enough reason for going into a war. Did any occupied city ever have better treatment than we’ve had from the British? Has one rebellious newspaper been stopped – one treasonable speech? Where are the firing squads, the jails jammed with political prisoners?... I hate those infernal British troops spread all over my town as much as you do...But we are not going off into a civil war merely to get them out of Boston. Why are we going to fight?” [One listener says,] “for the rights of Englishmen- Everywhere.” [But Otis says no,] “Why stop with Englishmen?... The peasants of France, the serfs of Russia. Hardly more than animals now... But because we fight, they shall see freedom like a new sun rising in the west. Those rights God has given to every man, no matter how humble... It is all so much simpler than you think... We fight we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up.” Johnny Tremain has sold in the millions, but overwhelmingly to parents, schools, and libraries. The book could have been as inspirational to young readers as Forbes had hoped, if only its teenage characters had been given the language and emotions of teenagers. Like many coming-of-age novels, it is more inspiring for the adult than for its targeted youth. But that’s a minor detail. Adults need moral motivation too and Johnny Tremain is a monumental work of inspirational literature. Not part of a series Mild violence. No disturbing content. P.C. Available in audiobook format. Adapted as an 80 minute movie. Esther Forbes on Wikipedia (click here) https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/my-brother-sam-is-dead daily 0.75 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479137914537-31R7V043BUQEL7VJ0C8L/blue+sam.png My Brother Sam Is Dead https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/the-bastard daily 0.75 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479138241765-73T3KOQYWZCKYWMAI5DC/image-asset.png The Bastard A young Englishman claims the upper-class wealth and title he feels are owed to him, but instead finds himself working as a printer in revolutionary Boston, where he learns of love, danger, and freedom. After more than two decades as a writer, Jakes was thinking of giving up when he decided to make one more effort. The eight-volume series he embarked upon has since sold over 55 million copies. Leading character Phillip Kent begins the saga as the illegitimate son of an English duke. His story is picaresque (about a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society). When Phillip and his mother cross over from France to claim his inheritance, they find the old man on his deathbed. Soon after they discover themselves robbed by his haughty wife and Phillip’s sadistic half-brother. They are forced to flee to London, but not before Phillip exacts a particularly delightful revenge. In the great city, Phillip learns the printer’s trade and meets Benjamin Franklin. After his half-brother tracks him down, Phillip sails for America where he masters his craft and becomes involved in the politics that are quickly leading the colonies into revolution. While the fires of protest rage, a red-hot romance develops between Phillip and the daughter of one of the men who is directing these historic events. The Bastard is tale told in an easy, fluid style. Its writing fluctuates, sometimes reading like a high school textbook and other times like a Harlequin Romance: “His hands sought her. Warm private places tingled his fingertips. He felt passion change her body, as his had changed. The meadow grass rippled in the wind. A whispering. Cries of gulls drifted from the harbor. The hot light poured down as her own hands moved over him, and his grew bolder. Jolted, he moved back a second as she pulled away. She thrust down her skirt as his eyes flared with anger. Sitting up she brushed off her bodice. She wouldn’t look at him.” Phillip finds himself torn between equality and gentility. His mother has raised him to believe that he deserves the social status of his father, but when events force a wedge between Phillip and his new lover she challenges him angrily: “Does everything that’s happened to you in Boston mean nothing?.... Was it all a dumb show without any feeling? Any conviction on your part?.... You can’t decide what you are! A free man, or the trained pet of that... that British whore! .... All her rantings about your rightful place as a little lord!” Jakes cleverly uses Phillip’s inner turmoil to reflect the national discord. This deep social division led to a 1788 presidential election that was decided by an elite of voters that numbered less than two percent of the new nation’s population. Property restrictions limited voting rights as severely as in England, a situation that lasted until 1828 and ‘Jacksonian Democracy.’ However, Jakes keeps these sorts of weighty themes and intellectual dilemmas in the background. The Bastard is a suspense filled saga of love and hate and it carries the reader through its 544 pages like he’s on a river at flood stage, and doesn’t cast him ashore until the very end. First in The Kent Family Chronicles, also called The American Bicentennial Series Adapted as a 3 hour 8 minute movie. Moderate violence. Sexual content. No disturbing content. P.C. Available in audiobook format. John Jake's webpage. (click here) https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/cast-two-shadows daily 0.75 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479138571678-KNQZ42LHYQJ4KHXHEY2R/image-asset.png Cast Two Shadows 14-year-old Caroline sees the revolutionary war come to South Carolina, to her town and into her home and, in the face of violence, she is forced to act with courage to protect her loved ones. “Cast two shadows,” is a Southern expression for a mixed-race child who shows valuable traits acquired from each race. The author does not tell us what these traits are, but her leading character, 14-year-old Caroline, is a white-looking mulatto with admirable qualities. She has been adopted into her illegitimate father’s wealthy white family where war and misfortune will test her many talents. It is 1780 and the invading British have occupied Camden, South Carolina. A redcoat officer has taken Caroline’s father prisoner, moved into his mansion, and forced the women into the servants’ quarters upstairs. In spite of her stepmother’s decision to remain loyal to the King, Caroline remains on good terms with the dear old woman. Both are embarrassed by Caroline’s gorgeous half-sister who is particularly loyal to Good King George after having given her body to the very upper class British Colonel Lord Rawdon. He claims to love her truly and she foolishly thinks he will marry her. Meanwhile, off in the city of Charleston, another British officer has had Caroline’s half-brother severely whipped for refusing to give up his prize horse. He is now a rebel on the run and in dire need of assistance. This is only the start of it, and Caroline is soon forced to make life-or-death decisions that will reveal her as a woman of multiple strengths. Rinaldi is a New York liberal, but in her 40 novels she has tried her best to subdue a hometown tendency to blame all of America’s ills on regions far from her home-sweet-home. While sticking to historical facts and keeping most of the blood and gore offstage, in Cast Two Shadows she has still created a page-turner. Her characters are unique and each has his or her own way of speaking. The good guys are people you can care about, and the bad guys are not so odious that you don’t want to hear about them. The depth and complexity of characters can only upset readers more when they are forced to contemplate the condition of people who are neither black nor white, neither high-class nor low, and neither fully Patriot not entirely Loyalist. Rinaldi’s narrative only hints at the severity of war in the revolutionary South. There, things did not go as pleasantly as they did in cooler climes. Loyalists were not a small minority who could be contained. They banded together and fought, sometimes viciously. After the British offered freedom to any slaves who escaped their masters, wealthy whites had to wonder how they could square the source of their prosperity with their fight against oppression. Poor whites had to wonder what values they truly shared with an elite of rich planters that included George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Who can truly stand for liberty? Who can honestly claim to fight for justice? In chapter six Caroline’s stepmother says: “There are desperate men on both sides settling old scores and family feuds in the guise of attachment to either the Crown or independence. There is widespread looting, burning out.” It is into this witch’s brew of confused ideology and conflicting loyalties that Rinaldi has thrown poor Caroline, and it is there that she must deal with dangers not often faced by soldiers, and decisions rarely presented to parents. It will keep you reading. Fifth in the The Great Episodes Series. Moderate violence. No disturbing content. P.C. Available in audiobook format. Ann Rinaldi on Wikipedia. (click here) https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/dawns-early-light daily 0.75 2021-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1543850871354-EEMOVPV88V0K0VG06J0Q/blue+whole+tim%27s+excessive.jpg Tim's Excessive Good Fortune It is the third year of the American Revolution and Tim Euston, a seventeen-year-old carpenter’s apprentice, has arrived in Morristown, New Jersey. George Washington’s army had just marched out to face the British, and Tim is eager to follow after them and join up as a common foot soldier. But before he can leave, Tim experiences some spectacular good luck. He impresses a drunken captain with military knowledge gained through his study of officers’ manuals and military histories. The captain impulsively decides he will recommend Tim for an officer’s commission to serve as his ensign. But Tim is not the only one who has been hoping to be an officer, and as news spreads, many are envious and resentful. The captain has barely recovered from his hangover when Tim stumbles upon the body of a murdered officer. Those who resent Tim’s good fortune are quick to presume guilt. Tim now has to clear his name and as well prove he deserves a commission. But how? Is Tim’s remarkable good fortune turning out to be excessive good fortune? When Tim talks it over with his sister Sadie and his best friend Dan, they only want to tease him. “Watch out, Sadie!” hissed a young man’s voice from the door. “It’s Tim Euston you stand before. The crazed killer! There before you, and ready to kill again, no doubt!” “Dan! Will you… you don’t…” stammered Tim. “Now don’t worry yourself, boy,” said Dan Eliot as he came over to give him a pat on the shoulder. “We’ll believe that it wasn’t you. At least we’ll claim that we do.” … “How do you know all this?” asked Tim. “The colonel’s cook heard it all, over at Arnold’s Tavern. She was here just now, with some shortbread to sell. And while she waited for the mistress she was telling it all to your mother. And I was there to hear.” “Well! Bad news travels fast,” grumbled Tim. Thorleifson’s writing is clear and accessible. His language is simple but not simplistic. He anticipates the reader’s questions and his research has been thorough. The story stands out from other novels through the degree of its realism. Remarkable authenticity is achieved in his interweaving of mystery and intrigue with history and ideology. But it only reads like a history book in brief indented passages at the end of the chapters. The politics of war is expressed in brief but heated arguments. Tim’s nemesis, Lieutenant Hawke, speaks for those who oppose Tim. “The position will be filled by this… this stranger – this boy! And when so many gentlemen volunteers are here and waiting for just such a posting! Men with knowledge and ability – men from good families. Good New Jersey men! Men who have freely given their time. Men whose honesty is beyond reproach! And… and the fool goes and picks a boy of seventeen years with no military experience – from no military family! And he was born and raised in Boston!” In Tim’s Excessive Good Fortune, the bad guys are not so hateful that they make you want to throw down the book, and the good guys are not so noble of spirit that they’re boring. The characters never express an obviously modern opinion. Muzzle-loading pistols require a full 20 seconds to reload. No one buys anything they could never have afforded. At the beginning of each chapter is a highly realistic and truly excellent illustration that makes it easy to picture objects, actions and settings. The dialogue is authentic without being difficult. Even readers as young as ten can be immersed in the social history of the era, while being swept along by a plot that is not resolved until the last chapter. Tim and Sadie are no ordinary pair of child laborers. The illegitimate offspring of a “kept woman”, they received a basic education before the bankruptcy of their faraway father cut off their support. Tim and Sadie had to work full time, but they continued reading Paine, Jefferson and other advocates of liberty. The realism achieved by Thorleifson was made possible by an avalanche of recent historical research. Historians know far more now about life in the eighteenth century than they did fifty years ago. During that era, histories, novels and newspaper articles read like sermons, with exaggerations that led to false impressions. Fake news didn’t start with the internet. Thorleifson’s willingness to take full advantage of available research has resulted in a series of murder mysteries that reflect both popular ideology and everyday realities. Details like the cost of buying a rifle are given with the number of days of labor such a purchase would have demanded from an unskilled worker. Comic relief offsets the torment of war, but in Tim’s Excessive Good Fortune such diversion does not rely on highly unlikely situations or the dry observations of an omnipotent narrator. The idealistic and determined Tim Euston acts as a straight man for the wit of Sadie and Dan. But their teasing does not detract from either the gravity of historic events or the suspense of an excellent murder mystery. The state of political turmoil that bears down so heavily upon the new nation is fully reflected in the anxiety and confusion that burden these young revolutionaries. Tim’s Excessive Good Fortune is full of action and conflict but it still rings true as a story that might actually have happened. Third in the Tim Euston Series. Mild violence. No disturbing content. P.C. Available in audiobook format. (click here) Roddy Thorleifson's webpage. (click here) https://www.10bestnovelssetintheamericanrevolution.org/johnny-oneeye daily 0.75 2018-12-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57c30e44be6594ea1c747eeb/1479140842491-KHQ01J09P7SFJM53EUUS/image-asset.png Johnny One-Eye A sad, sordid, and humorous story of an educated young man who was raised in a brothel, and grew to a life of patriotic heroism and perpetual suffering. If you feel that the American Revolution was a mean-spirited effort by an upper class of oppressors and their sadistic lackeys, then your opinion will be confirmed by the torments and delights depicted in Johnny One-Eye. Jerome Charyn’s brilliance is found in his voluptuous verbiage and his descriptions of highly improbable situations. It is not, however, revealed in any sort of slavish adherence to historical realism. The British fleet in New York harbor is, “...a series of little islands made of wood and cloth, islands flush with drums and fifes and scarlet coats that could have been the Devil’s own works.” This seems to imply large vessels, much music, and bright red coats. In reality, the shallowness of the harbor meant the largest ship was the HMS Eagle with a hull measuring 44 feet by 160 feet. Drums and fifes would have been in storage and, while modern synthetic dyes might be a brilliant red, the madder root dye used for the coats of the revolutionary rank and file would have started out blood red and quickly faded with exposure to sun and rain. But maybe this lack of realism should not matter. It’s still a lovely sentence. “Divilish” humor from in Johnny’s first person narration shows no preference for either side of the conflict. In his description of combatants on Long Island in August of ‘76 he says, “The enemy was a musical clock with bayonets and musket balls. And the rebels could only tap out the pathetic little tunes of individual men.” The narrator’s humor is less kind, with Johnny suffering beatings and other humiliations almost every ten pages. Connoisseurs of cruelty will regale in the poetry of pain: “I ... stabbed him in the lower region of his belly, twisted the blade until he rose up in the chair in confusion and pain and complete surprise... His mouth opened like a whale with little yellow teeth. His own fat body pushed down on the sword and his trembling was close to suicide.” In scenes that must have been inspired by fantasy literature, the philandering Founding Fathers are morphed into giants, dwarves, and mythic beasts. George Washington is repeatedly described as a “giant,” when in reality he was only somewhat taller than most men. Estimates of an average man’s height at this time vary from 5 feet, to 5 feet 9 inches. Washington was reported to be between 6 foot 1 inch and 6 foot 3 inches, and was said to be either slightly taller than Jefferson, or slightly shorter than Lafayette. Peter Francisco, a soldier in the 10th Virginia Regiment, was famed for being 6 foot 8 inches. Charyn characterizes the Commander-in-Chief as a cantankerous gambling addict who liked to threaten people. When he recruits Johnny as a spy, Washington says: “...should you betray us...you’ll be kept alive, but not your loved ones.” Sexual innuendo oozes from every page, including those that mention only Johnny with Washington or Lafayette. Lust is less obscured when Benedict Arnold takes Johnny home: “The general scooped me up into his arms, deposited me first into a closet off the kitchen, where he ripped off my tatterdemalion blouse and chopped at my beard with a scalping knife, then bathed me with his own hand in a pungence of lye. And how could I strangle this traitor, lads, after such kindness?” If this passage has you breathing heavily then Jerome Charyn will not leave you ungratified. Moderate violence. No disturbing content. Sexual content. P.C. Jerome Charyn's webpage. 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