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book review



Civil War sights, sounds captured

By Jonathan Shipley
Special to The Denver Post

THE YEAR OF JUBILO
By Howard Bahr
Henry Holt, $25

August 6, 2000 - Walt Whitman once wrote, "I dream'd in a dream I saw a city
invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth, I dream'd that
was the new city of Friends." Can dreams become reality in the ravages of war?
Can dreams be dreamed at all when brother is taking arms against brother? When
innocents are murdered? When the dying want death and when the living create it?
When a person's life before war is utterly different than after it?

Take the small Southern town of Cumberland, Miss., for instance, in Howard
Bahr's newest novel, "The Year of Jubilo." Can a "city of Friends" be created
after the bloody battles? The year is 1865, the American Civil War has just
ended and Gawain Harper is heading home.

Bahr, former curator of the William Faulkner homestead and museum, wrote his
first novel about the Civil War. "The Black Flower" was a riveting and
frighteningly realistic portrait of men and women overcome by the tragedy
surrounding them. It was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book. It was also
published the same month as Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain," therefore leaving
it in the shadows.

Bahr has returned jubilantly however, with the publication of "The Year of
Jubilo," finally giving his work, his creativity, his powerful imagery and
storytelling center stage.

Gawain, an English professor at an all-girls' school, boards a train, an
enlisted man for the Mississippi infantry. He didn't want to go to war; he went
to war because the city looked down on him, snubbing able-bodied men who didn't
go while those older, younger or more hobbled died on battlefields for them.

One of those people was Morgan Rhea's father. Morgan is his true love and he
cannot wed her without joining the ranks. So, he fights. His friends die beside
him in grassy fields and shadowy forests. The years pile up, as do the
wickedness and dirtiness of war. Innocence is lost, but not beauty. Love is
carried with him in the shape of a gutta-percha case, Morgan's torn and tattered
image inside.

Gawain meets Harry Stribling, a former lawyer, and they become fast friends on
their way to Cumberland.

"Pilgrims they were, and for a little while longer they could shape whatever
possibilities they wished about the moment toward which they journeyed," Bahr
writes. Gawain and Harry went through the darkness and found the light on the
other side, they had "no real sense of their own history, no more than the high
geese traveling across the stars. They were too busy: They were spared of death,
so must once again pay the tally for living." Gawain and Harry safely arrive
home, only to discover what war can do, not only to a person, but also to a
town, a state of mind, a country of thought. The town is crumbled, a husk of
what it once was. Morgan has indeed waited for him, but scores need to be
settled.

A band of Federal troops occupy the city streets. In retaliation, bands of local
ex-Confederate soldiers ambush the Yankees - and punish Southerners who they
believe didn't do enough to support the war efforts. There also is "King"
Solomon Gault, a dirty dreamer, a killer who wants to reignite the slaughter.

Gawain wants no part of the conflict, he's had enough in his short military
life, but pulled in he is, as he finds a way to avenge the deaths of Morgan's
sister and brother-in-law.

Bahr's writing is at times brilliant. At others times, more so. He brings the
world of Gawain Harper to life.

All the senses come into play. The reader can smell the smoke from a farmhouse
across the field, taste the grit, see the aftermath, feel the hot breeze, hear
the conversations. The reader becomes immersed in a world that is not only ugly
and destitute, but also a world in which poetry, beauty, love still find a
place.

Like a photo album of Matthew Brady's finest work, "The Year of Jubilo" is a
series of Civil War images, whether it be of death of grown men or of hope in
the eyes of children. Bahr's literary photographs are populated with a totality,
a marriage of the tragedies and troubles with the joys and happiness that one
finds in life.

Maybe this wholeness creates a dream come true. Perhaps in "The Year of Jubilo"
Bahr has created a city of Friends.

Jonathan Shipley is a freelance book reviewer who has written for the Dallas
Morning News, Boston Globe and Daily Oklahoman. He lives in Renton, Wash.

You be the reviewer: If you have read this book and want to share your views
send us an e-mail with your full name, day/evening phone numbers, book title and
comments. Reviews will appear on The Denver Post Online. - Tell us what you
think

Copyright 2000 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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