A Separate Country by Robert Hicks

It has taken me much longer than usual to read "A Separate Country" than the typical 424 page novel.  It is tough to wade through 19th century journal writing, and that is what makes up the majority of this book. At times I found it dull, and at times things picked up considerably and got quite absorbing. I especially liked the sections narrated by Eli Griffin, the grifter who befriended the Hood family right at the end of their lives and tried to wind up the loose ends.

Most of the book is made up of fictional journals and memoirs of CSA General John Bell Hood and his wife, Anna Marie Hennen Hood, who were, of course, real historical figures. The story is set in New Orleans after the Civic War, where several former Confederate generals settled. Hood and his wife had 11 children in a space of about 12 years, and family life plays a big part in Anna Marie's journals, understandably.  Hood tries and fails at business, and in the end reaches a point of salvation for his sins on the battlefield by nursing black New Orleaneans during the yellow fever epidemic of the late 1870s, an epidemic that also took Hood's life, and that of his wife and his oldest and youngest daughters.

The book is a reminder that New Orleans has always been a hotbed of grifters and corrupt government and politics.  It was an especially dangerous place to live because of the people and the pestilence during the Reconstruction period. Hick's book is a graphic reminder of both the seamy and the somewhat more noble side of the great Creole city of the South.

Even though I found it slow-going, I did enjoy the book for the most part.  I found some of the characters a little one-dimensional, but even these characters come up with a surprise or two.  I want to go back to Hick's first novel, the highly acclaimed "The Widow of the South."

Liz Nichols