No Common War by Luke Salisbury ( Black Heron Press) 2019.
Luke Salisbury’s stunning Civil War novel No Common War brings
America’s bloodiest war to life through the eyes of a father, a
son, and those who care about them.
Mason
Salisbury, a staunch abolitionist, has seen the cruelty of slavery
first hand. His son Moreau, called Ro, is an equally staunch
pacifist—until he befriends a runaway slave. After Fort Sumter, Ro
enlists and marches off to war with other young men from his small
town in upstate New York.
Though it is narrated by both son and father, Ro emerges as the
book’s main character. Also taking the stage are his mother;
Merrick, his cousin and fellow soldier; Helen, the girl he leaves
behind; his uncle Lorenzo; and several fellow soldiers with whom Ro
grew up and forms tight bonds. These characters are drawn from
Salisbury’s family stories; they are dimensional and complex from
the first, and anxiety over their fates propels the story.
The text recreates battle scenes in granular detail, etching them in
acid. It captures the isolation of soldiers within their own tiny
cadres, picnickers who turn up to watch the first battles but leave
disappointed at the lack of fierce fighting, and families traveling
by wagon to battle sites in hopes of identifying and retrieving their
dead or wounded kin. Such sharp details build a sense of realism that
ratchets up tension each time Ro and his comrades take the field.
The effects of the war on families at home are clear, too. Those who
leave to fight never return the same, and the North is seen mourning
for its lost innocence just as the South does. The book perfectly
captures the pitch of the national upheaval and its emotional
traumas.
Beautifully written, No Common War ranks as one of the best
war novels in decades.SUSAN WAGGONER (March/April 2019)
