A Love Story amidst the ravages of war | A Distant Flame

A Distant Flame | A Distant Flame | Philip Lee Williams

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	• A Distant Flame Philip Lee Williams Thomas Dunne Books, 2004 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The best of art, craft, accuracy and realism

While young Charlie Merrill can hit a target 2,000 yards away with a Whitlock rifle, he is an unlikely soldier. We see him before the war as a frail, sickly teenager who is well-schooled in poetry and classical literature, living in one of the many North Georgia towns that is not altogether convinced in the wisdom of secession, much less war. We see Charlie Merrill in 1914 as his home town prepares to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Atlanta, thinking back on the loss and the sacrifice and the love that tied them together. And those of us who have walked the old works of Kennesaw Mountain where hikers now commune with a quiet wood and families spread out blankets and picnics on the warm grass of summer afternoons, see Charlie Merrill in in the contrasting bloody hell of 1864 rendered here in graphic detail. This novel received the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction in 2004. It is a well-deserved honor, for A Distant Flame stands very near the top of the 80,000 books published about the civil war.

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A Love Story amidst the ravages of war

The front of this book says it is, "A Superb Book" It does not lie. It further states this book should be considered "A Classic of Civil War fiction." It is that. It ranks right up there with "The Black Flower" by Howard Bahr and Cold Mountain," by Charles Frazier. A love story set amidst the ravages of war, it is a masterpiece of emotional reading. for the Civil War buff, a must read, for everyone else, an excellent book to spend some time with. A Hallmark card of 300 pages. Get yourself something to drink and set yourself down in a nice, comfortable chair.

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A Distant Flame

A literary Civil War novel that alternates between Charlie Merrill's grim existence as a sharpshooter in the Army of Tennessee, his sickly but love-touched boyhood and his old age.

I have very mixed feelings about this novel and I note from the other blurbs and reviews it's gotten that my opinion is a somewhat contrarian one.

I certainly have no issue with the research, which appears to have been painstaking. I found, though, that my engagement with the story wavered many times as I read. I honestly can't decide if this is a significant literary work told in a poetic style or if it's essentially sentimental in its themes and given to purple prose in its execution. I had trouble with the narrative's total humorlessness, with the saintly profundity of every character, with the endless repetition of variants on "Slavery was wrong." Yeah, obviously slavery was wrong. Every modern reader, hopefully, realizes that. But I'm not really convinced that the nineteenth-century Georgian character Charlie Merrill would realistically feel so unequivocally about it, and, as ever, the statement would have worked better shown than told. The race relations shown in the novel are all actually idyllic.

And along those same lines, I'm tired of reading about Confederate characters who don't believe in what they're fighting for. I think sophisticated modern readers can deal with protagonists who are fighting for a variety of reasons, some of which we do not consider today to be good. Merrill's lack of commitment to any aspect of his cause (whether resisting invasion or states' rights or his comrades, except for his single companion Duncan, or slavery) actually makes his battlefield actions more, not less, morally questionable for me. It severely undermines the quality of moral spokesmanship that I think the novel is trying to give him.

I was more moved by the failed-romance aspect of the story than I was by the war aspect, which is unusual for me.

I think this would probably appeal to readers who enjoyed books like Cold Mountain more than to readers who enjoy, say, David Poyer's Civil War novels. As for its overall quality, I'm just not sure.

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Every life is an Odyssey

Philip Lee Williams' poignant Civil War novel about the beginning of the 1864 Atlanta campaign is a classic. Charlie Merrill, the central character, is everyman. He is the essence of THE Confederate soldier late in the Civil War when defeat was known to be inevitable yet duty, honor, and country demands to soldier on. Mr. Williams portrayal of the battles are historically accurate and well done, yet he uses his poetic license to examine the psyche of the common confederate soldier in the total context of those horrific times. Sad yes, but oh so glorious in a spiritual sort of way. The horrors that young Merrill sees and experiences are all too graphic yet he continues on wrapped in the friendship of his comrades.
The story is really a 3 part examination of Charlie Merrill's life during those difficult days. Mr. Williams artfully weaves the younger Merrill's life with the horrendous fighting of the 1864 Atlanta campaign, and his older life 50 years later when he is to give a keynote address to his hometown about the Fall of Civil War Atlanta. Charlie Merrill is a complex character that is slowly developed by Mr. Williams. Charlie is everyman of those chaotic times. He loves, cries, grows, and eventually understands the meaning of it all. Times change but memories endure.
Overall an amazing book. Outstanding character development in all respects. The complex relationships between Charlie and others in the book are well developed and although sad represent the circle of life in all its profoundness.
No gratuitous sex, language, or violence. The battle scenes are well done and not too graphic but necessary to the story.
Highly recommended, especially to those interested in the Civil War. A superb novel that anyone would enjoy. Good job Mr. Williams.

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You are there

A Distant Flame is one of the very best novels of The War, in my opinion. I have so many unread excellent war histories - hundreds - in my collection, that I normally can't spare the time for fiction, but seeing the recommendation of R.K. Krick, I took a chance, and I'm glad I did. (Krick is a real expert and author on The War.) A lot of history is learned in the book.
The setting is Northwest Georgia in 1864, with Joe Johnston's army of around 60,000 Confederates facing "Cump" Sherman's army, twice as large and headed south. Charlie Merrill is a southern teenager, under General Pat Cleburne.
Charlie is not really furious with the invaders he is fighting, so his assignment as an excellent sniper sits heavy on his conscience and wears away his resolve, eventually bringing his effectiveness to an end. He and his comrades become sympathetic to the reader, and you appreciate the terrain and battles of Sherman's campaign from Resaca, Georgia, to Atlanta. Even the love affair is sweet, if incomplete.

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In the spring of 1864, the Confederate Army in Georgia is faced with the onrushing storm of General William T. Sherman's troops. A young sharpshooter for the South, Charlie Merrill, who has suffered many losses in his life already, must find a way to endure---and grow---if he is to survive the battles that will culminate in July at the gates of Atlanta.

From the opening salvos on Rocky Face Ridge near Dalton, through the trials of Resaca and Kennesaw Mountain, Charlie must face the overwhelming force of the Federal army and a growing uncertainty about his place in the war.

Never before has the Atlanta Campaign been rendered---in all its swift and terrible action---with such attention to history or with writing that reaches the level of art. This crucial episode in the Civil War's western theater comes alive with unexcelled power and drama as it unfolds in soldiers' hands and hearts.

Throughout the course of the novel, Charlie's life is laid out in powerful detail. The experiences from his childhood, through the war, and into his twilight years are to a great extent on his mind half a century later when he is to give a major speech in the park of his small Georgia town

A Distant Flame is a book about the cost of war and the running conflict that led Sherman's Army to the Battle of Atlanta---and the March to the Sea. It stands as a testament to love, dedication, and growth, from the Civil War's fields of fire to the slow steps of old age.

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