Jews for the Confederacy
Read this book! It's called the Landsman, and it was written by my good friend Peter Melman. Set during the Civil War and in New Orleans and various battlefields, it follows young Elias Abrams.
Since I usually suck at describing books, I'll let Publishers Weekly help me out: 'A barely literate hard-bitten gambler and petty criminal, Elias Abrams, the 20-year-old cardsharp hero of Melman's solid debut, flees hometown New Orleans (and a bogus murder charge), joins the Confederate Army and realizes "every circumstance of his life now conspires to kill him."'
And then he goes and falls in love. We all know how that usually works out.
For those who'd mistakenly think this is just some weird writerly device -- having a Jew fight for the Confederacy -- there were a few thousand in fighting for Gen'l Lee back in the day. (But don't tell Jesse Jackson. He's already anti-Semitic enough.)
But if you like historical fiction, poker, violence and practically an entire chapter detailing oral sex, then this is the book for you!
So pick up the book.
posted by Ken Wheaton at
2:46 PM
1 Comments:
mAnd for the Union, too. I live just outside of Baltimore ... in Baltimore Harbor we have Fort McHenry, which was the place being shelled by the British in the National Anthem (.."the rockets red glare..."..)
Some folk have claimed to have seen a guy walking around in period custume with a musket, but there is no such person employed by the Park, so the story got going that there was ghost wandering around. However, he had a beard, which supposedly the commander of the garrison did not allow. ...Then, a document turns up in the archives, in which some kind of dispensation was granted for a Jewish soldier there at the Fort to keep his beard for religious reasons.
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singlechristianman, at 9:45 PM
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