Jerrettsville, is a novelization of a true story involving a murder not far from Washington DC on the 4th anniversary of the Civil War.
Started: February 3, 2010
Completed: February 7, 2010
Recommendation: Very well written, most of interest to those who find the period interesting.
Recommended By: My wife picked it up at the library as a book she thought I might like.
Words I looked up:
aureole - a ring shaped zone around an igneous intrusion (I looked this word up, because I thought it referred to a portion of the breast, but it has a more general meaning indicating a "ring shaped" surrounding. The way it was used in the book seemed odd to me when I read it. The definition given is the 4th, but the closest to the meaning in which it was used. The first definition is "halo").
Review:
This is a very interesting story about a young woman in a difficult position in the ante-bellum North. The book opens with a murder and the rest of the book gives the background. It is irritating to not really know who was killed for quite some time (about half way through it becomes clear). It is told from the point-of-view of several different characters over time and was largely based on family paperwork, letters, and newspaper accounts of the actual events. The author has clearly made some stuff up to carry the story and fill in details, but it seems to run rather along the lines of the newspaper stories reprinted at the back of the book.
I enjoyed this book, but my taste runs to the eclectic and this is far from a happy story.
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