John Jakes

The Hazard family of Pennsylvania and the Main family of South Carolina experience five years of sacrifice, corruption, courage, brutality, friendship and passion during the Civil War. Reprint.

Love and War

Jeremy Anderberg

“It isn’t the tariff or states’ rights or Northern arrogance that brought all this suffering. It’s what we did—Southerners—either directly or through the complicity of our silence. We stole the liberty of other human beings, we built fortunes from that theft, and we even proclaimed from our pulpits that God approved.”

Right as the pandemic was starting, I knew I wanted a big novel to lose myself in. North and South was a really enjoyable read back in January, so I took up the second part of Jakes’ epic Civil War trilogy. As with North and South, Love and War sucked me in right away and never let me go through all 1,000+ pages.

Now, it’s a work of historical fiction about the Civil War from the ‘80s. If that was the first thing you told me about a book, I’d definitely roll my eyes. But Jakes did his homework and told a number of stories that you don’t often hear about. As he wrote in the epilogue: “The details I wanted were many from what I call the byways: the fascinating places novels about the Civil War seldom go.”

Rather than focusing on larger battles (as most Civil War fic does), he mostly chose to put his characters in the midst of small engagements and side stories — there were thousands of deadly gunfire exchanges in the Civil War that weren’t connected to any larger battle. Because of his commitment to detail on that smaller scale, Jakes was able to present a more human version of the war than anything I’ve read before. His storytelling is top-notch — there’s no two ways about it.

With 1,000 pages to work with, the scope is vast. From Northern industry towns, to Southern plantations, to Washington D.C.’s inevitable politicization, Jakes covers it all. What makes it so utterly readable though are the characters of the Hazard and Main families, who are desperately trying to maintain a hold on their friendship in the midst of the war.

Sure, there’s some romanticization of the past, but not as much as I expected. And it’s plenty cheesy at times, but who doesn’t want some of that in the middle of the real world doing its best to crumble outside our doors?

I have loved the first two novels in this trilogy and I can’t wait to read the final installment, which is set during the Reconstruction period after the war. In all likelihood, I’ll wait for a getaway or holiday break where I’m going to want something I know I’ll enjoy.

Love and War

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