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Feb 28, 2015lukasevansherman rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
"So we were going off to Kansas to be good at killing. Our specialty would be killing men who wished to own other men." Russell Banks, known for his harshly realistic novels like "Affliction" and "The Sweet Hereafter," delves into American history, which in his hands is something complicated, dark, and bloody. This ambitious, sprawling (over 700 pages), and intense book is the story of John Brown and his war on slavery. Told by his conflicted and uneasy son Owen, who survived Harper's Ferry, Banks brilliantly recreates the mood and feel of the mid-19 century and the divisive force of slavery. John Brown, a religious zealot who felt called by God to start a war on slave owners, is an easy figure to respect, but a much harder one to like. Banks doesn't shy from his difficulty, but he does make him, if not exactly sympathetic, a compelling character who truly believed slavery was a great evil. Historical figures like Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Harriet Tubman make cameos. An impressive achievement that should have won the Pulitzer in 1999, rather than Cunningham's rather mediocre "The Hours." Also see James McBride's John Brown book "The Good Lord Bird" and Styron's "The Confessions of Nat Turner." "Freedom! The bloody work of the Lord!"