Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Andersonville

Andersonville
Andersonville
Author: MacKinlay Kantor
ISBN: 382775
Publication Date: 8/1958
Pages: 733
Rating:
  ?

0 stars, based on 0 rating
Publisher: Signet
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Write a Review
We're sorry, our database doesn't have book description information for this item. Check Amazon's database -- you can return to this page by closing the new browser tab/window if you want to obtain the book from PaperBackSwap.

Top Member Book Reviews

nascargal avatar reviewed Andersonville on + 352 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is a fairly good novel about the horrors of Andersonville Prison in the Civil War. However...it is very, very, long.
psbuttercup avatar reviewed Andersonville on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This is one of the most remarkable books that you will ever experience. It has a reputation as a "tough read," but the effort is more than worth it. You will come to KNOW these characters. The ambience of the story is as superbly rendered as the characterizations, and the "you are there" texture of the book is felt with intensity. There are no quotation marks in the speech, so sometimes it's difficult to tell if the character is talking or if it's internalization. Remarkably, this adds to the power of the book. As a reviewer noted earlier, there's a dream-like quality to the prose that would have been diminished by adding quotes. The author breaks some rules by changing point-of-view, tense, and person, yet it all works so well that it does not detract in any way. You may find yourself drifting away at times; not out of boredom, but because Kantor makes you think about what you've just read. If you have ever lost a friend or family member in a war this story will be painful. It is emotionally charged (excuse the cliche) to the highest possible point. I agree with most readers that "Gone With The Wind" and "The Killer Angels" and "Cold Mountain" are five-star novels, but "Andersonville" is on another level. Thirty stars, perhaps. You'll nevr forget Ira and Lucy and the men (and women) of "Andersonville."
reviewed Andersonville on + 813 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
In the early 1960s I was stationed (for the first time) at Fort Benning, GA. It was then that my commander and I made a trip to Andersonville, GA. He had read Kantors book; somehow I delayed doing so for 40 years. Back then, to get to Anderson one had to travel over back red clay roads. Little seemed to have changed in the 100 years since one of our most notorious prisons stood just outside this quiet village. Little remained of the prison; all had long since been removed. Stakes indicated where the structures once were; where lightening had opened the spring; nothing was rebuilt; no visitors center; wander on your own. So this is the story of that infamous prison: a long series of vignettes of typical prisoners, their wardens, and the local populace. A great deal of Christian scripture is intermingled with each chapter. Thus, it is not only a history, but also a long drawn out novel. Reading it is nearly a sentence in itself. Stop when you become sickened with the stories; skip to the end, but, to use the title of another of Kantors Civil War novels, Long Remember the ignominy of the prisons existence.
Read All 7 Book Reviews of "Andersonville"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

gilesgoatboy avatar reviewed Andersonville on + 54 more book reviews
MacKinlay Kanor's Andersonville is oneof the most difficult books I've ever read, the other also based on true American history: The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.
Completely different settings and subjects, what they share in common is that they are written so lucidly about such dark and dire experience in the nation's past.
What made them so hard for me to continue reading either one to completion is the fact that doing so caused me to feel physically ill. The depths of pity they evoke ensured days of depression during reading and afterward.
Their power to move a reader is truly remarklable, so proceed with caution, a long lasting impression will likley result from the ordeal.

Book Wiki

Awards and Honors

Genres: