Love and War (North & South)

Have just finished North and South and Love and War. Now starting Heaven and Hell. Really loved the first 2 books and couldn't put them down. Think Heaven and Hell is going to be just as great. Have always been a history buff so I'm really surprised at how much I've learned, and how much I didn't know. Again great trilogy

My husband got the first of the trilogy for Xmas, and immediately decided that he wanted the whole trilogy. He is 3/4 of the way through the 2nd book (I think it has over 1,000 pages!) and loves it. He spends more time reading than anything else these days...if you like historical fiction, this trilogy is for you!

These books are wonderfully written stories entwined with historical events and characters. The Civil War was by no means a romantic period in our history these books capture the ugly side of things whilst mixing in a story which makes it possible to comprehend and read on.

Found it to be extremely entertaining with the constant flow of characters and stories. The drama set into the Civil War entwined with the lives of each character made for some fascinating reading, I highly recommend it

John Jakes is a masterful story teller. Extensively researched, the story comes to life through the lives of his characters. Fascinating period of American history told in a mesmerizing tale . No one does it better than John Jakes.

After just finishing this book Love & War, I liked it much better than North and South. The war has finally started and you see the direct impact on both families of the Mains of South Carolina and the Hazards of Pennsylvania. The novel follows many different story lines and it would be hard to follow if you had not read the previous book first. John Jakes best strength is his character development and it is shown in abundance within this story. He helps pull the reader in and care for his characters which helps you root for them as events unfold.

None of the main characters find themselves on the front lines of the battlefield except Bent at Shiloh and Charles here and there. Very few pages were dedicated to the main battles themselves besides Bull Run. I did find the cavalry information interesting about the battle of Brandy Station but Jakes description is done after the battle took place with no characters partaking in it. This happens throughout the whole book. I understand that Jakes wanted the story to not romanticize the war and give an accurate description of it. I would have liked to have had a little more action in the story. Jakes also did not want to go on and on about the major battles I think he felt there has been enough novels written about those events already and wanted to broaden the horizons of people behind the scenes. Which he accomplished by focusing on the railroad lines, smuggling, detective work, battle hospitals, prisons, early submarine technology you name it this story touches ground on a lot of stuff.

The Stanley character seemed the least interesting to me not being able to handle the massive success and his wife Isabel seemed like such a control freak. You would hope in the third novel that they go broke. You would think that after getting captured once Billy would have been a little more cautious in the field. Bent just seemed to be a prodical son type of character never able to fit in on any job given to him because of his ways, but always getting a secord or third chance. Bent is written as more of a cowardly villain. Cooper as a Southern agent in England was interesting and just flew by but the chapters where he is working on the CS Hunley submarine seem slower than dirt. Makes me wonder if Coopers daughter is going to date his naval assistant in the third installment of the trilogy.

I found myself liking characters from the first book that were annoying like Virgilia. Her story gets interesting and I liked the path Jakes took with Charles he has a much bigger role in this story. Both George and Orry seemed to be relegated to war department side jobs for their own sides most of the war. I know a lot already about the Union profiteering and bungling of supplies and weapons but learned a lot more about the Southern side how they handicapped themselves worrying about states rights rather than the strength of the army.

I would recommend this book it is much better than North and South. Looking forward to finishing up the trilogy with Heaven and Hell. I do not think this series is as good as the Bastard series (The Kent Family Chronicles).

NORTH AND SOUTH
Good Guys and Baddies
In his North-South Trilogy, covering the years before, during, and immediately America’s Civil War, John Jakes uses a familiar literary device: following the lives of two families, close friends although from opposite sides of the conflict. (His success with this series and his eight-volume “Kent Family Chronicles,” among others, helped boost the popularity of this family-history genre, which has been dubbed “clanbacks.”) He says he promised himself that this story would not be “Gettysburg again,” so there isn’t much depiction of the war’s major battles, only references to them having taken place. Characters do rub shoulders with real historic personalities, however, like Gen. Armstrong Custer, Sec. of War Edward Stanton, and others.
However, his many characters are similar to the point that it’s not easy to tell them apart. The “good women” are all Melanie Wilkes, with a little bit of Scarlet O’Hara’s spunk thrown in to deal with moments of crisis. The “good men” are thoughtful, prideful, quick to take offense, slow to recover from trauma, and ultimately open to new ideas and eventually end up on the right side of the war’s central issue: the opposition to slavery. The “baddies,” men and women alike, are without redemption, scheming, quick to take offense, egotistical, revengeful (to the point of dedicating their lives to “getting even” for a perceived slight), and totally on the wrong side of history, believing in the total superiority of the white race over the black race. The evil men, in particular, are invariably fat, sweaty, and loathsome.
The worst of these villains is totally delusional and deranged. He stalks the two families throughout the trilogy, vowing to take revenge on two brothers, one from each family, whose actions caused him to be expelled from West Point when the three were cadets in the 1840s. He has no redeeming qualities, although in Volume Three it is revealed that he was the product of incest and an extremely abusive childhood. This does him no good in the plot, however. Although he wreaks havoc on the families, he eventually meets his death twice, miraculously surviving the first but ending up on the end of a rope.
Jakes, who has a background in theater as well as literature, is a fan of melodrama. Without fail, whenever a hero or heroine is threatened with violence or death, a “good guy” arrives in the nick of time to the rescue. His also loves irony, killing off main characters when least expected.

I enjoyed the story very much, but suspected early on that Jakes' understanding of the Southern psyche is quite flawed, and influenced more by stereotypes than by real life experience with "Southrons." It was crystallized for me by his complete and utter misunderstanding of the contraction "y'all." How much time could he have spent in the South or among Southerners, and how much could he understand of their complexities of personality if he cannot even grasp the utter simplicity of language that makes this a contraction of the words "you all"? The passage in question occurs when Charles Main shows up to break Billy out of prison: "Hazard, Hazard - here 'tis. Y'all find him on the top floor." Jakes obviously meant to make what he thought was Southern lingo out of "You will find him on the top floor." In my entire 65 years of living in Georgia, I have never, ever heard "you will" contracted in speech as "y'all." It is always "you'll." If the sentence makes no sense when substituting "you all" for "y'all," then it makes no sense, period. This sentence makes no sense. If Jakes doesn't understan this most simple aspect of being Southern, then that explains his deeper misunderstand of the Southerner as a whole. If he wants a true understanding of some of the complexities of being Southern: prejudice alongside the coexisting humanity and capacity for love which seems to contradict that very prejudice, but which conflict somehow remains unrecognized and/or unacknowledged, I would refer him to Driving Miss Daisy, the most accurate portrayal of typical race relations in the pre-1960s South I've ever seen. There were and are extremes, but I'm talking about the more typical,everyday people. None of Jakes' characters were one of these. Love and War, and the whole trilogy, is still well worth reading, and a fairly good effort at portraying Southerners. For a Yankee.

An excellent read and an excellent trilogy of books. Read the entire trilogy, which follows several characters for years before, during, and following the civil war. This book does not become bogged down in the mechanics of warfare strategy. Instead it focuses how civilians, soldiers, and the War bureaucracy become trapped and make it through the crisis. The civil war introduced the world to the practice of "total war" in which everyone is somehow involved fighting or supplying the troops. Civilians and private property became fair game in many ways. This book provides insight what people did to survive when food and the necessities of life are in short supply.

The trilogy is a long read, but it is fascinating.

originally read these when I was 16 back in 1989. I fell in love with the Mains and the Hazards when I watched the made-for-television mini-series based on books 1 & 2 a few years before that. I've always been a bit of a history buff and the American Civil War has been a favorite era of mine to read and research. John Jakes has a definite specialty when it comes to writing historical fiction and with the North and South trilogy he combines both good and bad aspects of that part of our nation's past with intriguing characters and subplots that keep the reader captivated. If you love history, fiction, drama, romance, and intrigue than this is definitely a series you want to look into.

Following the families of the Hazards (North) and the Mains (South) established in the first book of the North and South trilogy, Love and War (the second of three) carries them through the Civil War. The point of Jakes' series is to describe the sociology and psychology of this hugely significant historical era, not to create a great work of literature, poetry, or characterization. In his aim, he is wonderfully successful. He creates not art, but epic. And Civil War fiction needs this balanced and human perspective. Jakes' huge cast of characters defies stereotypes of any sort and personifies almost every perspective imaginable (from anti-war to war mongering, from militant abolitionist to hardcore racist, and everything in-between), while allowing these characters to change and grow as their situations become more and more dramatic. The novel is dramatic, exciting, clever, human (if not too allegorical), and unique (choosing lesser known events and situations rather than the more often covered). The book is very long, but it's a great Civil War fiction with the focus remaining on the country torn apart (as personified by the families). Grade: A-

Starts out slow but quickly gets exciting. The story is about 2 close extended families from the North and South that get completely caught up in the Civil War. Even though the setting is the Civil War the story has all the elements (good and bad) of the human condition. Not unlike real life today.

There's a lot of (actual) history woven in to the story, so much so a reader is total convinced it's real. It's a book far beyond what you think of as "historical fiction". John Jakes is a wonderful writer, one of the best. You can't make yourself stop reading his books, but if have to you can't wait till you can again. His development of events and characters is nothing short of amazing. You are completely transformed into his time and space and you never want it to end.

Just think on it, hair clothing (oh, those shoulder pads), makeup and books. All overdone and in serious need of pruning, as does this overblown book.

Love and War is the second in a trilogy weighing in at 1,000+ pages and continues the story of the Hazard and Main family through the U.S. Civil War, as the South secedes from the Union and a nation is torn in two. At Mont Royal, as elsewhere in the south, the slaves are restless and rebellious, making the plantation difficult to manage. Orry's wound keeps him from the battlefield, but he answers the call of duty taking a desk job in Richmond. Orry's scheming sister Ashton also lives in Richmond with her husband James and she and her lover successfully dabble in smuggling luxury goods. Up north George accepts a desk job in Washington, as does his scheming brother Stanley who is making a mint selling defective shoes to the army. The evil Elkanah Bent continues his mad obsession with the Hazards and Mains, and he also holds possession of Madeline's big secret.

The good - Jakes does a good job with George and Orry as they struggle to retain their friendship when their worlds collide as well as the corruption in government as almost everyone strives to profit off the war. I liked seeing the "not in my backyard" attitude of the North as they must see the slaves freed yet they just want to ship them back off to Africa. I loved Orry and Madeline's relationship, although considering the size and scope of this book you aren't going to see as much of them as you might expect. Ashton of course is delightfully nasty as the bad girl you just love to hate.

The not so good - Jakes has a habit of writing stereo-typed characters, especially the bad guys. Good Southerners are kind to their slaves, the baddies beat them. Bad Northerners hate the blacks as much as they want them freed. Elkanah Bent is just too OTT with his obsession for revenge, I'd have preferred seeing him bumped off and bringing in a new bad guy. It's a big country and a big army and his coincidental meetings really began to stretch credulity. A lot of that I can live with, but the ultimate problem with this book is Jakes just had to throw everything into this one, including the kitchen sink. There are too many characters and too much historical territory to cover in one book and Jakes ends up jumping from one person to the next trying to cover it all. Cut half the book out, shift the main focus to George & Constance and Orry & Madeline with very brief mentions of the secondary characters (I love Charles but he should have been left on the cutting room floor) and Jakes might have had a winner here. As it was, I only finished by skimming a great deal, easily one-third of the entire book. A big thumbs down to the editor for not paying attention to continuity between the two books. A very big deal was made in book one about Orry's beard and most especially in scenes between he and Madeline, yet in book two Orry asks her how she'd feel if he grew a beard. Hellooooo?

**SPOILERS**

I haven't seen the mini-series in years (going to rectify that soon), but from checking out the many videos up on YouTube I was surprised at how different the series is from the book. Elkanah Bent was from the North (and very obese), Ashton's lover is another character. Orry and George were never generals. Brett didn't spend the war years at Mont Royal, but with her husband's family in the North. Matter of fact, neither did Madeline or Ashton, they were in Richmond with their husbands. From what I've gathered, the ending was changed because there weren't plans to film book three and they thought it best to end it this way instead of as Jakes wrote it - and most of you will not like it. I've spoiled myself by picking up on the gist of it and I will definitely pass - at least on the book.

for me this series has nearly fatal flaws that only got worse as the story continued. what I particularly disliked were the boogeymen characters that took an irrational interest in making our protagonists lives miserable. I mean you're writing about a time when hundreds of thousands of people were killing each other and you still feel it's necessary to introduce a sociopathic character (Bent) who should have died in book one but instead lives to harm our "heroes" time and time and time again. and he was not the only one. Billy the engineer somehow becomes a prisoner in Richmond and has his own demented tormentor who hates him more than any other prisoner clearly because he's a character in this book and no other reason. Madeline is tortured by her husband while one armed Orry is helpless to assist. At some point in the series nearly every good Main or Hazard is threatened with destruction by a malevolent force with little rationality behind it. and the coincidental meetings between the characters separated by great distances with limited abilities to communicate between them pile on to the point of ludicrousy. what I did enjoy was getting a feel for what things were really like including the moods of the northerners at different points of the war and attitudes towards Lincoln. If Jakes had stuck with telling things like they were and layed off the melodrama this series could have been the great history lesson some make it out to be.

This continuation of Jakes' "North and South" is well-done and an absorbing read. The book flings the reader into the Civil War, as seen from various vantage-points: Charles, in the Southern calvary; Billy, a Northern engineer; Orry and George, working desk jobs in their respective capitals; Madeline, Brett, and Constance, as "war widows." Bent continues to wreak havoc in the lives of the Mains and Hazards, but despite him, the war and other trying events, the 2 families remain in contact and even help each other during the war. An excellent follow-up to Jakes' wonderful "North and South."

This book was so well researched, it took you into the hearts and minds of many characters, north and south. Again, I belief that these are the sorts of books that we should be reading in history class and discussing at length, I believe historical fictions leads to facts, and hits the heart in a real wat.

Great writing, historical fiction at its best. John Jakes really did his research and wasn't afraid to mention Lincoln's depressions or his sometimes unpopularity. Don't forget to read "North and South." It's the book that came before this one and is every bit as good.

I read this series years ago and wanted to refresh my understanding of this time period in our history. It reminded me if the dynamics that drive certain political and societal issues that continue to challenge us. The stories of the families and the times are painful to read.