hurrah Books

Promotion of the generals in the Civil War was not any different than promotions are today in the military, government, business, and the rest of the world. You will find that in Grant's and Lee's armies there were many generals passed over because of some conflict with those of higher rank. The men they touted for promotions were not always the best to fill a leadership position. Some may have been very brave soldiers but not a leader. Through out the war there were some wrong men giving the orders, orders misunderstood, changed, not carried out, and the wrong order given. Maybe some battles could have been changed and had fewer casualties, but not the outcome of the war. Franklin was the most tragic battle of our Civil War. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"

Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early Settlers

In The Confederacy's Last Hurrah, Wiley Sword covers political intrigue, strategy and tactics, and the view from the trenches equally well. My great-great grandfather fought at Franklin and Nashville, and through Sword's work, I was able to observe, from the safety of my living room, the agony, terror, carnage, and unbelievable courage of the men on both sides. He has thoroughly researched Hood's campaign through Tennessee, yet manages not to lose the reader in details. Maps are clear and easy to follow. I recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone wanting a better understanding of the war's final days in the West.

I am a young civil war enthusist and have never really studied the end of the Confederate Army of the Tennessee. This book opens the door into one of the saddest few months of any army during the Civil War. Very in depth and throughly reserched. Spends ample time on the decisive Battle of Franklin and incorprates not only the eyewitness accounts from officers, but the privates in the thick of the fight. Recommened for any Civil War enthusist.

Some people who have read this book with a jaundiced eye have criticized Sword for his accurate protrayal of John Bell Hood. Davis like the present president had favorites to whom he remained faithful despite their obvious shortcommings. As Sword points out Hood was a great general as a field commander but even before his physical injuries he was not suited to command an independent army. As radical Confederate Louis Wigfall commented, "Davis has attempted to do what God couldn't; male John Hood a general." If someone wants to understand the imprortance of the West and the disaster made by Hood, this book is required reading. It is not recommended for hero worshipers.

Outstanding account of battles during Hoods "invasion" of Tennessee in late 1864. The narrative is first rate. The descriptions of the principal characters both blue and gray were extremly interesting and given due credit.
The descriptions of the tremendous blood-letting of Hood's decision to ram the Army of Tennessee up against prepared breastworks at Franklin are chilling. The destruction of a proud army was guaranteed even without their eventual defeat by Gen. George Thomas at Nashville two weeks later. The author describes thoroughly the pre-lude to Franklin as Hood lets a vast chunk of the Union Army slip through his grasp at Spring Hill. This lost opportunity sets the stage for the Army of Tennessee's destruction days later at Franklin with fruitless head on attacks. A fast and detailed read.
Living in Tennessee, I was able to walk some of the ground described in the book and picture what it might have been. The author has done a very good job of providing geographical details and descriptions. The Last Hurrah of a Lost Cause

Edwin O'Connor's description of the last mayoral campaign of a life-long Irish politician, inspired by the carreer of Boston mayor James Curley is a wry, funny, and ultimately gracious nod to urban machine politics that gave the Irish political power if not respectability.

It is easy 50 years later to dismiss this clutch of politicos as corrupt, but O'Connor shows them to be men of "their people" using public office to democratize the American dream, to use the soft capital of power to give common men a chance to make decent livings when the hard and harsh money men wanted them kept in their places - subordinate, poorly paid, and quiescent.

But O'Connor doesn't write a screed against entrenched capital versus the poor immigrant. He instead writes affectionately of the many little touches of human decency that the "big" man shows toward his otherwise powerless supporters, primarily, but not exclusively Irish.

Frank Skeffington's last run for office ends with a surprise. That the reader is unprepared for it is not a defect in O'Connor's sociological awareness, political savvy, or writing ability. It is, simply, a poignant ending to an era that the old warrior couldn't see coming.

This is a rich, warm, funny book that ought to be in print today because it is a wonderfully written ray of light on the world of my father and grandfather.

There was a day when politics was about quick witted men speaking directly to the constituency. This is a book about the end of those days in Boston. Skeffington, the mayor of Boston (a thinly veiled James Michael Curley) is running for one last term as mayor. This is the tale of that race and of Skeffington's life in politics.

What makes this book particularly precious is the, still accurate, portrayal of the hatred between the Irish and the Old Yankees in Boston. Skeffington, an Irishman, has adroitly played the political game for years. This book tells of how the Irish came to power in Boston. More important it tells how at the end, politics became less about speaking clearly and shaking hands firmly and more about money and television.

To me, Skeffington is the king of the political characters. He has humor and sensitivity. Would that there were anyone left with the entertaining humor he brought to the world of politics.

A most entertaining read.

I find it hard to be impartial about this book, which is one of my favorites, and is the basis for the great John Ford/Spencer Tracy film of the same name. The main criticism of the novel appears to be that O'Connor was too benevolent in his portrayal of a big city political boss and of machine politics generally. But I think that this complaint really misses the central insight of the story. Whatever Frank Skeffington's faults may be--and it is at least implied that he is financially corrupt and is readily apparent that he has become morally corrupt in the pursuit of power--he is also undeniably an interesting and compelling personality. As the Monsignor says at his funeral :

The bigger the man is in public life, the bigger the praise or the blame--and we have to remember that Frank Skeffington was quite a big man.

What Edwin O'Connor discerned was that the modern, clean-cut, college-educated, television-age, politicians would be equally corrupt, but would be little men. Like news anchormen, they would look well-polished and nicely groomed, but they would be empty suits. Marketed like household products, they would be chosen specifically because they were so colorless, so unlikely to put off the voter/consumer. And so we are left with the worst of both worlds : the politicians are still power hungry crooks, but now they have no entertainment value to redeem them.

Skeffington's ultimate legacy is bookended between two other sentiments expressed after his death. Nathaniel Gardiner, the old line WASP who sparred with but respected the Mayor, thinks to himself : "If only he had not been such a rogue..." but then realizes that had he been less a rogue, he would have been less of a figure. But perhaps the final assessment belongs to the Cardinal who had battled him for so long :

Whether you realize it or not now, you will later on. This man cheapened us forever at a time when we could have gained stature. I can never forgive him for that.

O'Connor, though he makes Skeffington an immensely entertaining and likable character, can hardly be accused of whitewashing the true nature of such men. To say that someone "cheapened us" is, or used to be, a pretty serious indictment.

GRADE : A

Edwin O'Connor's masterpiece on the demise of the complex and facinating world of old-school Boston politics is simply my favorite book. O'Connor painted a more vivid, compelling picture of this peculiar phenomenon through fiction than any political biography or history could ever hope to.

Skeffington is one of the most interesting, amicable characters I have ever encountered in any book of any genre. Quick-witted, funny, and heroic, he is the epitome of the old-fashioned politician. O'Connor's work truly makes me yearn for the past - when, although far from perfect, politicians had something they will NEVER have again: charisma.

O'Connor's foreshadowing of what local (as well as state and national) politics would become has proven amazingly correct - know-it-all, made-for-TV blank slates that are as charismatic as the processed, artificial backgrounds they are manufactured from.

A great work of fiction, biography, history, and the American experience. A masterpiece.

I didn't want to read this book. But sometimes, just sometimes, professors sneak a novel past you, one you're positive is just going to make for a horrendous reading experience, but then turns out to be quite a pleasant surprise. In all honesty, *The Last Hurrah* was one of the best books I was "forced" to read in college.

It would seem as though in order to read this novel you would have to have some kind of interest in the political world, that you would need a grand knowledge of it to even keep up. Not true. Edwin O'Connor portrays Boston politics in a very appealing and human way. You notice the characters first--and then you see what they do to maneuver the city to their liking.

Rich in atmosphere and driven by wonderful character interaction, *The Last Hurrah* is a novel to be appreciated and enjoyed.

If you are wondering what the work of Richard Greenberg is like, this volume is a very good place to start. Ranging from 1987-1998, these four plays give a reader an accurate idea of what Greenberg does. Unfortunately, it seems that what Greenberg does is write plays that leave a lot to be desired.

The volume starts with one of Greenberg's most well known plays, "Three Days of Rain". Sad to say, the piece just doesn't cut it. The characters and situations leave one aching for something worthwhile to read. There just isn't a lot at stake in the world of the play. A lot of the blame can be placed on the way the characters are written. The character whose presence looms largest over the play, Walker, is easily the biggest problem. Walker just isn't a likeable character at all. While a character certainly doesn't have to be likeable in order to be good, Walker is not unlikable in the "has no conscience/morals/feelings" sense of unlikable, but rather he's unlikable in the "annoying/selfish/always whining little brother" sense. While he creates havoc throughout the first act of the play, he simply grates on the reader. While the characters of Nan and Pip are less irksome than Walker, they also (to a lesser degree) have the same problem; namely, they are all extraordinarily privileged and yet spend 90% of their time whining about something or other. Nothing is ever truly at stake. None of these people ever have a chance of losing anything. Why should the average reader care about the woes of rich, well-educated, upper-crust New Yorkers? Average readers will find little to empathize with in this play.

While the second act of "Three Days of Rain" thankfully changes gears and illuminates some of the first act, it's a case of far too little, too late.

Next is what is easily the best play in the volume, "The American Plan", written in 1990. "The American Plan" is a simple, yet graceful and sad piece containing five characters who, unlike the characters of 3DOR, are interesting and conceivably realistic. The play starts off slowly and seems to be a little bit cliché, but it quickly grows on the reader as hidden complexities emerge. The play has moments of beauty and heartbreak and is also funny, well-written, and, most importantly, human.

The one-act piece "The Author's Voice" is essentially a one-joke premise that cannot be sustained in an interesting fashion for even a single act. While the core idea at the heart of the piece is sound, the initial jokey presentation sets up a tone that keeps the play from being taken seriously.

Rounding out the quartet of plays here is "Hurrah At Last", written in 1998. This play was written closely after 'Three Days of Rain' and it shows, as ideas and themes from that play reemerge in this one. Unfortunately, another thing taken from 3DOR is the presence of a totally loathsome main character. In this play, Greenberg's overly literary style totally overcomes the characters of his play and sends it collapsing like a house of cards. His characters absolutely refuse to sound like real people and their situations remain boring and unsympathetic.

It's sad that a playwright like Greenberg is constantly lauded and praised as being one of theater's top writers and yet his work is largely derivative of itself and never seems to be swinging for the fences.

Richard Greenburg transports you in the middle of interesting and complicated adventures with his casts. I love reading his plays because his characters have fascinating relationships with each other. The author's voice is very funny!

I highly recommend reading his works.

A very well written play - interesting to look at the present and past and how it affects who we are. I can't wait to see how this translate to the Broadway stage. How Julia Roberts plays her part.

I bought Three Days of Rain after having seen a professional staging of the play in which I left unsatisfied, partly because, while it was brilliantly acted, I couldn't catch all the dialogue and blamed myself for not being impressed by the play. But after reading it, missing much of the dialogue seems like a benefit.
Joseph P. Ritz, author of "I Never Looked for My Mother and Other Regrets of a Journalist."

Wouldn't you have liked to go to the theatre to see the crucible without knowing that it was a classic. Watching three days of rain was the first time I went to the theatre unaware of anything about the play and then realising that I was watching one of the greatest plays ever written unfurl around me. The play is at times witty or sad or profound, but it is always real and Greenberg shows the links between the past and the future and the impossibility of knowing or understanding the forces that drove your parents. We get a picture of the parents and it is shaken apart in the second half. Three days of rain is a truely great piece of theatre.

I had read The Good Doctor and enjoyed it plenty for great characters, great writing and a slow-building, relentless tension. The Quarry has the same great characterization and prose, but nothing at all slow about it. The beginning of the story is enthralling, both the introduction to the main character and the first incident at the quarry (best not read liner notes etc more max effect). What continues seems a combination of Greene's "Power and Glory" (in terms of "feel") and Coetzee's "Waiting for the Barbarians" (in terms of suspense and pace). A fantastic aspect is the power of the not explicitly stated (e.g. main character's real name never revealed, ). And the construction and build-up to the denoument is something Tolstoy - like. The Quarry is clearly another example of the spectacular literature of South Africa.

In this stunning novel, Mr Galgut tells the story of a fugitive from justice hitchhiking in the desolate backdrop of South Africa and who is picked up by a driver, a minister on his way to a remote parish. When the minister discovers that the hitchhiker is a fugitive and confronts him in a disused quarry, the response is lethal.
This novel is a masterpiece featuring a story and characters utterly compelling. The author shows that even the quietest spots on earth can seethe with repressed violence. A blunt and tense read about guilt and evasion of truth. Justly enough, Mr Galgut has been compared to the greatest South African writers like Andr? Brink, Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee and Achmat Dangor.