Review of
Dog Tags: Divided We Fall,
by C. Alexander London, ISBN 9780545477079
Four out of five stars
Too much emotional angst
While the
American Civil War was brutal and hundreds of thousands of men died or were
left permanently damaged, there were also countless permanent emotional scars.
There are some very good aspects of this book, specifically the recounting of
how there were abolitionists and pro-union people in the Confederate States. However,
the different emotional states of the main character, a boy named Andrew, are
overplayed.
Andrew’s mother
and father are learned people living in Mississippi during the Civil War that
insist on book learning for their two boys and they do not own slaves. Yet, they are loyal to the Confederate cause,
believing that the fight is against northern tyranny. Andrew is twelve and his
older brother Julius is sixteen. When Julius joins the Confederate Army, Andrew
wishes that he could also join.
As a
consolation, Andrew joins what is called the Home Guard, which is designed to
protect the local people from Confederate deserters and runaway slaves. As
always seems to be the truth in such cases, the other members of the Home Guard
are the male dregs of society. Andrew’s dog Dash is a superb hunting dog, capable
of tracking the faintest of scent trails.
When Andrew and
Dash track down a Confederate deserter and one of the Home Guard shoots and
kills him without reason, Andrew begins to question his loyalty to the cause.
He quits the Home Guard and engages in some actions that he considers disloyal.
Other events follow, including a search for his brother that has gone missing.
There are many
different instances where Andrew questions his actions and his motives, even to
the point where he is furious at Julius. That aspect of the story is overstated,
diminishing what could have been a great story of the conflicting loyalties and
beliefs that were present among the people on both sides of the bloodiest
American fight.
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