The Bookworm Sez by Terri Schlichenmeyer 

 

Neverhome by Laird Hunt

c.2014, Little, Brown & Co.

$26/$29 Canada; 256 pages

You needed to take a stand.

There was an injustice, a wrong that needed righting, and someone had to say something. That someone was you – and though you’re just one person, just a voice, the movement had to start somewhere. And so you took a stand.

Your two feet were planted and you had no regrets, but how did it affect your life? In the new book Neverhome by Laird Hunt, one big decision changed everything.

Her mother called her Constance. That’s what her husband, Bartholomew, called her, too, until she told him her new name would be Ash Thompson – and if anybody asked, she was from Darke County, Ohio , and not from a farm in Indiana.

The farm had been in the family for a long time; it was hers the day she found her mother swinging from a rope by her neck, which was not long after Bartholomew handed her a zinnia in the field. Those were things she remembered often as she wrote letters home to him, missing him something fierce. But he was a gentle soul, not made for fighting. She was a better shot than he, fleeter of foot and much stronger, so putting on Bartholomew’s clothes and going off to defend the Republic was the choice she’d made, and that made her happy.

And so, with a few provisions in her pockets and a blanket in a sack, Constance became Ash Thompson, stepped into Ohio and went to war.

It was easy to disguise what she was – the men around her either didn’t care or just didn’t notice, although women often recognized her as one of them. Her colonel only saw her sharpshooting skills, and the bit of chivalry that gained her the nickname of Gallant Ash.

Powers of observation kept her safe, skills with a rifle got her fed sometimes and both kept her alive in battle when cannonballs carved the dirt and it was hard to tell which side claimed more dead. That gave her plenty reason to think about her mother, Bartholomew and her farm in Indiana , but Ash Thompson stayed with the Union Army.

She stayed – until betrayal sent her running. At first, reading Neverhome is rather awkward: the language is poetic and formal, as though it was actually written 150 years ago. It’s somewhat of a struggle, those first few pages, but that vexation doesn’t last long.

Soon enough, you’ll be inside the head of a character who, says author Laird Hunt in his notes, was loosely based on real women who fought as men during the Civil War. That near-factualism allows a reader’s mind to believe a bit easier and, with the addition of the aforementioned museum-quality writing, it’s hard not to feel fear or the cannon booms, to taste the dirt or to become breathless while reading this stellar novel.

Civil War buffs and anyone who enjoys reenactment weekends will eat this book up, as will lovers of a good novel. Start Neverhome, in fact, and you’ll be sitting a while.

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was three years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. Readers with questions or comments may write to Terri in care of this publication.