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Conference Center, Building A
CANCELLED
Acclaimed writer E. L. Doctorow’s new novel, The
March, illuminates a savage period in American history
– the Civil War. The author of bestsellers Ragtime,
City Of God, and World’s Fair reads from
his latest book during a Books Inc. signing event at Fort
Mason Center in mid-December. At press time, Doctorow was
a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award for fiction for
The March.
The March chronicles the lives of soldiers, African Americans,
and civilians swept up in one of the Civil War’s most
brutal campaigns – Sherman’s March. In 1864, Union
General William Tecumseh Sherman burned Atlanta and embarked
on a 60-mile swath of destruction through Confederate territory
in Georgia and the Carolinas. Doctorow’s narrative treats
the onslaught of 60,000 troops like a ravening plague of locusts,
consuming everything in its path; ranks swelling with the
displaced, the liberated, and the lost.
Distinctive Doctorow characters emerge from the ferocious
swarm devastating plantations and towns, among them Sherman
himself. The story gains depth from the perspectives of two
misfit soldiers, a freed girl named Pearl, Union surgeon Colonel
Sartorius, and a Southern judge’s daughter. In the surreal
and violent atmosphere of war, the march takes on a drifting
existence of its own, fueled by flames, chaos, and victory.
By delving into the interminable, insolvable nature of war,
Doctorow draws interesting parallels with current events.
Discuss a fascinating interval in US history with a thought-provoking
novelist. See December 14 and www.booksinc.net
for details.
– Claudia Willen
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