The March

出版者:Little Brown

作者:E.L. Doctorow

页数:384

出版时间:2006-11

价格:84.00元

isbn号码:9780349119595

具体描述

Book Description

Doctorow's new novel is set towards the end of the American Civil War and follows General Sherman's epic march with sixty thousand Union troops through Georgia and the Carolinas, one of the major manoeuvres to bring the war to its conclusion. THE MARCH ranges widely over a diverse set of characters - each of whom is brilliantly realised - so that we see the war through the eyes of both white- skinned Pearl (daughter of slave and slave owner) and General Sherman; a deserting confederate who sets himself up as a photographer; a ruthless army surgeon who enjoys his reputation as an amputator; and the two brothers of a brutal slave owner who find themselves in uniforms facing Sherman's forces. Doctorow's narrative brilliantly blends the intimate and the epic, sweeping the reader along the route of Sherman's notorious march and making us care deeply about each individual's fate.

Amazon.com

As the Civil War was moving toward its inevitable conclusion, General William Tecumseh Sherman marched 60,000 Union troops through Georgia and the Carolinas, leaving a 60-mile-wide trail of death, destruction, looting, thievery and chaos. In The March, E.L. Doctorow has put his unique stamp on these events by staying close to historical fact, naming real people and places and then imagining the rest, as he did in Ragtime.

Recently, the Civil War has been the subject of novels by Howard Bahr, Michael Shaara, Charles Frazier, and Robert Hicks, to name a few. Its perennial appeal is due not only to the fact that it was fought on our own soil, but also that it captures perfectly our long-time and ongoing ambivalence about race. Doctorow examines this question extensively, chronicling the dislocation of both southern whites and Negroes as Sherman burned and destroyed all that they had ever known. Sherman is a well-drawn character, pictured as a crazy tactical genius pitted against his West Point counterparts. Doctorow creates a context for the march: "The brutal romance of war was still possible in the taking of spoils. Each town the army overran was a prize... There was something undeniably classical about it, for how else did the armies of Greece and Rome supply themselves?"

The characters depicted on the march are those people high and low, white and black, whose lives are forever changed by war: Pearl, the newly free daughter of a white plantation owner and one of his slaves, Colonel Sartorius, a competent, remote, almost robotic surgeon; several officers, both Union and Confederate; two soldiers, Arly and Will, who provide comic relief in the manner of Shakespeare's fools until, suddenly, their roles are not funny anymore.

Doctorow has captured the madness of war in his description of the condition of a dispossessed Southern white woman: "What was clear at this moment was that Mattie Jameson's mental state befitted the situation in which she found herself. The world at war had risen to her affliction and made it indistinguishable." And later, " This was not war as adventure, nor war for a solemn cause, it was war at its purest, a mindless mass rage severed from any cause, ideal, or moral principle."

As we have come to expect, Doctorow puts the reader in the picture; never more so than in recalling "The March" and letting us see it as a cautionary tale for our times.

　　--Valerie Ryan

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas produced hundreds of thousands of deaths and untold collateral damage. In this powerful novel, Doctorow gets deep inside the pillage, cruelty and destruction—as well as the care and burgeoning love that sprung up in their wake. William Tecumseh Sherman ("Uncle Billy" to his troops) is depicted as a man of complex moods and varying abilities, whose need for glory sometimes obscures his military acumen. Most of the many characters are equally well-drawn and psychologically deep, but the two most engaging are Pearl, a plantation owner's despised daughter who is passing as a drummer boy, and Arly, a cocksure Reb soldier whose belief that God dictates the events in his life is combined with the cunning of a wily opportunist. Their lives provide irony, humor and strange coincidences. Though his lyrical prose sometimes shades into sentimentality when it strays from what people are feeling or saying, Doctorow's gift for getting into the heads of a remarkable variety of characters, famous or ordinary, make this a kind of grim Civil War Canterbury Tales. On reaching the novel's last pages, the reader feels wonder that this nation was ever able to heal after so brutal, and personal, a conflict.

From Library Journal

*Starred Review* American history is the wellspring of Doctorow's prevailing fiction, but never before has he so fully occupied the past, or so gorgeously evoked its generation of the forces that seeded our times. The march in question is that of General William Tecumseh Sherman and his Union soldiers as they slash and burn their way through Georgia and the Carolinas, and the "march to freedom" as liberated slaves fall in step with the liberating army. But it is also, given the poetic depth of Doctorow's vision, the great march of time and of humanity in all its cruelty and glory. As Doctorow dramatizes the fury, conviction, and chaos of the Civil War, he portrays historical figures, as he is wont to do, most electrifyingly Sherman himself. But he focuses most on brilliantly imagined characters who embody the epic conflicts of that cataclysmic era, including Pearl, the smart and courageous daughter of a slave and slave owner; an excessively clinical military surgeon; the valiant daughter of a Southern judge; a freed slave who becomes a war photographer; and Arly, a scheming Rebel soldier who provides shrewdly comic relief. Doctorow writes with blazing clarity about the "brutal romance" of war and its gruesome realities, with lyrical splendor about nature, and with wry wisdom and nimble satire about human folly. Heir to Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Doctorow's masterpiece uncovers the roots of today's racial and political conundrums, and taps into the deep and abiding realm of myth in its illumination of sorrow and beauty, the continuity of human existence, and the transcendence of tenacity, compassion, and love.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Donna Seaman

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–A Civil War tale with much to engage teens. The title refers to a climactic event, General William Tecumseh Shermans March to the Sea. Using a nonlinear (but not especially challenging) structure that recalls his groundbreaking Ragtime, Doctorow narrates events through multiple Union and Confederate perspectives. A rich variety of individuals, both fictional and historical, populates a moving world of more than 60,000 troops accompanied by thousands of former slaves and assorted civilian refugees who follow Sherman on his ruthless progress through Georgia and the Carolinas. While many characters are essentially entertaining sketches, there are a few memorable standouts, particularly 15-year-old Pearl, a so-called white Negro fathered by her owner. Taking advantage of the chaos after war disrupts her tightly controlled existence, she flees her looted plantation home, disguises herself as a drummer boy, and joins the march, determined to reach freedom and create a life worth living. On the way, she experiences moments of violence, love, irony, and even humor in the midst of horror. Short cinematic episodes illuminate and interpret history with meticulous attention to period settings, from terrifying battlefields to desperate field hospitals to once-grand mansions, all described in lyrical language crafted by a skilled writer.

–Starr E. Smith, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Book Dimension :

length: (cm)19.8 　　　　　 width:(cm)12.6

用户评价

《The March》这本书，彻底颠覆了我对“进步”和“前进”的理解。它讲述的不是那种一往无前的、充满光明前景的“March”，而是充满了牺牲、困惑，甚至是一种痛苦的跋涉。作者没有回避人性的阴暗面，没有刻意美化苦难，他只是真实地呈现了人们在面对巨大挑战时的挣扎。我感受到了其中的无力感，但也看到了在绝望中闪烁的人性光辉。这本书让我反思，我们所追求的“March”究竟是什么？是为了改变，还是仅仅为了生存？是为了理想，还是被现实所裹挟？我被书中一些意想不到的转折所震撼，也为一些角色的命运感到唏嘘。它不是一本能够让你轻松读完的书，但它一定会让你在读完之后，对这个世界，对人生，产生更深刻的理解。它像一颗种子，会在你的心里慢慢发芽，让你在未来的日子里，不断地去回味和思考。

坦白说，《The March》并不是一本容易阅读的书。它需要你沉下心来，慢慢品味。书中的语言风格非常独特，有时如同涓涓细流，细腻婉转，有时又如惊涛骇浪，震撼人心。我喜欢作者在叙事中偶尔插入的一些哲理性的思考，这些思考没有显得生硬或说教，而是自然地融入到故事之中，引人深思。我一直在思考，作者究竟想要通过这场“March”传达什么？是对历史的反思？是对人性的探索？还是对未来的一种隐喻？我没有找到一个唯一的答案，或许，这正是这本书的魅力所在。它就像一面镜子，映照出不同读者内心深处的答案。我在阅读过程中，不断地在脑海中构建着画面，想象着角色的表情，感受着他们的情绪。这种沉浸式的阅读体验，让我感觉自己不仅仅是一个旁观者，更是故事的一部分。

读完《The March》的瞬间，我感觉自己仿佛经历了一次灵魂的洗礼。这本书不是那种快节奏、情节跌宕起伏的小说，它更像是一首悠长的诗，或者一幅细腻的水墨画，用一种沉静而有力的方式，触及到了内心最柔软的地方。作者对人物情感的刻画极其到位，每一个角色都仿佛是从现实生活中走出来的一样，有血有肉，有喜有悲。我尤其被其中几个角色的内心独白所打动，那些细致入微的心理描写，让我仿佛能感同身受，理解他们在这个充满挑战的世界里的挣扎与成长。书中的一些场景，虽然看似平淡，却蕴含着深刻的人生哲理，让人在读过之后，久久不能平静。它不是直接告诉你什么道理，而是通过一个个鲜活的个体，去展现人性的复杂与光辉。我发现，自己在阅读的过程中，不自觉地会去反思自己的生活，思考自己在这场人生“March”中，又扮演着怎样的角色，又朝着怎样的方向前进。

《The March》这本书，带给我了一种前所未有的阅读体验。它不像我平时常看的那些商业小说，有明确的善恶对立，有清晰的英雄主义叙事。相反，它描绘的是一个更加灰暗、更加真实的世界，在这里，界限变得模糊，动机变得复杂。我看到了人性的脆弱，也看到了在绝境中绽放出的顽强生命力。作者的笔触非常克制，但这种克制反而增加了故事的力量，让那些压抑的情感和沉重的现实，更加直击人心。我尤其欣赏作者对细节的把握，那些看似不经意间的描写，却能勾勒出那个时代特有的氛围，让人身临其境。这本书没有给我一个皆大欢喜的结局，也没有给我一个明确的答案，但它留给我的是无尽的思考空间。它让我意识到，生活本身就是一场漫长而充满不确定性的“March”，我们每个人都在其中摸索前行，有时跌倒，有时爬起，有时迷茫，有时坚定。

这本《The March》的书名本身就带着一种宏大的史诗感，仿佛预示着一场波澜壮阔的旅程，或是某种不可阻挡的趋势。我在拿到这本书的时候，就对这个名字充满了好奇。它让我想起了一些历史画卷，那些大规模的迁徙、战争，或是社会变革的洪流。也可能，它指的是一个更加个人化的“进军”，是某个人内心深处的追求，或是对某种理想的执着。这种模糊却又充满力量的书名，像一个精心设计的谜语，吸引着我去一层层地解开它。我脑海中已经勾勒出了无数种可能的故事线，或许是关于一群人在艰难的时代里为了生存而跋涉，或许是关于一个群体为了信念而奋起抗争，又或许是关于一次深刻的自我发现之旅，最终抵达一个全新的境界。这种期待感，就像即将打开一份厚重的礼物，里面装着的究竟是惊奇还是感动，都让人难以预测，却又充满期待。我迫不及待地想要翻开第一页，看看作者究竟是如何描绘这场“March”的，它又将带领我走向何方。