Soldier Boys (Book Info)
Brief Book Description: Philosophical author Jack Matthews takes snapshots of Civil War soldiers as they cheat death and mess around between battles. Without dwelling on the war’s tragic dimension, these old-fashioned (and historically accurate) yarns are infused with irony and a youthful sense of adventure. They also ask you to ponder the human condition as people of that time might have done. This special ebook edition is illustrated by Barbiel Matthews-Sanders (the author’s daughter) and includes two essays by Personville editor Robert Nagle.
Genre: Short Stories/Historical Fiction
Publication Date: November April 5, 2016 (Version History)
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Copyright: 2016. Cover art & Illustrations by Barbiel Matthews-Sanders
Word Count: 51,000 words
Book Details
Read an Interview with the Author || Civil War Fiction Bibliography || Jack Matthews: A Literary Appreciation
Philosophical author Jack Matthews takes snapshots of teenage Civil War soldiers as they cheat death and mess around between battles. Without dwelling on the war’s tragic dimension, these old-fashioned (and historically accurate) yarns are infused with irony and a youthful sense of adventure. They also ask you to ponder the human condition as people of that time might have done.
Over the decades, Jack Matthews collected memoirs and personal correspondence by actual U.S. Civil War soldiers. Eventually this interest led him to write a group of stories from the vantage point of teenage soldiers. The stories are less about specific Civil War battles or the horrors of war than about ordinary adventures and heartbreaks of young soldiers. One soldier constantly composes new epitaphs for himself (much to the irritation of his comrades). A wounded soldier finds himself abandoned by his regiment and accidentally strikes up a friendship with a soldier from the other side. One soldier starts seeing ghostly visions of his dead brother and wants to know why. In the opening story, a courier is sent by headquarters to deliver an urgent (and tragic) message only to learn that the local commander has forbidden him to deliver it. In the final story, two soldiers have to hunt down and stop a hidden sharpshooter nicknamed “Old Mortality” and in so doing have to face (and understand) their fears.
Told in an accessible, humorous and even old-fashioned way, these stories have a philosophical bent and give readers a sense of how 19th century young Americans must have pondered their world. This 8th story collection (published posthumously) is the first Jack Matthews story collection to be published in 23 years.
This special ebook edition is illustrated by Barbiel Matthews-Sanders (the author’s daughter) and includes two introductory essays by Personville editor Robert Nagle. The author’s website (www.ghostlypopulations.com ) also contains a study guide for teachers and an annotated bibliography of Civil War fiction prepared especially for this ebook.
Reviews and Feedback
“As a big fan of Civil War Era history, I LOVED this collection of stories. It doesn’t show the battle part of the war, but rather, the non-battle portion, where the soldiers mingle with each other and the happenings that would go on in the encampments. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves history, of any kind!”
–mike1990, Reviewer on Librarything.com
Author S.A. Adams: Soldier Boys is a collection of wonderful short stories told in the setting of the American Civil War. The perspective changes with each story, some are told in the third person and others in first person. I found the stories that used first person narration to be far superior. The author’s style in the first person really got in the mind of the soldiers, and his historical knowledge of the era made it impossible to tell if these were real memoirs or fiction. “We were soldier boys, pure and simple, which meant that all we had to know was how to load and shoot and drink whiskey and brag and maybe learn how to stay alive by eating the dirt off our boots.” So many Civil War era stories and films center around their great, charismatic generals. It was refreshing to read a different perspective— grimy young grunts who had to suffer through the thick of war before antibiotics and modern medicine. People often forget how simple injuries required amputation back then, it’s captured here in gruesome detail.
PLOT: 9/10 – Every single story in this collection had something to tell. Most are not really “war” stories in the traditional sense, they tend to be focused on the characters and the emotions of the horrors surrounding them. This was a pleasant surprise, as with all “war” stories, it isn’t the action that we remember, but the characters in the action.
CHARACTERS: 9/10 – I honestly was convinced that some of the characters in these stories were real people. If you love historical fiction or are a Civil War buff, this collection is for you, because the characters are flawless in terms of realism. The character voices were so authentic, I felt like I was laying right there in the field alongside those poorly equipped and sickly young men.
WRITING: 9/10 – Love the use of colloquialisms and old-time metaphors! Didn’t like so much the author’s use of “then” to begin sentences. But there is really nothing to fault, the writing is descriptive and each story had its own unique voice. The writing was three-dimensional, often using war as a clever backdrop to explore deeper themes regarding the soldier’s/human condition.
CONCLUSION: I really enjoyed this collection. I would recommend this to anyone interested in war dramas, and if you have a passing interest in the American Civil War— buy this now! Among my favorites were “The End of Whiskey,” Here Lies Billy Talbert, Dead and Gone,” and “The Silver Link,” which was a collection of letters between a Private and his would-be sweetheart back home, and “The Killing of Old Mortality,” which was as close as you will get to an “action” war story. Some of these will stay with me for a long time, and I feel like going back and re-reading some Michael Shaara books!
(From the book’s preface, written by Personville Press editor Robert Nagle)
Soldier Boys operates on a more metaphysical level – beyond the U.S. Civil War or even war itself. These stories come from the head of a retired author in his 70s who had been writing stories most of his life. A person of that age must be more aware of his mortality and the importance of valuing the life one has lived. As it happens, many soldiers in this book (and in the actual Civil War) were too busy to do this. The book is about facing your mortality – and not just on the battlefield. Many Civil War soldiers died of disease (and this was the central subject of “Johnny Kincaid” story). Many had to face debilitating injuries. Many were haunted by memories of those who died before (as suggested by the appearance of ghosts in “Conroy’s Ghost” and “Johnny Kincaid”). Many of the characters had come to appreciate the value of life itself (and the random tragic way it can be snatched away).
Matthews has always struck me as a philosophical writer, and this book offers lots of questions. How does awareness of one’s own mortality change the way you treat your fellow man? Why does the world offer terrible tragedies to some individuals while leaving others unscathed? Does too much attention to duty (military or otherwise) drain a person’s humanity out of him? Does compassion have to be earned or are all humans entitled to it? What is it like for an immature person to be dragged into the trenches and exposed to inhumanity and destruction? Is it possible for such a person to ever reclaim his humanity? In a situation marked by brutal violence, how can people learn to connect with strangers? These are unsettling questions and part of the reason I consider this Soldier Boys collection to be his most enduring……..
Other Praise for Jack Matthews’ Fiction
“Mr. Matthews is a master of prose conversation and deadpan charm. He is ironic, cool, and shrewd, and he writes a lucid prose.”
—Tom O’Brien, New York Times Book Review
“Jack Matthews proves once again that he is in the top one percent of American fiction writers. Witty, polished, wise, ironic, with deep insight into the dark recesses of the human heart, Matthews’ stories are often intense and humorous at the same time.”
— W.P. Kinsella (Author of Shoeless Joe)
“Few contemporary writers can – or want to – compose stories in the narrow tunnel of the interior, the rutted trail of memory between mind and heart, sometimes shutting out other people as well as time and place and usual props. Matthews takes us there, carrying a bright light.”
— Art Seidenbaum, Los Angeles Times
About the Author
Jack Matthews (1925-2013) published 20+ books and taught literature at Ohio University over four decades. His story collections were praised by authors such as Tim O’Brien and W.P. Kinsella and received positive reviews in places like New York Times Book Review and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He is the author of Hanger Stout, Awake, a modern coming-of-age novel about a teenage boy’s obsession with cars (which was praised by Time Magazine and called by National Book Award winner William Stafford “one of the most neglected works of the 20th century.”) He has published multiple essays and several works of fiction about life in 19th century America.
