Review by Booklist Review
Adair Colley is the headstrong heroine of this novel set in Missouri during the Civil War. Living at the southern end of the politically divided state, Adair and her family are Confederate sympathizers but have done their best to remain neutral throughout the war. This means nothing to the Union militia, who burn her family home and arrest her elderly father as a conspirator. Soon Adair finds herself unjustly behind bars with countless other women accused of treason simply for feeding and clothing their Confederate fathers and brothers. Adair escapes from jail with the help of a Union major who is enamored of her, and she makes her way back home, hoping to reunite her torn family once again. As a love story, this one quickly loses steam, but it becomes obvious that Jiles is a gifted Missouri historian who brings to light many overlooked Civil War facts and acutely portrays Missouri's logistic misfortune as a hotbed of both Union and Confederate violence. --Elsa Gaztambide
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
HFor Adair Randolph Colley, at 18 the eldest daughter of a widowed Missouri Ozarks schoolmaster and justice of the peace, the Civil War becomes personal when her father, who has remained neutral in the conflict, is arrested by the Union militia, their home is nearly burned and their possessions stolen. At the start of this spirited first novel, Adair and her two younger sisters try to follow their father's captors, but Adair is falsely denounced as a Confederate spy. At the prison in St. Louis, upright commandant Maj. William Neumann is embarrassed to be interrogating women and has requested a transfer to a fighting unit. He's touched by Adair's beauty and spirit and asks her to give him some information so she can be released. Instead, she writes the story of her life, augmented by folk tales and fables, and he finds himself falling in love. When he gets his reassignment orders, he proposes marriage and asks her to escape, promising to find her after the war. Thus begins a long and terrible journey for each of them. Poet and memoirist Jiles (North Spirit) has written a striking debut novel whose tone lingers poignantly. Not a typical romantic heroine, Adair has the saucy naevete of an unsophisticated countrywoman and the wily bravery born of an honest character. Jiles's strengths include a sure command of period vernacular and knowledge of the social customs among backwoods people, as well as a delicate hand with the love story. Sure to be touted as a new Cold Mountain, this stark, unsentimental, yet touching novel will not suffer in comparison. Agent, Liz Darhansoff. (Feb.) Forecast: Family stories were the basis of Jiles's plot, augmented by Civil War letters and documents prefacing each chapter. While the writing is literary, the book is more accessible than Cold Mountain, and could easily win a wide audience, boosted by regional author appearances. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Poet and memoirist Jiles (North Spirit) enters new territory, both historically and stylistically, with her first novel, which is set in the Missouri Ozarks during the Civil War. Adair Colley is 18 years old and leads a happy, untroubled life with her father, brother, and younger sisters on the family homestead in southeastern Missouri until the war, in the form of the Missouri Union Militia, touches them. After taking the family's possessions, the militia sets fire to the house and barn. Brother John Lee escapes to the woods, but patriarch Marquis Colley is accused of disloyalty, badly beaten, and taken away, leaving the three girls on their own. Though innocent, Adair is soon arrested for spying and sent to prison in St. Louis. How she survives that institution's abominable conditions, falls in love with the major in charge, and manages to return to her old home make for an enthralling narrative. Very little has been written about the degrading condition endured by female prisoners, who were often unjustly accused, and the details that Jiles unearthed via her research add much to our knowledge of the Civil War. Recommended for all public libraries. Ann Fleury, Tampa-Hillsborough P.L., FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Adult/High School-A well-told historical novel related by a young woman who was imprisoned during the Civil War. The story begins in southeastern Missouri where spoiled, outspoken Adair Colley, 18, lives with her bookish father, crippled brother, and two younger sisters. When Tim Reeves's Union militia burns their house and barn, taking her father prisoner, Adair and her sisters set off on horseback to plead for his release. Their brother has escaped both the army and Reeves's band by hiding out with Southern guerrillas. Adair is denounced as a spy and taken to prison, where she shares a cell with prostitutes. Soon she comes in contact with Major William Newmann, who tries to convince her to turn in her brother so she can be released. Instead of a confession, Adair composes an elaborate fairy tale. The major is unable to deny his feelings for her, and urges her to escape just before he is transferred to the front lines. The rest of the book deals with her risky trek home and the major's exploits in battle and subsequent release from the army. Similar to Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain (Atlantic Monthly, 1997), this love story gives vivid descriptions of the dangerous countryside and glimpses into the horrors of war and its aftermath. Chapters begin with contemporary journal entries, letters, and news stories. Magical, lyrical, and hauntingly beautiful, this title is a must read for its strong female protagonist and a side of the Civil War not usually dealt with in history books.-Pat Bender, The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A remarkable debut chronicles the challenges a young woman, falsely imprisoned as a spy during the Civil War, faces when her home is destroyed and her heart given to the enemy. Missouri native Jiles, a poet and memoirist (Cousins, 1992), sets her story in the Ozarks and vividly details one of the most brutal if little-known chapters in the Civil War: the destruction of civilian property and the killing of women, children, and elderly men by an unregulated Union militia. Each chapter is prefaced with extracts from relevant records, adding to the horror; this is war with a very human face-not set-piece battles and glorious charges, but pillage, plunder, and murder. Adair Colley is 18 in the third year of the war when the Union militia, made up of the dregs of the St. Louis waterfront, comes to the Colley family's farm and assaults their father, a judge and scholar who has refused to take sides in the war, and takes him away after stealing food and horses and setting the barn and house on fire. Adair and her two younger sisters salvage what clothing and supplies they can and set off to find their father. But when a malicious family of horse thieves tells the authorities that Adair is a Confederate spy, she's put in the women's prison in St, Louis, a horror out of Dickens or Hogarth. There, she contracts tuberculosis but also falls in love with Major Neumann, her Union interrogator. After he helps her escape, she starts her long journey home, an epic test of bravery, endurance, and resourcefulness as she meets up with the militia, retrieves her stolen horse, and follows lonely and dangerous mountain trails. As Adair struggles to reach home, Neumann, though wounded in action, sets off to find her. A distinguished epic of war, courage, and love, with a memorable heroine of passion and intelligence. Splendid. N.B.: The BOMC, which has revived the tradition of a celebrity panel to recommend books, has announced that Enemy Women is its first pick, chosen by panelist Anna Quindlen.)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
