The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War by Michael Shaara
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Book Reviews of The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War
Book Review: What up! Mrs Wallender
Summary: 5 Stars
The have been a variety of books written about the Civil war and particular battles fought during it, but Michael Shaara's book The Killer Angels tells a two stories. One is from the side of the South and the other is the point of view from the North during the Battle of Gettysburg. Each chapter is from one of three generals from each side. Because of this aspect of the book, the reader gets an idea that the generals were not that different. Generals from both the North and South have the same emotions and ideas about the war. The only difference between generals is what color their uniform is. Michael Shaara provides deep insight to the characters emotions during the war. He shows the worries of the generals throughout the day and night with specific details and imaging. For example, General Longstreet is a particularly interesting character because of the intense emotional descriptions Shaara depicts. Longstreet is ordered to make a very important decision during a particularly intense time of fighting, which in turn amounts for the outcome of the war. Shaara does an excellent job in describing the characters thoughts externally and internally.
Another aspect Shaara includes in his book, are the scenes of the battles that happened. He recreates the battles in a very realistic way that is easy to read and picture. He brings alive the environment of a Civil War battle in a very unique and fascinating way. The reader can picture every aspect of the battle from the horrific scenes of suffering men to the triumph after an especially immense victory. Shaara describes the confederate army marching up the hill with their bayonets fastened, yelling and firing from behind trees. The passages that describe the fighting are some of the most detailed and enjoyable passages the reader will encounter in any book about the Civil War. He keeps the battle scenes flowing and intense throughout the book and unlike many other books, each battle has its own unique style.
Besides brilliantly written material, Shaara also provides very useful images depicting the exact location of each army. These pictures provide a useful visual that the reader can glance back if he/she finds the writing confusing, which comes in very handy when describing the locations of the armies.
The language that Shaara provides throughout his book makes the book even more enjoyable. The immense detail and thought put into this book are enhanced by Shaara's beautiful language and style. He writes with a unique style, unlike any other I have read. "There were a few groans; most dead sounds from dying earth most of them soft and low. There was a fire far off, a large fire burning in the grove of the trees, men outlined against a great glare; a band was playing something disorient, something unrecognizable". Though horrific, Shaara describes the Battle of Gettysburg in an intriguing way.
The Killer Angels is one of the best Civil War books ever written because of its immense detail and character emotion. Michael Shaara does a fantastic job in enhancing the battle with his detailed sentences and thoughts. His maps provide and easy way to relate to his writing and he does an over all great job in describing each character in every chapter.
Book Review: 'KIller' Is An Angel of a Book.
Summary: 5 Stars
'Killer' is an Angel of a Book By: Nick Hadsel-Mares The book Killer Angels by Michael Shaara is a masterpiece that everybody should read. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is the story of Gettysburg told in a way that is clear concise, and incredibly readable. The Killer Angels is a classic that belongs on the shelf of every home. When I first picked up the book, I was daunted by the size of it. Three hundred and forty five pages in length is a little long but I wanted to read It because I knew next to nothing about Gettysburg. This book satisfied my every need for knowledge. It told about things from how the cannons worked to the lives of the soldiers. The book was descriptive in everything that it talked about. The genre of this book is an interesting one. It uses both historical information and fiction. This doesn't really make very much sense because history is real and you can't change it. If you think about it, just about all historical stories are fiction. They are because nobody knows the exact dialogue passed between people and so they have to make up words that they could have said. This genre is a good one because it appeals to lot of different people. It appeals to adventure readers because the story line is very intriguing and the characters are very interesting. It is also appealing to people who read war history because this book is a very detailed representation of the Battle of Gettysburg. The Killer Angels book structure is different from any other structure that I have seen. In the first few pages, they give you a short biography on each of the opposing side's commanders. I found that I was continually referring back to this information, but after a while I got everybody's names. There were the confusing names like Ewell and Early, but I got these names after a short while. The chapters were structured in a very easily readable way that went by the three days of the Battle of Gettysburg. At the beginning of each chapter, it said the name of the commander and the rest of the chapter was from that side's perspective. Every chapter it switched back and forth so you got a real idea of both sides perspectives. Even though the perspective changed every chapter I did not find it hard at all to see what is going on. Probably one of the best features of the book is the side switching idea. Even though it switches sides, the book remains in real time, which means, for example that at the end of a southern general's chapter his troops are charging up a hill. Then a new chapter begins with a Union general defending the hill from the invaders. This way of telling a story brings the reader right into the battle so that the reader can fully understand what is going on. This book is a must read for anybody interested in a historical book with great storytelling qualities.Book Review: Great book but definitely fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very engrossing read. I read it in three long sessions and couldn't put it down. The interesting aspect to me is that there is very little in the way of action until the book is two thirds over. The author keeps the pace moving with great descriptive narrative. This is combined with fictional but historically based dialogue and characterizations of historical figures. The overall presentation of the divergent points of view of several of the important officers in charge of the conflict is enlightening at some points. There aren't heroes or protaganists, only real men who are driven by their cause and their belief in divine providence, but still plagued with self-doubt.
I felt that, to a minor extent, the author glossed over and under-emphasized the hideous cost of the Battle of Gettysburg. I had read in the past that this was the biggest and bloodiest battle ever fought in the western hemisphere and throughout the three days and nights there were so many wounded men lying on the hills and fields that the air was permeated with grotesque sounds of human suffering and the creeks ran in blood. The author certainly does portray the confusion and horror of two of the major engagements but, at the same time, the main character's seem detached from the hideous nature of war.
I'm not sure whether the author was glorifying the battle, I think rather the author was trying to delve into the individual psyches of the men who were the real heroes and goats, the leaders who ordered men to their deaths. A certain amount of detachment must be necessary, one would assume, in order to send men to their deaths. Perhaps the biggest detached "goat" was General Lee who believed his army was invincible. The author does a good job protraying Lee's human side in the aftermath of the disasterous assault on the Union position during the third day of battle, Pickett's Charge. In a fleeting moment of weakness he's ready to hand over his sword to Longstreet, who doesn't want it. Longstreet secretly holds Lee accountable for losing the battle, the turning point of the war, an opinion for which he is later shunned in the south. The novel ends with the retreat of the Rebel Army, mortally wounded, limping back to Virginia towards inevitable defeat. Its leaders now resigned to their fates.
By all means, if you like historical fiction, pick this up. The characterizations of the major players including Lee, Longstreet, and Chamberlain are skillfully crafted. The author sets the events in motion from the first day of the battle with very little background and the story is very believable, coherent, and well researched. I can't say I am going to turn into a Civil War nut but if you were to read only one book to get a feeling for what the US Civil War was all about, read this one.
Book Review: Brilliant modern classic
Summary: 5 Stars
The Killer Angels is rightly celebrated as the thinking person's type of historical fiction. This novelization of the Battle of Gettysburg, written in the third person but from the points of view of several of its leading participants (Lee, Longstreet, Chamberlain especially)will teach you (or refamiliarize you) with history. Likethe two novels written by Shaara's son (also both superb), the book does not make things up or go against the historical record, but combines a stirring narrative of the known with intelligent and thoughtful speculation about what may have happened interstitially and about the "inner story"--the thoughts, feelings, motivations of the characters. It is a rousing success.
The book proceeds from the poins of view of selected leaders (though not wholly so--ordinary soldiers act, speak, and, of course, fight). Most notable for the Confederacy are Lee and Longstreet; Joshua Chamberlain, the hero of Little Round Top, carries much of the burden for the North. Mixing description, action, dialogue, and inner monologues, Shaara explores not only what happened but why, especially why men fought and how they thought of the causes that they represented. From the confederates, we learn of their regional pride and nascent nationalism, their belief (or doubts) about their supposed invincibility under Lee, their love of Lee, and their struggle with the accusation that they are, at bottom, fighting to preserve the archaic and dishonored insitution of slavery. From the northerners, we hear echoes of Lincolnian themes--the right to rise, the sanctity of the Union and its revolutionary principle of self-government, and the belief that the equal right to rise in life, and not an artificial aristocracy, must be preserved. Both sides consider themselves the heirs to 1776. (Another character, English aristo-warrior Fremantle, looks to the South as the preservation of English values against all of that nonsense.) Of course,we also have people trying to make sense of their own beliefs and emotions--Lee's fatalism and struggle to understand what God has intended, Armistead's agony over the seemingly inevitable confrontation with Hancock, his dear friend of prewar days, and Chamberlain's conflicted feelings about racial equality, the need for military discipline, and the tragedy and exhiliration of war.
All of the characters are brought to life with sympathy and care. The descriptions of the surroundings, the battle scenes, and the events preceding and following the climactic encounters are vivid and lasting. The reader leaves not only having experienced a drama of memorable proportions but also with new insight into why Gettysburg and the Civil War were fought, what men felt and thought as they experienced it, and how they tried to comprehend of the meaning of it all.
Book Review: When brother kills brother, which side are the angels on?
Summary: 5 Stars
Having just returned from Gettysburg, I decided this would be a good time to read this too long postponed historical novel. Rather than tell a traditional "narrative" of battle, Killer Angels looks at events through the wholly subjective (and incredibly blind) eyes of five participants (contrary to another reviewer, Grant was not involved, and plays no part in this novel).Despite the extreme limitations of knowledge of each of the characters--which characterizes even current military battles, despite increased technology, the reader gets a very good sense of the over all ebb and flow of what happened, why generals made the decisions they did, and how much of war depnds on luck and the unanticipated consequences of decisions made for entirely different reasons.
The prime example, which forms the ceterpiece of the book, is Chamberlain's defense of the Union flank at Little Round Top. Having the vastly superior position, but the uneviable job of being the far right of the Union lines, Chambelin finds his troops at dusk without enough bullets to fight off another Confederate charge. Nonetheless, he has orders not to retreat, no mattter what, because if he does, then the Confederates will be able to gain the high gtround from the rear, and the Union position will become untenable.
When the Confederates charge, out of complete desperation, Chamberlain orders a bayonette charge. This appears completely suicidal (and Chamberlain probably thought that he was ordering his troops to certain death). Bayonettes in the face of bullets do not have a good track record. However, when the Confederate troops saw the charging Union soldiers, they panicked and retreated. Thus the day was saved, the battle won, and many would say, the course fo the war changed forever. Yet, the decision was made not out of bravery of tactics, but out of desperation.
As good as the battle descriptions are, even more powerful are the scenes in which generals on both sides wrestle with the fact that they are issuing orders which will result in thousands of men killing thousands of their fellow citizens, and in many cases, the generals facing each other were good friends before the war. Shaara's strength is making this impossible tragedy make sense, from both sides.
Shaara closes his book with a quote from Winston Churchill about how the Civil War was the bloodiest, yet least preventible wars in history. Once the tragic commitment to slavery had been made, Civil War was sure to follow. The result was a massive purging of the great American dilemna through the blood of brothers. "Where were the angels?", is a question every reader should ask.