Notes from a Deserter: A Soldier’s Journey Home
In 1862, Pennsylvania farmer William Henry Howe enlists in the Union Army. He’s sure that the war will end in months and he’ll return home before planting season with sixteen dollars and the honor of having served. His wife Hannah, exhausted with pregnancy, hopes he’ll also be home before the birth of their second child. A few months later, after the devastation of the Battle of Fredericksburg, William deserts the army that he feels has deserted him. With a satchel full of unsent letters to Hannah, he begins walking the two-hundred and fifty-six miles home, a journey that takes him through the war-ravaged landscape past those haunting the edges of the battlefields. But a deserter can only remain hidden for so long, and William races the threat of imprisonment.
Notes from a Deserter is a short story cycle of disparate vignettes, each told by a different narrator—a doctor, a battlefield photographer, a runaway slave, a bounty hunter, a tavern keeper, a civilian bystander, and soldiers on the outskirts of battles. Only the first is from William’s perspective. He moves through the rest of the stories as an oft-nameless flaneur in the landscape of war. This narrative structure is effective and evocative in telling a story about the detachment of war, the fragile line between freedom and duty, and the weight of bravery and cowardice in taking the measure of a man. The writing is elegantly sparse, but the narrative is thick with emotion. Highly recommended.
