Tomorrow, the War
The lives of drifter Jed and the formerly enslaved Raleigh intersect on the eve of the Civil War in this ambitious tale that explores some of America’s most-troubling growing pains. Jed leaves his Virginia home in the wake of his father’s death to become a soldier in the Mexican American War until circumstances make him an outlaw, and he picks up buffalo hunting. Raleigh and his sister Temple are the enslaved offspring of a Virginia estate owner and his slave, Flora. Upon their father’s death, his heir, Oliver, who is Raleigh and Temple’s half-sibling, returns home. Oliver sets Raleigh and Temple free, and his return becomes an interesting proxy for contrasting educated Northern sensibilities for the rights of man against Southern antebellum racist attitudes and entitlement to enslaved labor.
Tragedy strikes, and Raleigh must flee westward, where his path converges with Jed’s with a real sense of destiny. Jeb has been cast adrift in the chaotic anarchy of the American West, a place where violence rears its head at a moment’s notice. A surprising twist sets Jed and Raleigh on a mission to rescue Temple, and on to a most satisfying conclusion.
Jed, Raleigh, and Temple are developed with depth and texture, and many supporting characters are given point of view turns that, taken together, propel the story forward with increasing fury. The author does a great job of contrasting certain character archetypes: the entitled Southern planter class, Southern Blacks before the Civil War, outlaws, educated Northerners with abolitionist tendencies, Indigenous people of the American West, and Indian fighters. Settings are rendered with immersive period detail. Prose is crisp and teeming with social commentary contemporary to the period, bringing to mind Boston Teran’s terrific 19th– century historical novel, Crippled Jack. A great addition to novels that explore social tensions leading to the Civil War.
