A NOVEL IDEA


Not a Civil War buff, or any kind of buff for that matter, I have read quite a bit about the War Between the States as some Southerners call it. At least one I met this Summer at Patrick Henry's church in Richmond, Virginia.

St. John's Episcopal (I wonder if that comes from the word epistemology, meaning knowledge; probably not) Church was erected in 1741. It still displays the sounding board above the speaker's platform to help with acoustics. Anyhow, it's still a beautiful church on a hillside that has a congregation of 175.

But that's not what this entry is about. Nor is it about two great novels about the Civil War--Cold Mountain and Across Five Aprils. But if you think you like history and reading about the War Between the States, then those are must reads. Notice I didn't add Gone With the Wind. Simply because I've never read it.

So what is this entry about? How about a novel featuring a returning Johnny Reb who wasn't injured? He just came back to a totally different South. He had seen, had participated in killing his Northern brothers, had fought on the losing side, wasn't captured, didn't cut and run; he simply went to war and came back home.

What were the adjustments, the scars, the turmoil, the hatred, the readjustments he had to go through upon returning? I'd like to read a novel like that.

If I were to pen it, I would start out "On East Broad Street in Richmond, there's a church. St. John's Church. Patrick Henry's Church. And that's where Edward Keyes began his comeback."

Now, if someone would just take it from there.