Senior Resource Center book discussion: Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

Paulette Jiles is another author who writes terrific historical fiction, focusing on the Civil War era. Jiles’ latest novel, Chenneville: A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance, begins as the Civil War is ending. The protagonist, Union Army First Lieutenant John Chenneville, is recovering from a head injury sustained following an explosion in Petersburg, Virginia. As he wakes from a coma of seven months, Chenneville begins a slow journey back to himself. He remembers being aloft in a hot-air sack floating above the fray at the battle of Yorktown, but did that really happen? He can’t be sure, as he strives to slowly regain his balance, his strength, his memory, the ability to read and write. Most of all, he is fighting for a reason to remain living in the world he returns to, a world radically changed by the war and its aftermath. And yes, he had been aloft on a very early hot-air balloon reconnaissance mission prior to his head injury.

Jiles tells a beautiful, multi-layered tale rich with the historical details of the past — the sounds the paddle boats make on the Ohio River; how the telegraph system of the nineteenth century shortened distances between people in remote places and brought much needed news to  lonely outposts; how one could tell who the telegraph operator was by their unique way of sending messages; how early photographs called daguerrotypes were washed with a gold solution, giving them depth and golden tones; and how the state of Missouri never seceded from the Union, but was a place of great conflict and bloodshed between the two warring sides.      [Southern Book Review]

Join us at the Senior Resource Center in Freeport to discuss. No registration required, all are welcome!