The General and Julia

September 15, 2023
A renowned leader lays bare his heart. In 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, dying of throat cancer--he had smoked 25 cigars a day--sequestered himself in the Adirondacks to write his memoirs, a book, he hoped, that would serve as a legacy to history and a source of financial security for his wife and children: "He cannot let them go impoverished into their long days." His friend Samuel Clemens--sly, big-hearted, and loyal-- has secured him a generous advance, certain that Grant will "admit the reader into his own mind." In a graceful, moving narrative, Clinch recounts the pathos of Grant's last days, as the Civil War general and former president, weakened by pain, inhabits his past: marriage to the wise, loving Julia; the grim reality of a bloody war; entanglement in a devastating Ponzi scheme. In chapters that move back and forth in time, Clinch portrays a man both stalwart and tender, who "as son, brother, student, soldier, husband, father, grandfather, general, and president...accepted all burdens as personal acts of service." He conveys Grant's gravity, "an unmistakable and overwhelming power," and his complexity. As general, he bore the burden of uniting the country, nothing more; slavery seems to him "a puzzle at best and an error in management at worst." His wife's family, after all, owned slaves. When Robert E. Lee surrenders, Grant imposes no penalties on the Confederacy. Some see that decision as naive; as a young Black man remarks, Grant seems to be a man of faith and forgiveness: faith "'[i]n the possibility of man's improving, given opportunity and encouragement. I ask you: Who else could have led an army to such a victory and come away with the admiration of both sides?'" He has come away with Clinch's admiration, as well, and, no doubt, by the end of this affecting novel, the reader's. An empathetic portrait of a towering figure.

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October 1, 2023
The most celebrated general of the Union army, he negotiated the Confederacy's surrender wearing an ordinary soldier's garb. Born to an abolitionist father, he married a Missouri slave owner's daughter who kept an enslaved Black woman as her maid. Having relinquished his military pension to become America's eighteenth president, he lost his vast savings to a conniving fraudster. Epic in perspective and feeling without being biographically comprehensive, Clinch's (Marley, 2019) stellar imagining of Ulysses S. Grant invites readers to ponder this national icon and the seemingly paradoxical facets of his nature. In 1885, afflicted with throat cancer likely caused by habitual cigar-smoking, Grant reconsiders important life moments while penning his memoirs, desperately hoping its proceeds will rescue his beloved wife, Julia, and family from destitution after his death. Many chapters can stand as exceptional short stories; taken together, they comprise a memorable picture. We see Grant from within and through others' eyes, as sublime prose conjures Grant's strategic brilliance at Chattanooga, the awe he inspires, and his devotion to Julia and their children and grandchildren. Clinch also creates instances of frustrating passivity and naivete along with Grant's evolving views on slavery that evoke regret over his past ambivalence. While the story shifts around in time, it never loses its arc. Superb historical fiction.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2023

Clinch (Marley) reimagines Ulysses S. Grant's touching last months, suffering the ravages of throat cancer while trying to finish his memoirs that will provide income for his family. With generous doses of his doctor's cocaine, morphine, and brandy mixture, Grant captures the momentous events: his courting of Julia up against her wealthy irascible father with strong Southern sympathies; Civil War battles as a much revered general; his opinion of the Confederate peace commission ("all shuck and no ears"); his term as U.S. president; his failure as a Wall Street businessman in the panic of 1873; his financial rescue by a grateful Vanderbilt. Clinch's fondness for his subject shows in descriptions of Grant's devotion to his family, his treatment of the hired help, and his loyalty to his Black valet Terrell. As a nation mourns, Grant's memoirs, in the hands of publisher Samuel Clemens, will far outsell Clemens's own self-published Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. VERDICT Clinch's compelling study conveysthe complicated legacy of Grant, who had no pretense for pageantry, deeply loved his wife and children, and treated everyone with decent human kindness. A remarkable novel, utterly gripping.--Donna Bettencourt

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