The Road from Chapel Hill
Joanna Catherine Scott
Berkley Books
ISBN Number: 0425212521
Reviewed by JoSelle Vanderhooft
Southern writer Joanna Catherine Scott’s latest novel of Civil War North Carolina takes several departures from many works of fiction set in this well-explored period of American history. Instead of examining the lives of the wealthy and powerful, such as plantation owners, politicians and generals, as is the wont of many authors, Scott focuses on the experiences of those the war between states affected the most—slaves and poor white Southerners caught between the armies regardless of whether they “chose a side." Though its plotting sags in places, it is nonetheless a gripping and enjoyable novel about the ravages of war and the strength of those who survived it.
The Road from Chapel Hill follows the stories of three Southerners from 1860, when secession was little more than a rumor to many in small towns, to its gory end in 1865. These unlucky and in many ways unlikely protagonists are Eugenia Mae Spotswood, a displaced Southern aristocrat now working in a gold mine with her haunted father; Tom, the runaway slave her father purchases; and Clyde Bricket, a poor farmer’s son who longs to be a slave catcher. As the war progresses from backwoods rumor to the destructive reality of General Sherman’s campaign, which left the Carolinas and Georgia in ruins, their lives interweave in startling ways.
Due to the number of main characters and the extensive back stories which need explanation and exposition, the novel starts slowly and takes a few chapters to truly get up to speed. But when it does, its compelling characters, intriguing plot and deft historical detail make it a difficult book to put down. This is thanks largely to Eugenia, whose story the narrative follows the closest. Though the fallen, faded Southern belle is a common figure in North American literature, Eugenia never comes across as shrill or stereotyped, even in the first chapter when she bewails her fate in melodramatic, nearly comical terms. She is a fascinating and nuanced character, and her transformation from spoiled, shrieking girl to mature, considerate woman is believable and often exciting to behold. Tom is an equally compelling character—sympathetic, kind, determined and intelligent, despite his former master’s belief that he is a simpleton. His journey to freedom through the war-torn forests and camps and his eventual enlistment in the Union Army’s first all-black battalion are some of the book’s most exciting passages, as are those detailing the friendships he forms with other blacks as the novel progresses.
Sadly, not as much time or attention appears to have been given to Clyde, which is a shame, as the lives of the poorest of poor white Southern farmers in this time are not as well-explored in fiction. Though Clyde, like Eugenia and Tom, has difficult choices to make and has his assumptions about slavery challenged, he doesn’t seem to change as much as they do, despite the fact that he goes from wanting to be a slave catcher to volunteering for the Union army after Confederate soldiers mistreat his father. While this may be due to the fact that he is much younger than Eugenia or Tom (he is only seventeen at the novel’s end), his role in the book seems small by comparison. Indeed, at the book’s end he seems ultimately to have been included as a catalyst, as a reason for Eugenia to take an important journey back to Chapel Hill.
Clyde’s comparative lack of development is a symptom of the book’s only major weakness: its tendency to rush through some important details and events. The affection that grows between Eugenia and Tom, for example, is an important plot point and has a great deal of bearing on Eugenia’s character arc. In spite of this, their love for one another seems to appear overnight instead of growing over time, which significantly detracts from the book’s later events and from believability: it seems unlikely that a woman accustomed as Eugenia is to owning slaves and seeing them as status symbols would come so quickly to regard a slave not only as a human being, but also as a potential love-interest. Similarly, an important detail about Eugenia’s past is poorly introduced. In one of the book’s more overwrought moments, it is blurted out by her father during a nightmare, a fact which pulls the reader out of the action and makes the plot resulting from this detail appear contrived or suspect. Though they are few in number, moments such as these detract from the quality of the book.
But where Scott stumbles in plotting, she more than makes up for with her vivid language and naturally rendered dialogue, which is as skillfully employed as it is sensitive to race and class. But it is her gorgeous descriptions of North Carolina’s landscape that make this novel not just a fictional account of the Civil War, but a living, intricately detailed portrait of a vanished time and place. When Scott writes about the smell of the forest during a rainstorm, the slip of mud underfoot, or the call of an owl, one feels transported. This is also true of her writing when she describes less pleasant things, such as the stench of hospital rooms or the disease, degradation and human mess of the Confederate prison camp where Clyde spends much of his time. These incredible details, along with Scott’s appreciation for history and her obvious love for the time period, make The Road from Chapel Hill truly soar in places.
Though The Road from Chapel Hill suffers in some respects from what seem to be easy solutions to complicated matters of plot, it is by no means an unworthy book. Scott’s writing is gripping and taut, her eye for historical detail sharp and her characters (mostly) individual and memorable. Its flaws aside, The Road from Chapel Hill will appeal to those interested in the lives of “common people" during the Civil War, as well as anyone looking for a good read with a regional flavor.
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