The Affair at Honey Hill
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
While Berry Fleming’s interest in history has produced two books of non-fiction, one of which dealt with the Civil War (Autobiography of a City in Arms), The Affair at Honey Hill marks the first time he has used the Civil War as a setting for any of his novels. The story is presented through the eyes of Edwin Daws, a 56 year old Confederate soldier, from his present day (winter, 1864) awareness, as well as his memories, both recent and past. Assigned with his militia company, The Silver Grays, to repel an assault on the railroad leading into Savannah near Honey Hill Plantation, he recalls the month he spent there 18 years earlier, working as a scribe for the Reverend Trezevant Ferebee, and of his growing love for the Reverend’s enigmatic daughter-in-law, Julia. What is to become of them now with Sherman’s forces moving fast to attack the city? Where is Julia? Can he find her in all this desperate confusion and extricate her? The Affair at Honey Hill is a tight and graphic narrative of human beings—civilians and soldiers—caught in the stress of war and defeat, ripe with the sounds and smells and textures of loves and battles, of opportunities lost and gained, and of hard moral decisions.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fleming self-published this short novel in 1981, selling about 100 copies. He died this year at 90, his reputation ( Colonel Effingham's Raid ) again on the rise. This wintry tale, filled with wonderful stream-of-consciousness impressions, is set in December, 1864, and follows middle-aged, Confederate enlisted-man Edwin Daws as he is wounded, taken prisoner and wearily reflects on an old love. The war has brought Daws back to Honey Hill Plantation, where, 18 years earlier, he had loved Julia, daughter-in-law of his employer. At the time, Julia's husband was fighting in the Mexican War, and Daws may be father to her second son. Daws finally sees and speaks with Julia in nearby Savannah, as Sherman continues his savage march, but the denouement is not what he expects. Daws and the reader are jolted, shockingly and effectively. There's no happy ending here, for anyone, but Fleming's kaleidescopic texture--the slant of sunlight, the clinging to antebellum gentility--will enchant readers right through the bittersweet finale.