The March (novel)

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William Tecumseh Sherman (1865)

The March (English original title: The March ) is a historical novel published in 2005 by the American writer E. L. Doctorow . It describes the campaign that the Northern Army under General William Tecumseh Sherman undertook in the final stages of the American Civil War through the southern states of Georgia , South and North Carolina . The work, which was received positively by the critics, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN / Faulkner Award and was published in 2007 in a German translation by Angela Praesent . Doctorow had previously received the National Book Critics Award for his novel Billy Bathgate .

Novel plot

The novel has no main character, but instead depicts the chaos and barbarism of war in several storylines with frequent changes of narrative perspective , the bearers of which are different people affected by the civil war : soldiers , deserters and looters from both sides, freed and runaway slaves who join the Union army , fleeing former slave owners, war correspondents and photographers, and finally General Sherman himself, the protagonist of modern war. The author describes the devastating violence of military conflicts in the industrial age , which leaves no one, neither soldiers nor civilians, unscathed. Doctorow, however, points out the paradox that even the barbaric act of war can serve progress , for example by bringing about the liberation of the slaves in the southern states. The work was therefore also referred to by the critics as an "anti-pacifist anti-war novel".

criticism

In 2007 the Berliner Zeitung particularly praised the narrative style in the novel as "organic, virtuoso and rhythmic". For the reviewer, Doctorow is still “a master of syncopation and swinging and the significant variation in tempo, which first surprises the reader, only to show itself in the next minute of reading as a signal of a new perspective on things. There are no quotation marks in this book; the text flows through the literal speech just as smoothly as through the incessant change of perspective ”. The conclusion is: “ The march is a great, artistic work; artistic not least in the way in which it spoils any hope of a certain moral judgment. "

In the book review of the Berliner Morgenpost 2007 it says: “The novel reads like a history painting turned into literature. There is fighting in one place, death in another, resting here, whoring there, and houses are burning in the background. Some of the image details are reminiscent of films such as Gone with the Wind or Ride with the Devil , others depict daguerreotypes from that time: the serious expressions, the stiff poses of those photographed. Doctorow knows this flotsam from pictures from 150 years, works with it, puts scenarios in a new light, pulls up threads, turns the fabrics and quilts the artful patchwork quilt of a monster. "

In its 2007 review, the Tagesspiegel emphasized the successful narrative style of the novel: “Doctorow tells from many perspectives and mainly chooses the long shot or the close-up. In the long shot, the individual merges into the collective, in the close-up he becomes a wound. [...] His art is not to let anything get out of hand. In spite of all the epic description of battle and operations, Doctorow keeps the reins of the story so short that the pull and the tension never let up. It is great how he lets individual heads emerge from this stream, sucking breaths, bumping into others, getting involved in the next scene and then submerging again for fifty pages. "

The Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote in its 2010 review: “The situation at Doctorow reads impressively powerful - and yet it never gets arbitrarily out of hand in a battle-blessed manner. A great storyteller is at work, dreamily sure of his narrative means - and translated into German by Angela Praesent with precise elegance. "

Awards

  • The March won the 2006 PEN / Faulkner Fiction Award
  • In 2005 the book won the National Book Critics Award
  • In 2006 the book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and in 2005 for the National Book Award
  • In 2006 it won the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction

Data on the book

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b World Spirit in Chaos . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 23, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  2. ^ March, march into the civil war . In: Berliner Morgenpost , September 23, 2007. Accessed October 2, 2013.
  3. ^ The breathing of the army: EL Doctorow dissects the American Civil War. . In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 10, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2013
  4. ↑ The Evil Unmasked . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010. Retrieved October 2, 2013.