GONE FOR SOLDIERS

Jeff Shaara, like his father before him, brings history into our lives through his fiction. But this time he has turned his pen on the prequel to his Civil War work. In the Mexican War of 1847, from the gnatinfested beaches of Vera Cruz to the walls of Mexico City, we fight alongside those who, in fifteen years, will be battling one another in civil war: Jackson, Johnston, Pickett, Beauregard, Grant and Lee. But Shaara's most impressive achievement is his majestic characterization of Winfield Scott, whom the Duke of Wellington called the greatest general of his age. Actor Jonathan Davis has seemingly the perfect voice for each of these characters, from the quiet, self-effacing Captain Lee to the brash and courtly Pierre Beauregard. Even the strutting of Mexican General Santa Anna is carried off in near-perfect Spanish. But this book really highlights Winfield Scott, and Davis's Scott is as large-voiced as "old fuss and feathers" must have been in life. He fumes, he froths, he cajoles, but he also wins an impossible war and our affections as well. A must-read for military history buffs. P.E.F. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 00]