Literary Picks "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara

Author: Edward Pickering

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 and continuously in print since its first publication in 1974, Michael Shaara's civil war novel, "The Killer Angels," will appeal to a wide range of readers, not merely history buffs and retired soldiers.
Overly enthusiastic commentators have touted "The Killer Angels" as the greatest of all civil war novels. Such praise misleads for it implies that the novel is aesthetically superior to all others in its class.
In truth, the novel reads like an especially engaging and extensive newspaper article. Devoid of pretension, "The Killer Angels" derives its strength and reputation from the author's scrupulous, chronological accuracy. The novel, which opens on Monday, June 29, 1863, and concludes on Friday, July 3, 1863, recreates the Battle of Gettsyburg in minute detail.
Each chapter follows a different historical figure so that readers comprehend the Battle of Gettsyburg from multiple viewpoints. Though the dialogue is necessarily fictive, Shaara succeeds in accurately presenting battle as it was seen and conducted by the Northern and Southern generals. What dilemmas did these men face and what decisions did they make? With unmistakable veneration for his subject Shaara answers these questions in little more than 340 airy, easy-to-read pages.
The novel deserves commendation for its veracity and for its fervid battles scenes. For entertainment value "The Killer Angels" far outstrips most paperback thrillers. For educational value it trumps all contenders. Readers of Tom Clancy will relish Shaara.
So, too, will television viewers who tune in to CNN and pay close attention to the coverage of foreign wars.
Though an admirable literary achievement, "The Killer Angels" compels praise not for eloquence of writing but for precision of reporting. A reporter who writes eloquently but gets the facts wrong has failed in his profession. Shaara gets the facts right.
Joshua Chamberlain's steadfast defense of Little Round Top represents a climactic point in the novel, in which the battle flares to it highest intensity. Consider the immediacy of Shaara's prose:
"Gray-green-yellow uniforms, rolling up in a mass. His heart seized him. Several companies. More and more. At least a hundred men. More. Coming up out of the green, out of the dark. "They seemed to be rising out of the ground. Suddenly the terrible scream, the ripply crawly sound in your skull. A whole regiment. Dissolving in smoke and thunder."
Not Plato or Tolstoy by any stretch, but a hell of a lot more fun.