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The Sands of Pride

You have to admire an author who leaves no detail unexplained, even if the subject is rat racing. In The Sands of Pride, every rat is named and described so closely that in your mind’s eye you can distinguish each one.

It would be trite to say The Sands of Pride is a modern day version of Gone With The Wind or a coastal version of the more recent Cold Mountain. The book never quite captures the reader with unforgettable characters like Rhett and Scarlett, but it is infinitely more readable and interesting than what happened to what’s-his-name on his endless trek back to the mountains in Cold Mountain.

Trotter, author of a valuable three-volume history of the war in North Carolina, uses his historical knowledge to tell the story of a relatively large circle of characters on both sides who are interested in defending or capturing Wilmington, N.C.

Some like Confederate Col. William Lamb and Union Naval Lt. William Cushing are real. Others, like the beautiful (what else would she be?) Largo Landau are not. And some real people like blockade-runner Augustus Hobart-Hampden were so colorful and mysterious that they almost seem to be made up.

This is not a book for an afternoon sitting. Between its covers are somewhere around a third of a million words, but this is a book that you can read for long stretches without getting tired of — as I did in trying to plow through Cold Mountain.

It covers some interesting ground: North Carolina’s reluctance to get into the war; the careful quietness of Jews who took active parts in Southern communities, but who were always nervous about the potential of anti-Semitism; the strange mixture of patriotism and opportunism that marked every blockade runner; and a dozen other themes — which is easy in a book this length. And, of course, what Civil War novel could be without a love story or several?

Trotter has been careful to make the book’s characters part of their times. Words like “perchance,” “fracas,” “hear tell,” even “japery” spring lightly from the mouths of characters like Zeb Vance, still revered as the state’s best governor and no doubt its best speech-maker. Real places like Fort Macon and Fort Fisher, now both state parks that can be visited, are described as they would have appeared during the war.

Curiously, the book ends before the war does as if Trotter still had more to say about his characters in some planned sequel. It will take the reader a while to finish this novel, but the experience is worth it.

By Clint Johnson

Clint Johnson's latest book is Bulls Eyes And Misfires: 50 People Whose Obscure Efforts Shaped The American Civil War.

	Warrener's Beastie -  A Novel of the Deep June 2006 In this magnificent modern rendering of a classic Norse myth, award-winning writer William Trotter transports the reader to faraway Vardinoy in the exotic Faeroe Islands, the remote Scandinavian locale that has bewitched Allen Warrener since his first and only visit there twenty years before. Now middle-aged, Allen decides that to revitalize his wearisome existence he must return to Vardinoy, the island that has haunted and inspired him for most of his life — and so wanders unwittingly into circumstances far more sinister, and potentially far more dangerous, than he ever could have supposed. Among the many temptations and risks of this increasingly mystifying land there is the creature, the legendary undersea monster that becomes a metaphor as captivatingly elusive as the Golden Fleece; Andreas Dahl, a famous painter, whose appearance on the island seems too fortuitous a coincidence; and Elsuba, the woman who still mesmerizes Allen even decades after their affair. Uncommonly suspenseful and richly atmospheric, Warrener’s Beastie is a hypnotic literary adventure that will entrance readers — even as it reminds them to be careful about what they wish for.
	The Fires of Pride: A Novel of the Civil War November 2003 From Publishers Weekly Trotter concludes his epic tale of Civil War North Carolina with a sequel as splendid as its predecessor, The Sands of Pride (2002). The large cast of characters ranges from fearless Union naval officer William Cushing, who brings home the body of his brother killed at Gettysburg at the book's start, to the inept Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, for whose fumbling defense of Wilmington, N.C., at war's end Trotter provides a plausible explanation. The author does an excellent job of keeping up interest between battles: sexually liberated Largo Landau, the daughter of a prominent Wilmington merchant, prepares Mary Harper Sloane, the daughter of a rich South Carolina rice planter, for the homecoming of her erring privateer husband by arranging erotic lessons, while Col. William Lamb's Fort Fisher garrison and William Cushing's seaborne gunners join forces to protect sea-turtle hatchlings. After the Confederate ironclad Hatteras (the historical Albemarle renamed and somewhat enlarged) emerges from her swamp lair, the pace quickens and the novel marches to a thundering climax with the bloody and magnificently depicted fall of Fort Fisher. The same combination of superb research, compelling characters and dry wit that enthralled readers of previous installments will do so again.
	The Sands of Pride May 2003 The Sands of Pride begins the two-part saga which brings America's most tragic conflict to life at Fort Fisher, a literal fortress of sand standing sentry on North Carolina's windswept coastline. From secession to Gettysburg, acclaimed author William R. Trotter paints a vivid portrait of the bloodstained battlefields, intimate boudoirs, and ordinary people swept into the devastating hurricane of war. An epic novelization of the Civil War set primarily along the windswept coast of North Carolina. Using Wilmington, North Carolina, as a geographical focal point, the author interweaves the fascinating stories of more than two dozen fictional and historical characters whose destinies are forever altered by the vagaries of war. Pivotal to the action is Fort Fisher, the formidable earthen fortress that provides cover for the daring blockade runners willing to risk everything for both personal profit and Confederate glory. Naval officers, plantation owners, merchants, politicians, and spies are all represented in a sprawling narrative that combines a number of self-sustaining tales into a superlative overview of a city and a lifestyle under siege. Definitely a page-turner, jam-packed with an abundance of adventure, romance, tragedy, and historically accurate information about an often-overlooked arena of the Civil War. This masterful epic offers insight into the perfidious political agendas and personal greed underlying the bumbling and horrors suffered by both sides during the war.
	Priest of Music: The Life of Dimitri Mitropoulos October 1995 Greek-born Mitropoulos (1896-1960) was one of the great American conductors of the midcentury, and it is astonishing how little his memory is regarded in his adopted land. Perhaps this obscurity is attributable partly to his self-effacing personality. His extraordinary musical gifts included an almost supernatural memory, a degree of involvement that transfigured players and audiences alike and a sense of duty to contemporary composers that made his concerts challenging and, to orchestra boards and old-time symphony subscribers, frequently daunting. His happiest years were spent in Minneapolis, but lack of careerist guile made him easy pickings in New York City: the critics were bewildered by him, the New York Philharmonic players were disrespectful of him and even his record company treated him badly. It did not help that he was homosexual and chose not to enter a cosmetic marriage. Music critic and novelist Trotter, who had access to the late Oliver Daniel's considerable research on Mitropoulos, has presented a compassionate, judicious and moving portrait of the conductor.
	Winter Fire January 1994 William Trotter’s critically acclaimed fictional debut explores the deep forests of Finland with Nazi intelligence officer Erich Ziegler, a gifted orchestra conductor swept up in the maelstrom of war. Laden with the magic of Norse legends, the savage power of the northern forests, and the horrors of the Finnish and Eastern fronts, this tale burns with the fuel of timeless music and an ancient civilization. Called upon to investigate the loyalties of the highly cultured Finns and keep them allied to the Nazi cause, Ziegler meets the famed composer Jean Sibelius. Obsessed by the genius of Sibelius’s mysterious Eighth Symphony and bewitched by a beautiful servant named Kylliki, one act of defiance against his superiors lands Ziegler in the middle of the fire and ice of the Russian front. When he returns from the apocalypse of total war to the home of his revered composer and beloved forest maiden, he has been transformed into the ruthless soldier he once professed to despise. Exhibiting his outstanding knowledge of military battles, and his peerless mastery of place and the cadences of music, Trotter has written a timeless novel for historical fiction fans, military buffs, music lovers, and those fascinated by Norse mythology
	A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40 February 1991 In 1939, tiny Finland waged war--the kind of war that spawns legends--against the mighty Soviet Union, and yet their epic struggle has been largely ignored. Guerrillas on skis, heroic single-handed attacks on tanks, unfathomable endurance, and the charismatic leadership of one of this century's true military geniuses--these are the elements of both the Finnish victory and a gripping tale of war.
	Silk Flags and Cold Steel: The Piedmont (The Civil War in North Carolina, V. 1) March 1991
	Ironclads and Columbiads: The Coast (The Civil War in North Carolina, V. 3) March 1991
	Bushwhackers March 1991 Bushwhackers tells the startling and little-kown story of America's bloodiest war as it was fought in the Mountains of North Carolina. Much of the story of the war remains alive in the generational memories and oral traditions of the mountain people. Mountain families whose roots go back that far still speak of the dark night on a backwoods road when great-great-grandmother stood on her front porch and watched a patrol of Thomas's Highland Legion--full-blooded Cherokee warriors--ride by with fresh Unionist scalps dangling from their saddle horns. From the courageous exploits of soldiers and citizens to the atrocities committed by pro-Union and pro-Confederate factions, the mountains war in North Carolina represented both the best and the worst of the South. In the mountains, where sentiments on both sides were strongly held, internecine warfare broke out. Bloody skirmishes were fought between Unionist and Confederate guerrillas. Family feuds erupted into ever-widening circles of violence and revenge. And countless numbers of men, women, and children were caught in the crossfire of conflicting loyalties.
	Deadly Kin May 1989 The book discusses a theory on how Fritz Klenner became the serial murderer that killed the Newson and Lynch Families. There is a discussion regarding the effect of how books such as the Turner Diaries represent a dangerous form of pornography and how exposure to these books could create Fritz Klenners. An important book to read when trying to understand the mindset of the murderers at Columbine High. Was it exposure to books like the Turner Diaries sold at gun shows that caused these kids to develop their sick fixations? We will never know but the author insightfully discusses how this form of pornography (graphic accounts of murder) is the most dangerous form there is of pornography.
	The Darkest Thirst March 1998 An anthology of 16 original vampire tales. They're organized under five subheadings. The first, Dark Histories, are stories set in the past, ranging from a pregnant vampire at the time of the Norman Conquest to a World War II story about soldiers in the Balkan Mountains. Edo van Belkom, a 1998 Bram Stoker winner, contributes a well-researched tale that asks "What if?" about Rasputin and his famous resistance to being murdered. Obsessions contains a clever cyberspace tale in which TepesAllure and Raven meet each other in a chat room. The best in the collection is "Waiting for the 400" by Kyle Marffin. In this classic noir love story set in the 1950s, a sultry gal with dark red hair and a sleeveless dress to match gets off the train from Chicago and walks right into the heart of the man who runs the rural depot in northern Wisconsin. Deborah Markus's "For the Love of Vampires" finishes off the anthology with a witty, self-referential meditation on what authors who write about vampires really want. The Darkest Thirst is a classy and satisfying anthology. --Fiona Webster

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