Novel About American "Joan of Arc" in Revolutionary War Fails to Live up to Promise
Written: Aug 05 '09 (Updated Aug 17 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: * Compelling premise * Accessible language
Cons: * Pacing is a bit off * Narration more than action
The Bottom Line: While it has a compelling premise, this novel never really fully captivates the reader as it gets caught up in an unsatisfying love interest subplot.
smiles33's Full Review: Sheila Solomon Klass - Soldier's Secret: The Story...
The premise of Sheila Solomon Klass' novel, Soldier's Secret, iscompelling and based loosely on a real-life heroine: Deborah Sampson masqueraded as a man to fight in the Revolutionary War. The book pulls you in immediately from the first page, as we meet Deborah as she is lying on a pallet and declared dead in a crowded makeshift army hospital. We soon learn she isn't dead but would rather be buried alive than to have her secret be discovered. Yet 200+ pages later, I feel like Deborah Sampson never really came fully to life.
First, let me start with what works. Klass embellishes the scant details known about Deborah Sampson, an American woman who was sold into indentured servitude at the age of 8 by her destitute mother after her father abandoned the family. Klass' vision of Sampson is that of a keenly intelligent woman eager to learn and to do more than just maintain a household in subservience to a man. After ten years of indentured servitude spent cooking, cleaning and tending to children, Sampson was released from the bond and very eager to keep her freedom and independence. Joining the patriots was a means of escaping from the confines that women of her time were bound by, including marriage to an unsavory character who represented all that she despised.
The reader learns of how Sampson (once she "becomes" Bobby Shurtliff) dealt with the realities of hiding her gender while living amongst the other soldiers. For example, the soldiers were only issued one uniform, with no undergarments or sleeping outfits, so they wore the same thing at all times. This meant Sampson could live with the 5 other men in her tent without dealing with the daily challenge of hiding her body.
The novel is set up as a flashback, with Sampson chronicling her childhood and the events that led to her lying on the pallet at the request of the army doctor who discovers her secret and hides her at his own home to recuperate. Thus, while there are certainly some action scenes, much of the novel is first-person narration focused on telling what happened to her.
This fuels my criticism of the novel, as I felt it spent too much time stuck in Sampson's head overanalyzing issues rather than showing us what happened. In fact, there's a rather significant subplot about her secret love for a fellow soldier who embodies all that Sampson admires (i.e., wit, intellect, patriotism, sensitivity). How many times must we hear how great Roger is and how if only Sampson could screw up her courage to confess her secret that she is a woman, there might be the chance that they could love one another? If anything, this somewhat contradicts the feminist message of empowerment as Sampson is so focused on the futility of the relationship rather than her former patriotism and eagerness to contribute. Moreover, the pacing suffered as a result of the musings about Roger, as it sometimes felt a bit slow and tedious.
Sampson spent 17 months with the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment and saw action, so there is plenty of material to mine. Nevertheless, the thrust of this novel is focused on character development, rather than battle scenes. There are a few references to disturbing wartime practices that bring to mind graphic images (e.g., "A perfectly formed baby torn from the womb and hung upon a bush."). Yet the battle scenes themselves are fairly tame, focused on characters' emotional reactions rather than gruseome details. Sampson's good friend, fellow soldier, and secret love interest, Roger Snow (a fictional character) suffers greatly after he kills a Loyalist. She describes the scene: Then as the Tory crumpled to the ground, I saw Roger drop to his knees to cradle his dead enemy's head and weep while all about him the battle raged.
In general, I'd say Klass has captured the tone of life in colonial America. The sentence structure, dialogue, and vocabulary strike me as conveying the right air of authenticity. Yet there is certainly an infusion of "modern" values in the sense that she promotes feminist priniciples and even includes some references to the injustice of the enslavement of African Americans.
Intended for readers ages 12-16, I think it's appropriate for this age range and likely to appeal to girls because of its feminist message. I wonder if that's also why there is such an emphasis on the unrequited love. I imagine most boys would be bored by the limited action and emphasis on feelings. The one potential issue for younger readers would be the aforementioned graphic images sprinkled in two or three times that illustrate the horrors of war. I would hope that parents or a teacher could properly provide context for such readers.
The book may be 200+ pages but it's double spaced and in large font (compared to most paperback novels). I found it to be an easy read, though it never fully captivated me. I would reluctantly recommend it for readers looking to learn more about how a woman might hide her gender and serve as a soldier. I think the subplot of the secret crush might appeal to adolescent girls but ultimately found it a bit hackneyed.
Finally, I should add that Klass has a short author's note detailing the known details about Deborah Sampson and a chronology at the end of the book.
Note: I was given a free uncorrected proof in exchange for my honest review. It's possible that the final book has been edited so my review is based solely on the uncorrected proof. Special thanks to the Books Category Leads for arranging this for me.
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