A Powerful Book That Every American Should Read
I’m not saying this because it is a very well-written book. It is.
I’m not saying this because it took 16 years to research and write. It did.
I’m not saying this because it tells a story without taking sides. It does.
I’m not saying this because I know the author. I do.
I say this because it shows, without preaching, what happens when a country becomes so divided that it turns against itself. The book is Scarlet Fields by John Alexander Miles — a Civil War masterpiece.
The story is told in the voice of John Alexander but is written by Steven Schoner who lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. Steve uses John Alexander Miles as the pen name because the story is told in his voice.
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I’ve known Steve as a quiet attendee with a straw hat who has lunch each day at the same senior center that I do. I didn’t know anything about the book until one day he gave a copy to a friend of mine. When I saw it, I knew I had to learn more about this secretive writer and what he had written. So I went to Amazon, found the book, and read the sample which was the first few chapters. I knew I had to have it.
It’s not a cheap book — $35 on Amazon — but it is worth every penny. I read it — all 544 pages — in less than a week and was amazed at how fictional characters were used to tell the story of that terrible war in a way that made it come to life. I could picture each character and unfortunately each battle as the characters lived through it.
Steve doesn’t take sides with his story. Real life people and stories of the time from both the North and the South were meshed together into one powerful story where friends fought against friends, lovers were divided, and in the end, a secret was revealed. It is a combination history, romance, and mystery combined.
I’ve sat and talked with Steve about why he wrote the book and spent so much time on the research. That is a story in itself and goes back to the time when he was a boy visiting Gettysberg and stood alone on Round Top.
Our country is divided today for different reasons than it was in the 1860’s. But the same thing could easily happen. As I read this book, I knew why we can never let that happen again. That is why I think every American should read it.
