North and South

North and South is the first in John Jakes's Civil War trilogy by the same name. The book chronicles the forging of the bond between the Yankee Hazards and the Southern Mains, two family of long lineage and impressive wealth who are brought together by the sons' enrollment at West Point in the late (18)30's. Orry Main and George Hazard become best friends at West Point and then comrades-in-arms in Mexico before returning to civilian life, George to run his family's ironworks, and Orry to manage the family's low country rice plantation. As the country heads toward civil war, the men work to maintain an ever-deepening and evermore complicated friendship.

Over some 800 pages, Jakes tells the story not only of the Main and Hazard families, but of a country slowly heading to war with itself. From the Republic of Texas to the California Goldrush, the political fights in Washington, and the John Brown's failure at Harper's Ferry, North and South is full of the zeitgeist of the antebellum period. The characters he creates are rich, and varied. There are plenty of villains, but also quiet heroes, and all of them fit seamlessly into place with the real people who lived and breathed at the time.

My only complaint is a general one: trilogies, and certainly the good ones, (whether the Shaara father and son Civil War trilogy Gods and Generals, The Killer Angels, and The Last Full Measure, or Gwen Bristow's Plantation trilogy) require such a commitment. I've already begun the middle book, Love and War, which weighs in at a whopping 1100 pages. When will I ever read anything else again??