Roy Evans reviews The Better Angel & Here Comes the Corpse
Roy Evans is a former High School
teacher; Minister; Counselor and Commercial Photographer who now lives
in Palm Springs, California where he has worked in the hospitality
industry for the past fifteen years. He is a very avid
reader. He remains a great fan of and has everything that Gordon
Merrick ever published in book form, in all their versions.
Several years ago he picked up a copy of The Soccer Field Is Empty by Mark
Roeder from a sale bin and was, by reference, introduced to the works
of Ron Donaghe, Mark Kendrick, and other modern Gay writers. This
added breadth to an always-expanding field of reading interest.
For him, writing reviews are a means of sharing and recommending some
of these experiences. He can be contacted at tullyroad@netscape.com
  The Better Angel by Roy Morris, Jr. Paperback: 288 pages, $15.95 Oxford University Press; New Ed edition (January 1, 2002) ISBN: 019514709X The Civil War was a terrible time in our history. Walt Whitman called it the time that “proved Humanity, proved America.” Perhaps it was a time when we truly came of age as a nation. The Better Angel deals with Walt Whitman, his experiences and reactions, to what was going on during those war years. Biographies of Walt Whitman have been done, re-done, and over done. He is perhaps, one of the most written about literary personalities to come out of the nineteenth century. The first biography on his life was published in 1867, during his lifetime. What I like about The Better Angel is that it deals with only a small portion of his life, and the conditions that surrounded him. It is important because it affected the rest of his life and his writings. He became a champion for veterans after the war, continued to write about them, and kept them in the public eye as long as he lived, and was able to write. In search of a brother that he thought had been wounded, he experienced first hand the part of war that everyone wants to forget. He saw soldiers die of typhoid fever, malaria and diarrhea, which were the three biggest killers during the Civil War. He saw the stoic suffering of the soldiers, some of whom had lain on the battlefield for a week or more before getting what medical help there was. Even after his return to Washington, he took it upon himself to visit the Army hospitals every day, and do what he was able to do. He brought small gifts to try to cheer the spirits of the wounded, and would sit, sometimes for hours, by the bedside of a soldier and just visit. He would write letters home for them, record names and addresses, and make notes of things that were requested, or of special need. Walt, of course, was not alone in his interest of the wounded. He was in one field hospital at the same time as Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross. He did not just go home and write about what he saw; he did what he could to make a difference, no matter how small. That may be his greatest legacy. Roy Morris, Jr. is a historian and has researched the Civil War era to a great extent. The Better Angel is not a long book, but it adequately covers the misery that is part of all war…what to do with what is left over after any battle, the wounded, the dead and the dying. They were, and continue to be, the real Heroes of any war. A friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt was in Washington at the same time as Abraham Lincoln. It is not likely that he ever met Lincoln, other than to see him in public. Whitman and Lincoln had a lot in common in the way they thought about humanity and politics. In December 2004, C-Span aired a program comparing the writings of Whitman and Lincoln. Walt Whitman was much more than a kindred spirit, as we know. He was a genius, a literary giant and a friend where one was needed. If you have an interest in Walt, his writings, or the era in which he lived, you should not miss this book. |
  Here Comes the Corpseby Mark Richard Zubro Hardcover: 256 pages St. Martin's Minotaur; 1st edition (August 3, 2002) ISBN: 031228098X Having just finished a couple of rather intense books, I was looking for something lighter, fun and perhaps a bit campy to lighten the mood and relax the mind. I ran across Here Comes The Corpse and the title alone was intriguing enough to draw me to it. What I found was a delightful read full of suspense that was hard to put down. Tom and Scott had decided to have a big wedding and announce their commitment to each other to the world. Scott was already a famous baseball player and their relationship was a public one. They decided to do it up in grand fashion and make a statement as well as a public commitment to each other for life. Things were going well and as planned till Tom discovered the dead body of a former lover at the reception. What follows is an intriguing story as Tom and Scott attempt to unravel the mystery. What they discover leads to the revealing of dark secrets, murder, blackmail and the revisiting of some old feelings on Tom’s part. This is my first exposure to the Tom and Scott Mystery series (there are more of them). I admit it. I’m hooked! You will be too. |