Cease Firing

Volume Two takes the cast of characters to the West and keeps several in Virginia. Shorter than Volume One, Johnston's novel is just a good. In both books, the reader may see the tranistion in American Literature from the naturalistic and symbolic work of Crane to the short-sentenced, selective descriptions of Hemingway. As a turn of the century novel, there are romantic episodes that are suggestive of inner turmoils which can never be stated. The decline of the South's military and civilian moral is depicted and shows the region as exhausted and heroic. Volume Two does not stand alone but is a satisfactory working out of Volume One's personal relationships and a presentation of Johnston's retreat through the Carolinas