Grant Speaks

This one goes in the time capsule. I laughed out loud on more than a dozen occasions. I'll never look at Lincoln, Bobby Lee, or Sherman the same way again. Highly recommended.

I just don't get it. Why are other reviewers making a complaint about accuracy? This is fiction, a novel, not history. As fiction goes, this book is pretty good entertainment. Better than most.

Grant Speaks! And boy, am I glad he did. Ev Ehrlich's treatment of one of our county's darkest times is both insightful and laugh out loud funny. From his characterizations of Grant's contemporaries to his use of historical events as a canvass for satire, Ehrlich has created a fast-paced novel worthy of praise. Through Ehrlich's eyes, we see a portrayal of Grant that is self-questioning, scared, and flawed. From his drinking to his business failures, Grant struggles with his place in history. But it is in these struggles that we see a wonderful picture of a man, not the myth that Grant has become. This is not -- I repeat, not -- a text book for history 101. While Ehrlich stays true to the events of history and does a masterful job of giving the reader the look, feel and politics of the times, it is a mistake to read this book as one would read the "nothing but the facts" scholarly tomes that have preceeded it. This is a fictional accounting that takes the events of the past and, with a wink and a nod, leads the reader on a fanciful romp through U.S. history with Grant the guide. "Grant Speaks" is a must read this summer -- especially for those who know history but are not enslaved by it.

Grant speaks to us all in Ehrlich's spellbinder about winning, losing, and the extraordinary life of US Grant. Who knew how interesting Grant's story was, even before the fictionalizing begins? Selling firewood on a street in St. Louis in rags one day, a busted clerk in a leather goods store a few years later, and then a general within a year. Start with this type of truth, add imagination and perception, and you end with a fascinating delight. I finished it in two days and wanted more. Both funny and serious, the book is filled with characters that light up every page -- from the driven Sherman to the extraordinary Eli Parker. The portrait of Lincoln is warm and human, even if if not in line with the hagiographic canon. But even beyond the characters and the story, the book has a great, great voice -- that of US Grant himself. We hear and understand his success as a soldier and his failure as a President and why they stem from the same characteristics ("Politics is like war without the physical violence or lasting resolution, which is unfortunate, as organizing violence and pursuing resolution were all I was ever good at.")One senses that Joseph Heller and Sam Clemens found a way to collaborate from the great beyond and then invented Ehrlich as a psuedonym.