"The Killer Angels fiction or non fiction" Topic

it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but just how much of it is.
isn't the book based on true jurnals of Longstreet and other officers on both sides?

just what parts of it is fiction
isn't the character of Buster Kilrain the only major fictional character?

While the book is an excellent read and is grounded in history, it is still fiction. I would recommend Sears' Gettysburg as the best one-volume historical treatment.

Shaara's book is a good example of well-crafted historical fiction: the plot IS the history of the battle of Gettysburg, rather than some fictional plot against a (sort of) historical setting. The characters ARE the historical participants, not a bunch of fictional protagonists intermingling with great names. To me, reading Killer Angels is to get a pretty accurate picture of how the battle went and how the participants acted.

I believe historical fiction of this calibre is the best way to get hooked into interest in a period of history. Books like "Knight with Armour", "The Knights of Dark Renown", got me interested in medieval history and are accurate, though imaginative portrayals of the history itself.

I am not a "fan" of the ACW, so have read very few histories on it; but I have read Michael and Jeff's historical novels and feel better informed because of the kind of detail they dramatize.

It is much fiction as Flashman is. In the case of flashman, the main character IS fictional, but the rest of the "plot" is as historically accurate as the author an make it.
Neither author uses that terrible copout that too many "historical" novelists use: "While I am well aware that the Battle of the Bulge happened in December of 1944 (Please don't write me!), and there were no Japanese battleships present, it was necessary for Daniel Boone's character development…"

The timeline, events, and most "characters" are real. Much of the fiction is in the dialog. We don't really know what was really said (other than the recollections in journals) between these men. We also don't know how they truely saw the battle at the time and what they thought of it (again other than by their journals). In my mind, Shaara's fictional masterwork was researching the men enough to give a feel for their personalities and then to fill in between the bare facts of history a rich and plausible dialog between the people and their thoughts.

Mark

Jeff Shaara's stuff is far less so than his Dad's book.

There are wags who say Chamberlin's books are fiction, too, though the wounds are hard to fake.
As said the dialogues are fabricated but I would love to just use Jeff Daniels speach to the 2nd Maine for young people.

Just so, nazrat.

Allen

@Nazrat and aecurtis

True, very true

Mark

Yup.

Heartily!

Gunfreak,

Just go to Jeff Shaara's web site and e-mail him. He answers. (Well, I assume it is he who answers.)

I have e-mailed him back and forth several times.

Craig

I read it a number of years ago. Great book, but it is fiction as indicated.

Not to malign Longstreet (from whose account Shaara's book draws heavily), but I would also hesitate to call his memoirs 'true' either. He definitely had some bones to pick, axes to grind, and some other cliches to grouse about. And like the memoirs of many generals, he seemed to have all the answers all the time…or at least by the timehe wrote his account. ;)

Nazrat, what post are you commenting on in your reply? Is Jeffs books more or less fiction? Better or worse reads? I loved Killer Angels, should I get Jeff's books?

Historical fiction

Does it get you wanting to read more: good faction. Does it send you off onto strange branches (pikes) : poor fiction.

I did a book signing in Gettysburg during the 145th anniversary, and Jeff Shaara was at the table beside mine. We didn't get much chance to talk, as his line went out the door and he was swamped with requests to sign his many books (he has perhaps a dozen titles now, and has moved through a variety of wars).

I have 4-5 of his books, and and they are OK. I am not a fan of fiction, but do read historical fiction on occasion. Killer Angels was much better IMHO.

I think this is the reason I go to libraries, I can read the book and not pay for it if I dont like it.

Well done historical fiction…..