FICTION

Dawson's Fall

by Roxana Robinson
Farrar. May 2019. 352p. ISBN 9780374135218. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780374719753. F
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As the author explains in her prolog, this novel is based on the written accounts of her great-grandparents' lives. In his 20s and without prospects, Frank Dawson changes his name and signs on to a Confederate ship docked in England as a way to immigrate to the States. When the navy collapses, he fights with the Rebel Army; after the war, Dawson makes his way to Charleston, SC, where he becomes owner and editor of the Charleston News and Courier and a pillar of the community. He eventually marries Sarah Morgan, the daughter of a prominent Baton Rouge family whose fortune was lost in the war. Dawson and the paper prosper until his more liberal editorials start to conflict with rising Jim Crow sentiment. The novel moves away from the directly political when the Dawson family is undone by a servant's scandal.
VERDICT NBCC finalist Robinson (Sparta) paints her characters as nuanced products of their time and avoids unrealistic heroics. A scattering of 19th-century newspaper articles, family letters, and data provides context and veracity for this work of fiction but also connects the Reconstruction era's racism, voter suppression, and violent gun culture to present-day societal divides. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 11/26/18.]
Reviewed by Reba Leiding, emeritus, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA , May 01, 2019
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