The Wreckage of Eden by Norman Lock

War--The War with Mexico, the Mormon Rebellion, and the Civil War-- crushed any remaining faith held by U. S. Army Chaplin Robert Winter.

He clings to the memories of the few meetings he had with Emily Dickinson, his first love, although she has always kept him at a distance. When Winter married a pleasant but common girl he loved her in a way. When she dies, Winter relinquishes their daughter's care to his maiden aunt who lives in Amherst, calling on the Dickinson family to befriend her. He makes a poor father, the army sending him across the country and far from Amherst.

Winter does his duty to his country, reciting prayers for the benefit of the dying and over the bodies of the dead who died for the sacred cause of Manifest Destiny, mouthing words to a God he no longer believes in.

The Wreckage of Eden by Norman Lock spans decades of the 19th c and the awful carnage deemed necessary to America's destiny. Along his journey, Winter befriends Abe and Mary Lincoln in Springfield and meets a young Sam Clemens in Missouri. He sees the horror of war and the death camp at Andersonville. Required to visit imprisoned John Brown, their conversation challenges Winter's core beliefs.

Lock reproduces the era with period details and references to writers, politicians and military leaders, but it is Winter's internal world that captured my attention. Winter's spiritual crisis reflects the country's loss of idealism and its corruption, justifying slaughter while annexing Mexican lands. murdering Mormons and Native Americans, and profiting from the labor of enslaved people.

Meanwhile, in Amherst, Emily battles her own war against her dictatorial father who insists she can never marry. She speaks to Winter in cadences right from her poetry, with imagery and 'slant' insight.

Winter learns that he must perform his pastoral duty and endure. Sometimes that is all we can do. Our youthful idealism crumbles under the burgeoning knowledge of the evil men commit, we lose faith and mouth the words expected of us--prayers or pledges become empty symbols.

I wanted to note an epigram or sentence or insight on nearly every page. The issues Winter struggles with demonstrate that the roots of America's problems were planted in our early years.

I am eager to read more books in the American Novel Series by Norman Lock.

I received a free ARC from the publisher through a LibraryThing giveaway.

Find a Reading Group Guide at
http://blpress.org/reading-group-guides/reading-group-guide-wreckage-eden/

The Wreckage of Eden
by Norman Lock
Bellevue Literary Press
Publication Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN-10: 1942658389
ISBN-13: 978-1942658382