Missouri author Paulette Jiles explores the lawlessness of the post-Civil War South in her epic historical novel “Chenneville” that follows a wounded Union war hero on a mission to avenge his sister’s murder.
John Chenneville is a tough guy with a heart of gold. Encountering plenty of diversions along the way, he journeys from Virginia to Texas, recovering lost memories as he overcomes physical, social and emotional obstacles in this sweeping American Western that lands a heartrending punch.
Before he can begin his revenge journey, Jean-Louis “John” Chenneville must figure out who he is. He emerges from a “bright pallid neverland” to discover he’s been unconscious in a Virginia field hospital for months. It’s late 1865 and the Civil War is over. John sustained a head injury in an explosion and has no memory. Before he can travel home to his French Creole family’s plantation in St. Louis, Missouri, he must regain his physical strength and relearn basic mental skills.
Determination is the first trait to return to John, and it becomes a driving force that propels his character throughout the novel. From learning how to read again to teaching himself how to ride a horse, John doesn’t sit stagnant. He pushes through pain as if it were a mathematical problem he can solve and keeps challenging his confusion until his abilities return.
Yet John remains locked out of his memories and his emotions. His quest to recall his past is the mechanism Jiles uses to reveal his backstory as the landscape triggers John’s remembrances on his voyage home. Accompanying him on his journey is an increasing suspicion that something is terribly wrong.
Traveling across the border states with their intact fences, unburnt fields and undamaged houses stimulates his memory of the opposite — the destruction left in the wake of the war further South. Recognizable landmarks remind him of good times before the fighting began. And the travel itself, from train carriages to ferry voyages, provides access to his childhood experiences. His character rounds out to reveal John is a compelling balance of morality and brute strength who is surprisingly easy to root for because he always does the right thing, even if it’s not always accomplished the right way.
Once home, John confirms something is indeed terribly wrong. A rogue deputy named A.J. Dodd is suspected of killing people he claims are successionists. John’s sister was married to a Confederate soldier and was shot, along with her husband and their baby son, their bodies thrown into a river and their house set ablaze. John is convinced Dodd is guilty and concludes Dodd is using his law-enforcement connections to evade persecution for heinous and senseless crimes.
Jiles constructs a tight plot around the complex politics of the post-war South as the battle between justice and lawlessness wages. A surprising number of military personnel and lawmen tasked with restoring order have gone rogue and are exploiting the upheaval for their own gain. Appalled that Dodd hasn’t been charged and is still committing brazen offenses, John is threatened with the seizure of his plantation if he pursues Dodd — a legal consequence facing Union traitors while the border states remain under martial law.
John is a stalwart figure who isn’t prone to verbalizing his sentiments. Instead, Jiles uses setting to convey his emotions with powerful impact. In one evocative scene, John doesn’t identify his feelings of bleakness when he admits that killing Dodd will either make him a fugitive or land him in jail but is the only way to obtain justice for his family. The “unquenched decency of this slow, cloudy day pouring slate-colored light through the curtains” does it for him.
Honor is John’s driving force throughout the novel. He’s the kind of man who spies an injustice, looks around to see if anyone else is going to address it, then gets up with a sigh of resignation to right that wrong. This commitment to justice is embedded deep in his character and does not waver, even if it means trading his future to stop his sister’s murderer from roaming free.
While trailing Dodd from St. Louis to Galveston, Texas, John embarks on a wild journey fraught with mayhem. It isn’t just the trail of dead horses Dodd leaves in his wake. John discovers a decimated country void of authority and rife with “the frosty cynicism of embittered men.”
The colorful characters John encounters meet with increasing peril as Dodd becomes desperate to shake John’s tail. This rotating cast of unique individuals adds a flavor to the narrative that John himself lacks. Initially they threaten to derail John’s progress, but before long he starts to form some friendships. A cheerful British Western Union field operator on the Keota Indian Territory helps John reestablish Dodd’s trail while pointing him in the direction of a future love interest. But when the bodies start piling up in Dodd’s wake, John races to stop the killer before he reaches Galveston and disappears on a ship departing for parts unknown.
Reevaluating his sacrifice as his battle turns inward, John faces the interior demons of “discouragement, bafflement, weariness” and a human longing to live his life. He must decide if he is as willing to trade love, and his future, for vengeance as he initially thought.
Jiles has produced a compelling figure in John Chenneville, whose adventures illustrate the issues that plagued the post-Civil War South. He’s dependable, often admirable, always honorable and more than a little dangerous. But, overwhelmingly, Chenneville is the man to have on your side.
FICTION
“Chenneville”
by Paulette Jiles
William Morrow
320 pages, $30
