Rhett Butler's People

As with his 'Jacob¿s Ladder,' which I also read recently, 'Rhett Butler¿s People' is a masterly achievement. It¿s lamentable that those who make the predictable mistake of comparing this expansion to the original, and who, judging by their impatience, seem to prefer, for fiction in general, the literary equivalent of a video game, appoint themselves to judge a great novel within the limited scope of their own expectations. I suspect they have neither the appreciation for, nor the knowledge of, the staggering work involved in recapturing the social customs and political tenor of a bygone era, or for the textures, nuances, observations, and poetic cadences of the author¿s crisp and resonant language - and in particular his attention to the senses: the coppery scent of blood, the acrid smell of smoke or of dried manure, or the air smelling ¿like a burned pepper,¿ the ripple of a specific fabric or a stream¿s shallows, the hungers and thirsts, the sweat, the tears, the triumphs and heartbreaks. Like Howard Bahr in his Franklin trilogy, McCaig wields a brush that paints a complete canvas. His work is not for those who wouldn¿t know an anhinga from a mud hen and couldn¿t care less, or a camellia from a sprig of forsythia, or green baize from a wintergreen poultice. McCaig¿s eye misses nothing, whether it¿s an osprey seizing a wriggling fish from the Flint River, or the detail that cotton plants are thinned eight inches apart. Contemporary writers have become oblivious to natural ambiance. It¿s all so boringly manmade now: asphalt, glass, concrete. McCaig is an artist whose brush paints a diverse and complete canvas. He offers much more than a limited ¿read.¿ He gives us a fully realized world.Show Less