Book Review: The Fort

Just read "The Fort" by Bernard Cornwell. IIIIII loved it! Historical fiction about Fort George and the worst naval disaster in US history except for Pearl Harbour. Or is it Harbor? anyway.

1) Revere, the guy who was made famous in that poem about his patriotism and warning the rebels that the British were coming, is a total yellow bellied sap sucker. That's a bird. Actually. But the characters in the book always call each other yellow to mean cowardly and I didn't want to be racist so I thought I would be anti-avian instead. They also say fart-catcher. harhar. I digress. Revere is annoying as hell! He doesn't listen to anybody, doesn't follow orders, screws everything up. By the end, even Peleg Wadsworth, who seems to be a real upstanding and fair guy, gets so pissed off he yells after the deserting Revere that he's going to have him court marshalled. This is after the entire book of him standing up for Revere and trying to work with him and not put him down in front of people. It says in the end of the book what the real things were that happened, what happened after the battle etc; and Cornwell explains that the poem that made Revere famous as a patriot was actually written by Wadsworth's grandson. He says

"A final note, and this strikes me as the supreme irony of the Penobscot Expedition: Peleg Wadsworth, who promised to have Paul Revere arrested, and who was undoubtedly angered by Revere's behaviour at Majabigwaduce, was the maternal grandfather of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the man who singlehandedly made Revere famous. Wadsworth's daughter Zilpha...was the poet's mother. Peleg Wadsworth would have been appalled, but, as he surely knew better than most men, history is a fickle muse and fame her unfair offspring." All this about America's great patriot hero, how easily history is forgotten.

2) Super funny parts. I know it's a war book and stuff, but seriously, this writer has great humour. For example, Sam Adams is introduced by shouting for ale.

3) Totally learned a lot about history from that time period, too. It's different learning only Canadian history growing up and then reading this stuff. And if I hadn't been to Boston recently a lot of it wouldn't even had made sense. Even silly things, like I never really noticed how close boston was to Halifax.

4) It's also interesting that this writer was born in London but lives in the states now. As a writer, how do you balance your allegiances? He gives accounts from both sides equally without favouring anyone, except for certain characters. Like among the Americans he clearly favours Wadsworth and the soldiers in the Marines, while he likes McLean and Moore on the British side. All in all he portrays the British as the better side because they had better leaders and more experienced men, not because he picks one nation over the other. In that, he reminds me a little bit of James Clavell, where you learn to appreciate and respect every side of the story and try to understand it from all angles.

5) And finally, as a battle story, obviously it's pretty exciting too. Especially, since not knowing any American history, i didn't really know what to expect or who won.

So super fun book and I highly recommend it :)