Evelyn Scott (1) (1893–1963)

I first heard of Evelyn Scott through a newspaper article many years ago. I discovered the clipped article recently and sought out her novel Escapade on Amazon. It is a breathtaking, poetic, melodramatic memoir of one woman's miserable journey through South America with her older, rather cruel it seemed to me, boyfriend. Once you read this book you cannot forget its images and colors. But I feel I have to warn you - the last chapter does not fit in with the tone, or even the story of the rest of the book. Why it was added I can't imagine. Just ignore it if possible and focus on the South American part.… (mehr)

I couldn't find any reviews of this book before I read it. I am surprised that it seems to be so forgotten and ignored since it is a masterpiece, albeit you could almost treat it as a collection of short stories around a theme. At 600 pages of small print it's fairly long, yet it doesn't provide the narrative of a typical novel. Each of the short chapters (say an average of 6 pages = 100 chapters) gives a vignette of the war or its impact on civilian life. As I read, I was waiting for the individual stories to tie up and meld together, but this doesn't happen and what you get instead is a stunning kaleidoscopic panorama of the American Civil War from all viewpoints.… (mehr)