This is a
story of one family and two wars separated by 100 years. The two wars happen to
be the most divisive in American history – the Civil War of 1861-1865 and the
Vietnam War which ended in 1975, but began either in the 1950s or the 1960s. It
is a novel, but it is a novel so based on historical and real family events
that it could almost be non-fiction. One of the main characters is actually the
author.
Welcome to
Sons
of My Father by Michael Simpson.
Simpson
tells two stories in this book. One is set largely in 1864, when Simpson’s
small farmer ancestors (they were not slave owners) find the entire family
caught up in the Civil War as both soldiers and non-combatants. After capturing
Chattanooga, General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union army is advancing on
Atlanta.
The countryside
is in chaos – advance Union patrols, retreating Confederate soldiers, roaming
bands of deserters and even criminals. Baylis Simpson has four sons fighting
for the South and a daughter, son, and granddaughter at home. A band of
deserters or criminals happens upon the two girls; the daughter is raped and
the granddaughter is murdered. Baylis, on leave from the Georgia Home Guard for
planting, tracks them down, and exacts revenge, the rapist meeting a
particularly gruesome death. Baylis and one of his sons will then find their
army units and discover themselves at the Battle of
Kennesaw Mountain, the last hurdle before Sherman can take Atlanta.
This is
the South in the Civil War. Lawlessness everywhere, law and order breaking
down, farms often stripped of anything edible and women and children left to
starve.
The second
story starts in the early 1960s. Three boys – Alex Granger, Ron Simpson, and
Ron’s younger brother Michael – are the closest of friends. Alex grows up with
the Simpsons almost as a member of the family. His own father is dead and Ron
and Michael’s father Harold, a veteran World War II Marine, helps to raise him.
The boys
get into the kinds of pranks and escapades that boys often did in the 1960s.
But as Alex and Ron graduate from high school, they decide to enlist in the Army.
And what’s hanging over both of them is the Vietnam War.
 |
| Michael Simpson |
Moving
back and forth between the two narratives, Simpson paints a picture of the
effects of war, the divisiveness of war, and the tremendous stresses that
families experience in wartime. He also paints a picture of what happens when a
highly trained helicopter pilot, understanding what happened with the My Lai
Massacre, decides he can’t participate in the killing of the enemy. (This
is based on a historical situation involving Ron Simpson, one that went to
trial in federal court in Atlanta.)
Michael
Simpson is a screenwriter, director, and producer of documentaries and feature
films. His credits include the movies “Crazy Heart” and “Kidnaping Mr. Heineken” among
many others. This is his first novel.
Sons of My
Fathers is gripping, moving, and eye-opening. It tells the story of how the
idea of duty and honor infuses families down through the generations. And it
tells what happens when duty and honor collide with conscience.
Photograph: A Monument to Illinois soldiers who fought at Cheatham Hill, also known as the Dead Angle, the location where Simpson’s Confederate ancestors helped to hold off the Union Army advance for five days.
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