The Wolf Pit by Marly Youmans
Farrar,Straus and Gioux
ISBN: 037429195 - Hardcover
Historical Fiction / 1861-1865, Civil War

Reviewed by Barbara Buhrer, MyShelf.Com
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Two people are caught in the turmoil of the Civil War.

Robin, a young Confederate soldier, is saved from the horrors and miseries of the battlefield and prison camp by treasuring pictures of his family and by the book he found in a deserted plantation. It is an old story of two green children found in a wolf pit. Their skin is green-hued. They are dressed in unusual garb. Their language is strange. The mystery about them intrigues him and sustains him.

Agate Williamson, a young mulatto, has been taught to read and write by her mistress. But she incurs the displeasure of her owner, Jack, the Young Master, who wreaks his displeasure by horribly mutilating her. With the aid of Aemila Nash she is able to obtain papers declaring herself to be a "free body." Through her constant reading and her writing essays she is able to bear the miseries of slavery and prejudice.

This is a beautifully written novel. The language at times is almost poetic. The characters are well developed; treated with sympathy and understanding. The soldier and the slave show a determination to survive despite their adversities.

There is a fine sense of history, time, and atmosphere; the reader is caught by the scenes of the dead and wounded on the battlefield, by the horrors of the prison camp, and the degradation of slavery.

This is a true narrative of the indomitable nature of human beings faced with adversity.