That Fateful Lightning: A Novel of Ulysses S. Grant

by Richard Parry

In a village outside Saratoga Springs, New York, a weakened man sits with pen in hand, looking back at a life dominated by failure: as a farmer, a businessman, a politician--everything but as a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345427289
• ISBN13: 9780345427281
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 355 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Highly entertaining

All too often history is reduced to places, dates and endless names that we all recognize but have very little interest in what they accomplished. History is treated with an almost antiseptic approach that leaves a bad taste and kills any desire to explore a particular topic or person any further. "That Fateful Lightning" by Richard Parry gives a refreshing and entertaining look into the life of one of our sometimes forgotten presidents, Ulysses S Grant. It gives the reader a personal look into Grant's life, revealing his fears and frustrations. The book starts at the tail end of Grants life after his presidency. He is broke and ill from throat cancer but feels guilty that he will die and leave his wife Julia penniless with no means of support. Grant had long been swindled out of his money by unscrupulous business partners but desperately wanted to find a way to help his beloved wife before his approaching death. The famous Author, Mark Twain then offers to sell Grants memoirs and give Julia a large percentage of the royalties from the book. I have read Grant's actual memoirs and found them to be suprisingly good. His book however is a little dry. It gives detailed troop movements, supply counts, descriptions of terrain and of course he discusses many of his battle strategies that any historian would find fascinating. The non-historian however, would find the book tedious and probably not get further than the first chapter. In contrast, Richard Parry reveals the more human side of Grant in "That fateful lightning". Grant is pictured as a dying man that is racing against time to finish his memoirs. As he is writing, he reflects on his experiences in the Civil war. He reveals his opinions of many of the civil wars' great generals and talks about his feelings of guilt at sending so many men to their deaths. Grant describes his great love for his wife Julia and talks about his loneliness when he is away from her. He turns to drinking to deal with some of his insecurities but in the end his dignity and integrity overcome any shortcomings in his character. His experiences with Lincoln, Sherman, Meade and Robert E. Lee are shown from his own personal point of view. Even though this is a work of fiction, it is not hard to imagine that Grant might have had these exact feelings and opinions. If you are a historian that is only interested in factual history, you might want to stay away from this book and stick to the mundane, cold and lengthy texts. If you are the type of person that is interested in historical figures from a personal and human perspective then I highly recommend this entertaining work of narrative history.

Outstanding

This is an excellent book of narrative history that brings Grant to life and puts him on your own front porch where you'd like to rock and have a conversation with him clear through to sunset.