OPINIONS & VIEWSnThe Civil War as Seen by a KangaroonThomas Keneaily: Confederates;nHarper & Row; New York.nby Otto J. ScottnJrersons who enjoy spaghetti westernsnwill positively revel in Confederates.nThis Civil War novel, like its cinematicnprototypes, teems with dirty, foulmouthednmen masquerading as 19thcenturynSouthern farm boys and theirncollege-trained officers. The movementnof the plot is repeatedly held in abeyancenby intermittent entanglements bentween these masqueraders and a seriesnof beauteous, sex-hungry women whonare raped, persuaded or purchased intoninsatiable couplings. As in so manynmodern fantasies, religion is repeatedlynprofaned. The author dwells upon blood,nstenches and death, draws disgustinglynclose to diarrheal squattings and evacuations,ndevotes long episodes to ignorantnfringe characters who act at randomnamid incoherent, disheveled settings.nThe only major differences betweennthis novel and the usual shoot-em-upsnis in its historical pretentiousness.nMovie-makers do not ordinarily claimnany historical accuracy: they create Victorian-stylenmelodramas in which women—andnoccasionally men—are strippednnaked modern-style. Mr. Keneailynseems more earnest. He has read atnleast thirteen historical works whichnhe lists at the end of his novel. He attachesnactual historical names to somenof the characters he introduces. He setsnhis action between the second battle ofnManassas and the bloody showdown ofnAntietam in the summer of 1862.nThe publisher has taken Keneaily atnhis own evaluation. There seems reasonnto suspect, however, that the originalndecision was made in Sydney, Australia.nOnce made, it was handsomely followed.nThe finished product contains colorednMr. Scott is a frequent contributor tonthe Chronicles.n6nChronicles of Culturenendpaper maps of Virginia. 1862. Thenbinding and paper are good by contemporarynstandards. The type is clean andnreadable, the price is respectably high;nthe jacket is high standard. Blurbs onnthe back of the jacket indicate thatnConfederates is a hit in London: encomiumsnare cited from The Observer,nThe Guardian, Spectator. Books andnBookmen. All of these gush, but nonencan equal the burning words of criticnDavid Holloway, quoted on the insidenfront flap. “Thomas Keneaily’s Confederates.’nwrote Mr. Holloway in wordsnthat I, for one, will find hard to forget,n•’is a series of pictures of the AmericannCivil War as seen from the SouthernnStates—stark, impressionistic, intimatenand at the same time vast. If you cannimagine the Bayeux Tapestry refurbishednin 20th century prose, this is it.”nPresumably most Britons and evennsome Americans know that the BayeuxnTapestry is a piece of linen 20 inchesnwide and 321 feet long stored in Bayeux,nNormandy, on which are embroiderednscenes from the expedition of Williamnthe Conqueror to England in 1066. Thenwork is supposed to have been done bynWilliam s wife, and there are few morenimportant relics of that great event innEnglish history. To compare the Tapestrynto a contemporary novel is praisenso sweeping as to take one’s breath away.nTo bestow it upon Confederates, however,nis to put Mr. Holloway’s sanityninto question.nnni he fact is that Keneally’s work is,nfrom the first page, one of blatant vulgarity.nHis central character is named,nbelieve it or not, Bumpass. His wifenlives up to that appellation, though unwillinglynat first. The Bumpasses arenparted by the cruel demands of the war.nand the male Bumpass—whose Christiannname is Usaph—is plagued throughoutnthe novel by two suspicions: hadnher uncle slept with Mrs. Bumpass beforenthe Bumpasses were married.’ DidnMrs. Bumpass sleep with the Yankeenpainter who visited the Bumpass homenwhile Usaph was away at war.-‘ Let menbe the first to end any suspense on thesenscores: Mrs. Bumpass did, indeed, sleepnwith her uncle. She also cuckoldednBumpass. However, all the other Southemnwomen mentioned in the novel alsonbetrayed their husbands, so the readernis not encouraged to be censorious ofnMrs. Bumpass. In fact, even the solitarynNorthern woman in the novel—a remarkablennurse named Mrs. Whipple—nis not notably prudish: she sleeps withnthe English correspondent of the LondonnTimes on the occasion of theirnsecond meeting, going so far as to visitnhim in his hotel room despite his faintndemurrals. Both the fictional Timesncorrespondent and Mrs. Whipple arenspies for the North, although Mrs.nWhipple is the widow of a loyal Southerner.nThe Times man, who can benassumed to be the hero, is the son of annEnglish peer. He is also a war correspondentnwho grows to abhor slaverynand therefore takes a hand in the war.nMrs. Whipple also abhors slavery,nthough her reasons are never explained.nThe affair between Mrs. Whipple andnthe Englishman is interrupted by Bumpassnreveries, hooligan activities, flashbacksnto the rape of Mrs. Bumpass andnher seduction by her uncle and other,nsimilar digressions. Throughout thennovel discontinuity is used, in the prevailingncontemporary novelistic fashion.n