Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: This Civil War novel is Red Badge of Courage meets Cold Mountain. It is a terrific account of the Battle of Franklin told through several extremely interesting and captivating characters. There are no real battle scenes. Mr. Bahr begins with the minutes before the battle commences and then jumps to the aftermath. The characters are unforgettable from the good to the bad. Mr. Bahr's writing is as memorable as the characters. It is near poetry in places, yet he also supplies terrific dialogue. After reading - then rereading - a particularly good description, I would then become rapt in the dialogue. This book captures the horrors of war. One warning, if you have a tendency to eat while reading, you might want to diet through some of the scenes. The author's descriptive powers are immense whether he portraying a piece of scenery or the battlefield hospital. Bahr shows well the realistically ugly side of war while stringing a thread of romance between a soldier and a woman and the bonds of friendship between life-long soldiers/friends through the book. This is a book to read with time on your hands so the writing can be savored. You need not be a Civil War buff to appreciate this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: An Amazon pal recommended I read this book, and I can't wait to get to some other titles recommended by the same reader since this one was top notch, and I would have never found it. The novel has garnered some comparison to Cold Mountain and even to The Killer Angels, although I think it is a very different book than those two. It reminded me more of The Red Badge of Courage, since it is also set in a short span of days, adjacent to a battle of the Civil War, but like Crane's novella the action here is mostly introspective and confined to a few characters. There are a couple of historical figures, including a cameo by Nathan Bedford Forrest, but for the most part this novel skips the battle detail in favor of a small group of fictional characters who we come to learn very well. Bushrod Carter, the main protagonist, is a well-educated rifleman (one of the Cumberland Rifles) who is weary of the war and who can't wait to get home, but who never considers shrinking from his duty. He enters the battle of Franklin Tennessee, in 1864, with a couple of good buddies and an occasional enemy they have made over the course of the war (including one deserter who they temporarily buried alive). We see little of the battle itself, the novel instead focuses on the agonizing wait (with the Confederates knowing full well that General Hood is about to hurl them in another suicidal rush at fortified Union positions) and the battle aftermath. After the battle, Bushrod finds himself at a make-shift hospital, cared for by a sweet visiting cousin who is initially unprepared for the horrors of war dropped at her family's doorstep. Bahr skillfully builds the suspense, although certain storylines don't seem to really go anywhere. (For example, I was somewhat puzzled as to the space early in the novel devoted to the music professor, I thought he would ultimately play a bigger role in the rest of the novel. However the scene of the band heading into battle was worthwhile). I also would have preferred a little more of an account of the actual fighting, although I suppose Mr. Bahr would respond that is not the book he set out to write. In any event, the book was a rare find, a thoughtful, well-written character study full of historical detail. Civil War novels pop up as often as legal thrillers it seems, but this is one of the best I have read. Bahr apparently spent years meticulously researching this book, and reviewers with more knowledge of Franklin Tennessee than I possess indicate that he hits the mark, and that much of the novel (including the house where the second half takes place) is based upon actual people and places. If you are a fan of Civil War or historical fiction, you should pick up the Black Flower.
Rating: 
Summary: Great writing but depressing
Review: There's no question that the author is a magnificent writer who can make you care about the characters, but then what does he do to you? He leads you down the gloomy path of despair all the way to the end of the book. I much prefer the action-packed stories of vivid battle scenes, which are, oddly enough, not nearly so depressing as this book. Far better are the books like The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, and the books his son Jeff Shaara wrote after Michael's death.
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