Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
Although he had no passion for the war, former schoolteacher Gawain Harper joined the Confederate cause at the insistence of his future father-in-law, Nathaniel Rhea. The judge demanded that Gawain help the South win the fight or forget any thought of marrying his daughter Morgan. Willing to do almost anything for his beloved, Gawain signed on as an enlisted man and saw battle over the next several years.
In 1865, with the war over, Gawain finally returns to his hometown of Cumberland, Mississippi. However, nothing is even remotely the way it once was when he left home. Northern troops seem to be everywhere. Yet the violence that the war's aftermath has spawned comes from local sources. His family is dead, murdered due to their northern sympathies. The Rheas own nothing but their pride, which has the Judge demanding a new quest by Gawain if he still wants to marry Morgan. Gawain must assassinate white supremacist, current power mogul and rival "King" Solomon Gault.
THE YEAR OF JUBILO is an extraordinary Civil War drama that deserves critic and reader acclaim as it is sure to be one of the top five historical fictions works of the year. The story line is an exciting insight into Southern chivalry that somehow survived the destruction of the civil War. Gawain lives up to his Arthurian name as a noble individual. The support cast is just incredible. They seem so real the audience will feel they know them. It is the secondary players that make Howard Bahr's novel so good that 2000 is the year of jubilee for Civil War buffs.