JUST FINISHED: Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz

Confederates in the Attic is one of those books that played a cat and mouse, Enemy at the Gates-type game with me.  I first noticed it when I was wandering through the US History section at the local Borders.  I'd just laid down the last of my monthly book budget at the checkout, and was looking for my fiance when it caught my eye.  After flipping through a few pages, it looked good and entertaining, but was it purchase worthy, or should I pick it up from the library? The internal debate waged, and I waffled back and forth every time I hit up the bookstore.  It wasn't until a few months and one B&N gift card later that I finally bought it. 

Confederates is a look at the Civil War and its aftermath through the people of the Modern South.  Horwitz begins the book by introducing us to a rag tag group of Civil War Reenactors that are so hardcore they starve themselves before a reenactment to look more like POW's.  Horwitz seamlessly intertwines the hilarious with more serious issues that still plague the Southern States, like race relations, the rebel flag and even more scary, curriculum taught at the schools. 

The greatest thing about the book was that Horwitz, a Yankee transplant living in Virginia, enthusiastically throws himself in the deep end, so to speak, and opens a window to a world that outsiders often don't get to see.  Some of the people he comes in contact with would make me run straight for the hills in real life, but he digs deep and shows the humanity in even the craziest crackpot, in the "Oh, don't mind him, that's just crazy Uncle Joe" kind of way. (C'mon, everyone has a crazy Uncle Joe, right?)

History is always written by the victors, but sometimes you need to look at it from another (and this time, more amusing) angle.  I give it two thumbs up.  OK, forget that, I'm not Siskel and Ebert.  I am a foodie, though.  I would equate it to Literary Banana Nut Muffins. Yummy and distinct, with some unexpected crunch.

Title: Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

Author: Tony Horwitz

Copyright: 1998

For more on Tony Horwitz's adventures with the CSA Reenactors, visit the Random House website.