Author’s Corner features Keith Corman. Corman is the author of the American Civil War drama Scourged Souls. Award-winning radio host Kate Delaney discusses with Corman details about this unique war story set during the darkest, turbulent years of American history. ReadersMagnet review America Tonight with Kate Delaney featuring Keith Corman.
A dark place away from the battlefield.
At the start of the radio interview, Keith Corman makes it clear to the listeners that his book Scourged Souls is not a typical war book. The book is set during the last two years of the Civil War, in Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia. Corman’s narrative deals with ordinary civilians and how their lives are drastically changed by the ongoing war.
Corman and Delaney further discuss in detail Kennesaw Mountain and the battle that took there in 1864. Corman introduces one of the main characters, Obadiah Washington. Washington is a central figure in the book. He is a former slave working as a blacksmith in the South. He helplessly watches as black slaves are being brought to his village to build defenses for the Confederate army.
Obadiah’s struggle portrays a not so-discussed aspect of slavery which Corman highlighted during the talk.
War’s casualties away from the skirmishes.
The second half of the interview deals with the rest of the characters and how Corman’s book is sort of unique from all other war novels. This is because Scourged Souls deals with the middle-class people, the civilians, the innocent families, and the rest of the civilians caught up in the ugliness of civil war.
Corman notes that developing the characters for his book was both challenging and fun. In particular, he remarks that for him to successfully write the characters, he had to take a step back and see things from multiple perspectives- soldiers, neighbors, civilians, etc.
Another challenge for the making of Scourge Souls was how to make use of elegies (letters) in order to depict certain emotions as well as the horrors brought by the war. Throughout the book, Corman uses letters (ones sent by soldiers and the ones sent from homes). This proves to be an effective method in giving a more human element in his narrative.
Scourge Souls is a wonderfully written book about war and its horrors. Yet the story does not center on gunfights, skirmishes, and other gory details of war. Instead, what Keith Corman did was to address the dilemma and the sufferings of those families and innocent lives forever scourged by its horrors. ReadersMagnet strongly recommends Keith Corman’s Scourge Souls. A wonderful read indeed.
Through Kate Delaney’s series of detailed questions, Keith Corman gives us a preview of what to expect in his book. It is a gripping portrayal of the horrors and realities of war. This time the graphic images are painted by those far from the frontiers but just as deeply scared as the soldiers fighting in the frontlines.