Prisoners of Twilight

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Recently ``rediscovered'' when Stephen King cited him as a major influence and published one of his books, veteran novelist Robertson ( Praise the Human Season ) has crafted a grisly, gripping war novel that deserves to stand in its own light. At the end of the Civil War, the ragged remnants of a Confederate troop retreat homeward, numbed by the carnage that has surrounded them and by their own decaying minds and bodies. Their nominal leader is a 20-year-old sergeant who's busy nursing his own bewildered lust for another soldier, and the men in his command, ranging from the teenage country bumpkins to a near-psychotic sadist, can no longer tolerate each other or their ceaseless, starved struggle. Coursing with sexual longing, bitterness and random cruelty, the Civil War Robertson pictures is searingly distinct and distinctive; the psychological acuity of his narrative cuts fiercely through any cliches. In the soldiers' rambling, slangy interior monologues, readers will have no trouble spotting Robertson's contribution to Stephen King's style, but in substance, this is a horror story of a very different sort. (Mar.)

Library Journal

It is April 1865, and a ragtag group of Confederates are retreating from Richmond toward Appomattox Court House. Their destiny awaits them. About 30 years ago Robertson wrote three very good Civil War novels that spanned the period from Antietam to Gettysburg. At his best he can tell a gripping story that lands anemotional punch, but he has a tendency toward pseudo-Faulknerian rhetoric and for overblown transparent symbolism. Both qualities are evident in this new novel. Unfortunately, he allows it to become an all-too-obvious parable about the insanity of war. Libraries which have Robertson's Civil War trilogy may want to consider adding this.-- Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.