Blood Brothers
Soldier’s Heart by Michele McKnight Baker is an epic story of friendship spanning the years of the American civil war. It starts at the end of the war, goes back to the beginning and works forward to finish on the day it began.
It is a tale of two boys and their families – one white and one African American. Web and Junior are friends who see past the colours of their skin and look into each other’s hearts. They are friends forever. Blood brothers. The same cannot be said for their families, as there is a reserve in the older generation. However as the story progresses the reader learns how the lives of individual family members have intertwined over the years.
Soldier’s Heart is an amazing read, covering many themes. It shows the futility of war, especially it seems, civil war. Men kill men; men kill boys; boys kill men; boys kill boys. What’s left at the end is dead bodies and the guilt of the living. No one is really a winner in war.
