Rebels, Turn Out Your Dead

by Michael Drinkard and George Albert Brown

In his cannabis-infused pipe dreams, Salt imagines himself a man of independent means, rather than a Yankee hemp farmer under the thumb of his Tory father-in-law. Then Salt's teenage son shoots a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151011192
• ISBN13: 9780151011193
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

History should be taught like this

A real page turner. From the excitement of creating a new country to the complexities of a war that divides families, Drinkard brings history to life in an exciting and powerful manner. Every chapter could have been longer. Rebels,Indians,pirates,Colonial armies,mercenaries,politics and love; New York seemed as rich in character and diversity as it does now. Drinkard could pick up these characters for another round. I hope he does.

REBELS READ THIS BOOK

Michael Drinkard is an amazing and underappreciated writer whose work can not be categorized or easily compared with that of other authors. His newest book, REBELS TURN OUT YOUR DEAD chronicles what might be the most important historical event next to 9/11 to ever happen in the history of New York City, an event that is still all too unrecognized, the prison ships harbored here during the Revolutionary War. On these ships more people died than in all the other battles of the war combined! Drinkard not only tells the real story of what happened here but does it in the form of a gripping, lyrical, fast paced and utterly entertaining novel. This should be required reading for anyone interested in history, patriotism or love.

"Molly saw to it that desires Salt didn't even know he had were met."

Drinkard's novel offers a revelatory slice of the Revolutionary War that reeks with cunning, brutality, unpredictability, desperation and the willful accommodation of survival, a family of three scattered toward different fates when James, the son of Salt and Molly, fires his pistol, killing a British soldier, his family's fortune snuffed out along with the hapless man's life. Thereafter, Salt is held captive in the hold of a floating prison, along with a band of raggle-taggle revolutionaries, the ports of New York, as well as the city, controlled by the redcoats. Separated from his wife and son indefinitely, Salt clings to life with courage and a resourcefulness born of desperation, temporarily disguised as Captain Stephen Marbury. Meanwhile, on her father's farm, Molly holds the rough troops at bay with the aid of Major General Michael Drayton, who assumes husbandly duties as well. While young James is trained as a soldier for the Crown, a vulnerable Molly avoids the covetous overtures of an assortment of opportunists, the officer, a lawyer, a renegade. Grown more independent in protection of her person and her goods, Molly makes whatever choices are in the best interests of her family, although seventeen-year old James grows restive around his mother, avoiding her whenever possible, adolescence turning to manhood. Molly's father, Ebenezer, has sold out his son-in-law, deferring to the English in hopes of surviving the War with his wealth intact, the farm left in trust to his grandson. The men gather around Molly, watching; no one believes Salt will return to claim his wife and they position themselves should Molly seek male counsel. Salt has his own problems, survival paramount, conditions in the ship's hold appalling, men dying of starvation and the pox. Hence, "Rebels, turn out your dead." A man who loved the comforts of a pipe of hemp, Salt's situation is a far cry from his former trials on his father-in-law's farm, each day on the filthy ship an ordeal that taxes his gentle nature. The conditions of war are harrowing, the land stripped of fowl, cattle and crops, all laid waste by marauding troops on both sides, captive men in leg irons chained in their dull confines, cramped and filthy, preyed upon by disease and vermin, the spoils of war claimed by those in power or clever thieves manipulating the war-market for personal gain. Everywhere profiteers bargain and cajole for small comforts, the careless waste of humanity a by-product of the endeavor. History looms large in this vibrant landscape, atrocities, betrayals and heartbreak, as Molly and Salt purchase survival from an unfriendly terrain, their home occupied by the enemy, their dreams insupportable, if not outright folly. At the mercy of others, the family strives to overcome their perils, invested in at least the promise of a future. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

Not just an historical novel

Yes, the story line from true events, and the details, all come from the time of the American Revolution. I suspect for readers of historical fiction this will be a satisfying read in that respect. The tone, the ideas behind the writing, the pattern--Drinkard tells of a Ulysses somewhere in the fictional realm of Cormac McCarthy. Neither the blurbs nor the dust jacket description, nor the dust jacket front for that matter, do justice to the satisfying unfolding of the story of how Salt, the hero/father/husband, is transformed by his journey; his wife Molly is equally strong in depiction. I don't know how many novels I read (and movies I watch) which have an intriguing introduction of plot and character, but with the promise of the set up unfullfilled in the unfolding and ending. One of the several marks of how in control Drinkard is of his material is how the resolution is true to the novel and as equally strong (or stronger) than the initial set up. I took up the novel on a rainy Saturday afternoon, thinking I'd read a chapter or two before a nap. The nap never came--reading the book to its conclusion was too enticing. Can't wait to see what comes next in his writings.