Aindreas: The Messenger, Louisville, Kentucky 1855

By Gerald McDaniel

Book Overview

McDaniel sets an ambitious pace in the arena of historical fiction with this first volume of a projected four-book series following the colorful and curious life of Aindreas Rivers. The little guy who... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967366712
• ISBN13: 9780967366715
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Vanmeter Pub
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A deftly written, highly recommended novel

Aindreas The Messenger: Louisville, Kentucky 1855 by Gerald McDaniel is the debut publication of VanMeter Publishing and the first volume of a planned four volume series. Aindreas is an Irish-Catholic boy who with the help of angelic Mr. Knight and the heroic dog Konig, tends to his dying mother and befriends a slave family. Illustrated with occasional historic period drawings, Aindreas The Messenger is a deftly written, highly recommended novel, just exactly the kind that is so easy to pick up and so difficult to put down. Readers will look eagerly forward to the other books comprising the series: Aindreas: The Scribe 1865; Aindreas: The Odyssey 1876-1892; and Aindreas: The Dissenter 1918.

Aindreas-ethnic cleansing and other issues

Aindreas is a historical fiction account set in Louisville, KY, during the 1855 Bloody Monday time. The main character, Aindreas who is also known as Andrew and Lucky, is a poor boy of about age 13. He helps provide for his family as a messenger, delivering invoices and sometimes furniture for a furniture company. Aindreas' family is held together by his mother who he can tell is dying. To complicate matters in his life further, Aindreas has "spells" or seizures that are horrible. However, just after these spells Aindreas usually sees and talks to a special man, Mr. Knight, who helps him think through his problems and seems to know a lot of information about Aindreas. He also has another adult friend in Isaac, an older slave who lives next door to Aindreas. Isaac realizes that his owner is planning to sell him so he asks Aindreas for help in helping him and his family get to freedom. Aindreas is a classic underdog who the reader's heart goes out to. While he does have a few friends that are adults, his only other friend is a huge, protective dog. Aindreas would have enough issues in his life to make an interesting story, but to top it all off, this all takes place in a volitile time in Louisville history. Young adults can learn about this time of political upheaval and strong prejudices through a personal account of a young teen. We learn about the confusion over the mayoral race and the consequent voter intimidation. We definitely get a feel for the prejudices against the Irish, Germans, Catholics, slaves, and anyone born in another country. Ethnic cleansing is examined from a teen's viewpoint as Aindreas looks neutral enough to become part of a crowd or mob and learn their views.I recommend this book to mature high school to adult readers. As a teacher and future school librarian, I would highly recommend it to secondary history teachers. However, due to some realistic strong language, violence, and one implied sexual scene, some may find parts of this book objectionable. I believe these possibly objectionable parts are a vital part of the book's historically realistic view of the events that occurred at the time of Bloody Monday and value them. Personally I find that I am left with several questions after reading this book. I am interested in discovering if these questions are answered in the second of his four book saga, Aindreas: The Scribe.

Louisville's past in the flesh

After you read this book, get in your car or on your bike and ride down Main street and the riverfront. You soon come to realize that Louisville hasn't changed that much in the past 150 years since Aindreas roamed the brick streets, with his dog, Konig, lurking in the allies, delivering messages from the furniture factory. This is an absolutely incredible narrative of the river city come to life through the view of a thirteen-year-old boy, Aidreas Rivers, taking into account the trials of slavery, predjudice, death in the family, and the reality behind the lives of people who try to present themselves in a image that masks the realty of not only themselves, but the sign the the times. The revolt against the Germans is detailed enough that you can go through the old Louisville cemetaries that still exist and feel the impact it had on the city and the victims written in German on the mossy headstones. Though the novel is set in 1855, there are so many parallels with modern social problems. Even if the laws are more civil-rights laws are more promenant than they were almost 200 years ago, there is still rancor against certain ethnicities and lifestyles that seemed to have survived since then. Aidreas represents an innocent that looks past the hate and sees the goodness and truth about human nature, whether it's in the 19th century or the 21st century.

Enlightening historical fiction

Mr. McDaniel brings us the personal story of Aindreas Rivers, a poor but remarkable boy of Irish background, set against the backdrop of events leading up to the Bloody Monday riots (probably Louisville's most significant--if infamous-- contribution to American history). Having grown up in Louisville, I found it interesting to read of streets and churches which are still very familiar today, but this knowledge is in no way necessary to enjoyment of the novel. There were many poignant moments in the narrative, made more so to me because my German and Irish ancestors might well have been affected.After recent events in New York and Washington, I found reading this book comforting somehow, that although terrorism has been with us for a long time, even in our own midst, we have been able to come through it and become in many ways a better country.

History as good as it can be, "Aindreas: the Messenger"

Louisville Kentucky, 1855. A small 13 year old boy, Aindreas Rivers, lives with his impoverished Irish immigrant family in a city dealing with slavery, and the hatred of the Irish, Germans and Catholics generated by the American Party (Know Nothings) who were politically strong in that era.Aindreas Rivers is employed as a messenger by a furniture manufacturer and his daily journeys through the streets of the city teach him much he could never learn in school about the facts of humanity. His best friend is a middle-aged black man, Isaac White, and his family, slaves of the Squire who also owns the tenament in which the Rivers family lives. They are about to be "sold down the river" and it is Aindreas who, with help from his friend Captain Workman, starts the on their way to freedom. In the election day riots, when Irish and German families are burned out of their homes and murdered by drunken thugs hired by the "Know Nothings," Aindreas in instrumental in saving many through his timely warnings of danger and his knowledge of the city.If you like historic fiction, this is the Best! All the facts are avilable. It is a part of our American history which we try to forget and keep living even in the 21st century. Gerald McDaniel the author has done the research and brings us an exciting novel using the historic facts and a gift of telling a tale.Three more books are forthcoming to complete the "Aindreas" quartet. I look forward to the next, "Aindreas: the Scribe."