Shadows of Blue and Gray

One of my all-time favorite short stories is "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." I've read it at least 3 times and seen both the Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the Twilight Zone episodes that take on this short story. Much to my delight, I got to read this story again, because it was contained in a collection of short works by Ambrose Bierce.

Shadows of Blue and Gray: The Civil War Writings of Ambrose Bierce contains the entirety of Bierce's works about the Civil War. Bierce fought throughout the entire Civil War, witnessing many tragedies, obviously forever scarring his life. Most of this collection contains his fictional short stories, though there are several memoir selections as well.

Bierce is a masterful storyteller. He writes richly yet clearly and enjoys shocking or surprising the reader. You can tell that the Civil War had a profound affect on him, as all of the stories in the collection are enveloped in a dark cloud of misery and suffering. A character dies in nearly every story, in addition to the piles of dead and rotting bodies often witnessed as well. There's also some subtle supernatural feel to the stories as well, mostly manifested in visions of dead people and dead main characters witnessing the events of the world without realizing they are dead.

The Civil War was rough - if you add up the American deaths of EVERY war besides the Civil War, they number less than the American deaths that occurred during the Civil War. The grim darkness of Bierce's stories would be depressing in virtually any other setting and would cause me to question the author's sanity. In this case, Bierce merely attempts to paint a realistic picture of the Civil War. It would have been nice, though, if there were at least one or two pleasant stories.

Bierce's memoir pieces are interesting to read, but lack the intensity of his stories. He doesn't seem nearly as passionate about real events as he is fiction.

If you enjoy short stories and can handle a almost 300 pages' worth of dark stories, you'll love this book. If you are a Civil War buff, I would also highly recommend this book!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (I feel like Bierce could have thrown in a bit more variety to the tone of his stories)

68/100...still way ahead!