Set in Civil War-era New Orleans after it has been captured by Union troops, Secessia uses the frayed relationships of its main characters to illustrate the contradictions and lies that constitute the country's self-image. Kent Wascom (The Blood of Heaven) focuses on the gentry of the city, showing how its existence is slowly but surely upended by the new regime. But Secessia isn't interested in trumpeting the supposed racial progress of the North, or waxing nostalgic for Southern culture. Instead, it shows that one brutality was traded for another.
Northern brutality is personified by General Benjamin Butler, a real-life leader in the Union army with the fitting moniker "the beast." Butler comes to New Orleans on a mission to break the city, butting heads with the establishment and instituting draconian laws on the pretext of keeping the peace. The characters in Secessia must reposition themselves in the context of Butler's new rule, leading to dangerous and violent incidents. In the midst of this chaos, young Joseph Woolsack begins his journey into adulthood and finds the glimmers of first love.
Sometimes Wascomb tries too hard with metaphor ("Her lungs are the feet of a Chinese princess"); one wishes he'd scaled back. But his images are vibrant and detailed, as if he has personal experience with a place over a century in the past; his writing is lyrical, and he brings out the sights, smells and textures of the period with brilliance. --Noah Cruickshank, marketing manager, Open Books, Chicago, Ill.