14. The March: E.L. Doctorow

Excellent novel about Sherman’s March to the sea, and the people whose lives are caught up in it. This is the first Doctorow novel I’ve read, but I will certainly read more. I especially admire how Doctorow metaphorically transforms the Union army into, at various times, a living organism, an ecosystem, or the march of history itself. That all sounds a bit deep, but this is a really thrilling, engaging novel, and the portrait of Sherman at the heart of it (with much of Sherman’s dialogue coming directly from his own letters) is a masterpiece.