“Anna’s Wish:” A Book Review

By Judith Kroll Perez

Are you looking for a “safe,” subtle or innocuous historical novel? Sorry, this ain't it. If, however, you are in search of a story that may change your perceptions regarding a time period that history tends to treat as sacred, this page-turner may be what you are hungering for.

For the authors, Paul Daniel and Ann Thompson Carter, this is their first published effort. And while “Anna’s Wish” is a work of fiction and uses the War Between the States as a backdrop, this account will have little in common with those stuffy history textbooks from your formative years. In these pages you will witness violence, bloodletting and death — well before anyone steps onto the battlefield!

“Anna’s Wish” opens with a bang, literally, as provided by the famous San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Middle-aged siblings, William and Emma Denny survive the destruction and after a promise to find the answers to some painful questions about their past, they return to rural central Missouri, land of their origins and fading memories. This is where William and Emma are reunited with Estill Northington, their one-time champion and caretaker of their childhood home. Through Estill’s compilations the now-grown Denny children learn the truth about their beloved mother, Anna, and how she still impacts their lives more than forty years after her death.

Through a clever mixture of journal entries, short biographies and personal letters Mr. Daniel and Ms. Thompson Carter employ an effective juxtaposition of depravity, sardonic humor and raw sexuality as we are transported back to Howard and Randolph Counties, Missouri, circa 1862.

Anna Denny, a lovely young widow and mother, becomes enamored with Dr. Joshua Hurt, a handsome, eligible physician with an air of mystery. After a brief courtship they are wed, but inevitably Anna learns that beneath her new husband’s good looks lies a cold-blooded ruthlessness which comes to full fruition while Hurt is in a secret partnership with Pearl, a local prostitute. Pearl is herself a blunt, feisty woman who would love to make “Doc Josh” her own, becoming a “lady” in the process. At the same time Anna finds the love and solace she seeks in the person of Reed Benson, a handsome Union soldier, who is also a loner with a tragic past.

In his public persona, Joshua Hurt is accomplished, polite, attentive and charming. But through the window of his journals we are able to peer under his veneer of civility and see a cold-hearted opportunist, albeit one with a twisted sense of humor — as when he initially meets with Doc Snoddy, a local physician who is delighted with the prospect of introducing Dr. Hurt to the unmarried ladies in the area:

“Snoddy sat up straight and placed his hands on his knees, as if to say, ‘Boy, have I got a town of lonely ladies for you!’ He went on to offer his house as the site of an afternoon ‘tea’ whereupon I would be introduced to every lonely widow and old maid in the county, which could number in the hundreds, if not thousands. My grinning facial muscles locked into a cramping death. I knew I couldn't withstand this scene of exposition, having visions of being offered like a slave for sale, with a sea of petticoats throwing out bids. The doctor would serve as auctioneer, calling out: ‘See this fine, male specimen, my ladies! He's young, unmarried and a doctor! What is the opening bid for this fine set of M.D. testicles?’”

At the same time, female readers may identify with Pearl, who admittedly enjoys the company of men and isn’t at all embarrassed by her lifestyle or prurient appetites. This is illustrated by one of her own earthy journal entries after becoming acquainted with both Joshua Hurt and Reed Benson:

“Never did suppose Id let a man git inside my head, never you mind 2 a them rascals. Guess I can see more clearer now how a hitched dame could git herself knocked up by some other scoundrel that ain’t her mister. Ise thinkin God made a big mistake insistin folks stay true to jist one person when theres so damned many good lookin hunks of meat out there. Sure got my hands full with Doc Josh and that damned near perfect fella Mister Benson. Not that hes lettin me git my mitts on him none, but holy shit iffen he would, thered be no end to what Id do to that man!”

As you may surmise, Joshua and Pearl are — colorful. Indeed, nearly all of the book’s irreverent humor and actions are reserved for these two, while the other surrounding characters are decidedly bland in comparison. At times “Anna's Wish” reads as though Vodra, (Anna's housekeeper) Reed, Estill, Nana (Anna's grandmother) and Anna herself all play the perpetual straight man/woman to Hurt's high jinx and scathing journal entries.

On a related note, while we are given short biographies of Vodra and Reed, for example, never are we exposed to their normal human flaws or tendencies. For instance, until a journal entry of Vodra's reveals a latent attraction to Reed Benson, I had suspected that she was secretly enamored of Estill, or perhaps Anna. Thusly it is my contention that nearly all character foibles and bad habits are reserved for the headliners, while few other human idiosyncrasies (body odor, nail-biting or poor eyesight, perhaps?) are assigned to other characters — failings that would have made them more multi-dimensional. (The only exception to this rule is a hilarious scene involving a Lieutenant Fry, whose body is shaped like that of a butternut squash.)

As a whole, however, the authors of “Anna's Wish” serve their readers well in putting forth interesting conjecture about the private lives of Americans during the mid-nineteenth century. They lift away the gauzy veil of nobility that has acted as a cocoon around this generation. Historians have verified that the Civil War era was much more bawdy and lascivious than what had been previously ingrained by way of history books and curriculums. Prostitution was a natural counterpart of military occupations on both sides of the conflict and soldiers often wrote of their sexual exploits in personal letters to male friends and relatives. Many of these more profane records were destroyed, however, as the strictures of a latter Victorian society took hold. It was through such evolvement that Civil War participants became lionized to a degree as noble, asexual beings for descending generations, but through efforts such as this book, such persons in history may become less abstract and closer to flesh and blood.

In the end, “Anna's Wish” is not for the faint of heart, due to the breakdown of 150 years’ worth of beliefs as well as a bittersweet portrait that will entertain, and disturb.

TOP OF PAGE