The Rebels by John Jakes: Bring the Revolutionary War to Your Bedroom

The Rebels by John Jakes is the second in his Kent family chronicles/American Bicentennial Series. 

However, this book focuses as much on the character of Judson Fletcher as it does on Philip Kent, who we met in the first book, The Bastard. 

Philip Kent is now a soldier in the Continental Army fighting the redcoats throughout the colonies. He leaves behind his wife and son to give service to what will be his country. Jakes gives detailed accounts of Philip's involvement in the Battle of Bunker/Breed's Hill, a trip to Fort Ticonderoga to secure captured cannon for the army fighting in Massachusetts, a terrible winter at Valley Forge, and the fighting at Monmouth Courthouse in New Jersey. The last battle is where Philip is finally mustered out to return home. 

But it is too late to save his wife, Anne. In a sense, she also gives her life for her country, though Philip cannot see that at the time. A business acquaintance of the Kent's becomes obsessed with her and kidnaps her. While attempting to kill him and escape, both Anne and her captor die. Philip is left with the feeling that if he had been home instead of with the army, it wouldn't have happened. 

As I said, though, a good half of this book also focuses on the character of Judson Fletcher. It is said that it is because the tainted blood of the Fletcher family will become intermingled with that of the Kent family. However, in later books it seems as if it really didn't matter and all of this wonderful background we've been given about Judson is for nothing. 

The character of Judson is a complex one. He is self-deprecating and seems to be a manic-depressive. After losing the only woman he loves, he spends his life mostly drinking and angering his father. Angus Fletcher is a wealthy Virginia tobacco planter with 500 slaves. I could not imagine having a place with 500 slaves. That would be like being in charge of a small town. 

The love of Judson's life, Peggy is now married to Seth McLean, another planter. Seth is a friend of Judson's and has the good sense to see that the slaves are getting ready to make an uprising. Judson tries to get this point across to his father to no avail. The uprising occurs with tragic results: Seth is killed and Peggy is raped, but probably saved by Judson from being killed as well. 

Judson is such a complex person that I could not help wanting to like him. Yet, at every turn as people tried to pave the way for him to make something of himself, he seems to choose the wrong path and make the wrong decisions. His values are skewed as he puts more importance in protecting his honor in a duel than in protecting his honor with the other members of the Continental Congress when he takes his brother's place serving there. 

At times he has the best of intentions: he swears off drink, though it never lasts for long. Even the duel was the result of standing up for a woman - who, unbeknownst to him, is Alicia whom Philip left behind in the last novel - when her family means to drag her off and force back into a society life. Though trying to save her, by fighting the duel and killing her Uncle, he has again caused harm with the best of intentions. The woman kills herself. 

Upon returning to the his home area, he has an encounter with Peggy. He sires a daughter that he never will know about. Eventually, Peggy meets Philip at the end of the book and they are wed. 

As I get through the series I'll discuss more of how Jakes let the whole build-up of Judson's character and the extensive background fall flat. We have learned more about Judson than either of Philip's two wives. Yes, I found the character of Judson to be a great addition to the book, and a necessary one to show what was going on with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. 

As usual, Jakes gives intensive historical details and intermingles his characters with great historical figures. From Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, General Anthony Wayne, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Knox, and John Hancock are all there. We get to see not just the glory afforded them in history textbooks, but some of their foibles and little-known characteristics. 

If there's one major fault I have with Jakes' writing, it is his carbon-copy villains. Every one seems to be a man who holds an obsession, or long-term grudge on the family at the center of the novel for a slight or insignificant incident. The man who abducts and is killed along with Anne almost makes no sense - I kept thinkingWhy would he bother? I realize Jakes probably needed to kill her off to get the story the way he wanted, and that's what Rackingham seems to me - nothing more than a plot device. 

Mayo Adams is the villain Philip faces on the battlefield. Angry when Philip stands up to him for a fellow Jewish soldier, he harbors a grudge, waiting for his chance to strike. Conflict is necessary to a certain extent in any story, but to me it falls flat. 

I enjoy these books for the history and the good development Jakes has done with the Kent family. These are a great read for anyone who enjoys history. The events that take place are far more interesting in these books than in any of the textbooks I remember reading in school. 

The Bastard by John Jakes: Fact or Fiction

Recently I was going through my bookcase looking for something interesting to read one night when I couldn't sleep and came across The American Bicentennial Series volumes by John Jakes. 

The story behind these books is that Jakes intended it to be a set of six novels that would carry one American family from the beginnings of our nation through the Bicentennial Year of 1976. Somewhere along the way , the plan changed. Jakes never made it to the Bicentennial, and instead stopped with the eighth novel, The Americans, which ends at the turn of the 20th Century. 

This was a very famous series at the time of the Bicentennial. Stephen King even mentioned it in his original version of The Stand when Stu breaks his leg, he originally asks for all of these books to read. 

When I picked up The Bastard to read it all over again, I wondered how well it would hold up almost thirty years later. 

The Bastard is the story of Phillipe Charboneau, the illegitimate son of a French actress turned innkeeper and a British Nobleman. When his father takes ill, Phillipe's mother brings him to England to claim what is rightfully his by a letter written by his father many years before. The trip turns disastrous, and Phillipe and his mother heads to the colonies, changing his name to Philip Kent (afterKentland, his father's family residence). His mother's heart is broken in that all she ever hoped for in both her life and the life of her son are shattered. 

Once the story shifts to the colonies, we are given an intimate look at the beginnings of the American Revolution, as well as a glimpse into the lives of such historical American figures as Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams. One notable non-American here is Lafayette, who gives Philip a sword that begins the theme of various meaningful artifacts passed down throughout the family that have great personal and historical meaning. 

Philip is not free in America from the wrath of his father's (legitimate) family. He has had an affair with his brother's wife and has unfinished business with both of them. Unsure of exactly what his feelings are for Alicia, this prevents him from committing to Anne Ware who loves him dearly, but does not use what she has to hold him to her. 

This is a fascinating novel with well-written and fleshed-out characters. At times if I didn't know my history, I would have trouble telling who exactly is real and who is fiction. Philip and Anne are, of course, as are many of the other featured characters such as his father and brother. The story is peppered with enough historical references and figures that it does make a good education. 

There are some sexual situations that are not, in my opinion, gratuitous. I would suggest this book for anyone age thirteen and up although I think I was actually a bit younger when I first read it. 

As with most of the books I've read by John Jakes, his descriptiveness can get a bit tedious at times. The paperback version I have from 1976 logs in at 629 pages. Still, it is well-worth the read and will keep you in its grip and excite you about what is coming up in the next book.