Voices in the Dead House

(Paperback)

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Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott meet the horrors of the Civil War as they minister to its casualties

After the Union Armys defeat at Fredericksburg in 1862, Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott converge on Washington to nurse the sick, wounded, and dying. Whitman was a man of many contradictions: egocentric yet compassionate, impatient with religiosity yet moved by the spiritual in all humankind, bigoted yet soon to become known as the great poet of democracy. Alcott was an intense, intellectual, independent woman, an abolitionist and suffragist, who was compelled by financial circumstance to publish saccharine magazine stories yet would go on to write the enduring and beloved Little Women. As Lock captures the musicality of their unique voices and their encounters with luminaries ranging from Lincoln to battlefield photographer Mathew Brady to reformer Dorothea Dix, he deftly renders the wars impact on their personal and artistic development.

Inspired by Whitmans poem The Wound-Dresser and Alcotts Hospital Sketches, the ninth stand-alone book in The American Novels series is a masterful dual portrait of two iconic authors who took different paths toward chronicling a country beset by prejudice and at war with itself.

Reviews

Praise for Voices in the Dead House

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This is fiction of a high caliber. . . . Voices in the Dead House is on the cutting edge of history, providing us with a way to grapple with our evolving sense of the past, as we wonder what is next. New York Sun

A unique look at the Civil War. . . . Through his characters struggles, Lock ably portrays the concerns of that dayprejudice, the strength of the Union, and Americas position in the worldwhich still exist in this one. Washington Independent Review of Books

Gripping. . . . Distinctive. . . . A haunting novel that offers candid portraits of literary legends. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A stunning historical novel that brings history and literature together to share a singular perspective on the Civil War. Foreword Reviews

A twin tale of two literary luminaries. . . . Locks deep knowledge of the time period is evident throughout, his research impeccable, his prose iridescent. Booklist

Immersive. . . . Locks uncanny gift for reproducing the literary voices of his narrators goes beyond mere pastiche. This insightful double portrait brings both Whitman and Alcott into sharp focus. Publishers Weekly

Lock captures the strong personalities of Whitman and Alcott without glossing over their flaws in this fascinating snapshot of history. Library Journal

Locks lyrical prose encompasses themes ranging from American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny to racism. Historical Novels Review

A simply riveting read by Norman Lockan author with a genuine flair for originality and the kind of narrative storytelling style that fully engages the reader from first page to last. Midwest Book Review

Select Praise for Norman Locks The American Novels Series

Norman Lock has created a memorable portrait gallery of American subjects, in a succession of audaciously imagined, wonderfully original, and beautifully written novels unlike anything in our literature. Joyce Carol Oates

Shimmers with glorious language, fluid rhythms, and complex insights. NPR

Our national history and literature are Norman Locks playground in his dazzling series, The American Novels. . . . [His] supple, elegantly plain-spoken prose captures the generosity of the American spirit in addition to its moral failures, and his passionate engagement with our literary heritage evinces pride in its unique character. Washington Post

Lock writes some of the most deceptively beautiful sentences in contemporary fiction. Beneath their clarity are layers of cultural and literary references, profound questions about loyalty, race, the possibility of social progress, and the nature of truth . . . to create something entirely newan American fable of ideas. Shelf Awareness

[A] consistently excellent series. . . . Lock has an impressive ear for the musicality of language, and his characteristic lush prose brings vitality and poetic authenticity to the dialogue. Booklist

On The Boy in His Winter

[Lock] is one of the most interesting writers out there. This time, he re-imagines Huck Finns journeys, transporting the iconic character deep into Americas pastand future. Readers Digest

On American Meteor

[Walt Whitman] hovers over [American Meteor], just as Mark Twains spirit pervaded The Boy in His Winter. . . . Like all Mr. Locks books, this is an ambitious work, where ideas crowd together on the page like desperate men on a battlefield. Wall Street Journal

On The Port-Wine Stain

Locks novel engages not merely with [Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Dent Mtter] but with decadent fin de sicle art and modernist literature that raised philosophical and moral questions about the metaphysical relations among art, science and human consciousness. The reader is just as spellbound by Locks story as [his novels narrator] is by Poes. . . . Echoes of Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray and Freuds theory of the uncanny abound in this mesmerizingly twisted, richly layered homage to a pioneer of American Gothic fiction. New York Times Book Review

On A Fugitive in Walden Woods

A Fugitive in Walden Woods manages that special magic of making Thoreaus time in Walden Woods seem fresh and surprising and necessary right now. . . . This is a patient and perceptive novel, a pleasure to read even as it grapples with issues that affect the United States to this day. Victor LaValle, author of The Ballad of Black Tom and The Changeling

On The Wreckage of Eden

The lively passages of Emily [Dickinsons]s letters are so evocative of her poetry that it becomes easy to see why Robert finds her so captivating. The book also expands and deepens themes of moral hypocrisy around racism and slavery. . . . Lyrically written but unafraid of the ugliness of the time, Locks thought-provoking series continues to impress. Publishers Weekly

On Feast Day of the Cannibals

Lock does not merely imitate 19th-century prose; he makes it his own, with verbal flourishes worthy of [Herman] Melville. Gay & Lesbian Review

On American Follies

Ragtime in a fever dream. . . . When you mix 19th-century racists, feminists, misogynists, freaks, and a flim-flam man, the spectacle that results might bear resemblance to the contemporary United States. Library Journal (starred review)

On Tooth of the Covenant

Splendid. . . . Lock masters the interplay between nineteenth-century [Nathaniel] Hawthorne and his fictional surrogate, Isaac, as he travels through Puritan New England. The historical details are immersive and meticulous. Foreword Reviews (starred review)

On The Ice Harp

In The Ice Harp, Norman Lock deftly takes us into the polyphonic swirl of Emersons mind at the end of his life, inviting us to meet the man anew even as the philosopher fights to stop forgetting himself. Who will I be when the words are gone, the great thinker wonders, and how will I know what is right I gladly asked myself these same impossible questions on every page of this remarkably empathetic and deeply moral novel. Matt Bell, author of Appleseed and Refuse to Be Done

Author Bio

Norman Lock is the award-winning author of novels, short fiction, and poetry, as well as stage and radio plays. He has won The Dactyl Foundation Literary Fiction Award, The Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, and has been longlisted twice for the Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Prize. He has also received writing fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Aberdeen, New Jersey, where he is at work on the next books of The American Novels series.