Book Review Varina by Charles Frazier

You may not know her name, but her story is incredible.  Varina Davis, the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis endured a remarkable and tumultuous life not of her choosing.  I loved this book by Charles Frazier.

Frazier, author of one of my all time favorite books Cold Mountain, has an incredible talent to bring the Civil War into a human story.  Like Cold Mountain, Varina tells the story of those who may not have been on the battlefields, but who were fighting the war in their own way.  The story of just trying to survive.

Varina, a young women with little prospects, finds herself pushed into a marriage with the significantly older Jefferson Davis, who continues to mourn the loss of his first wife and true love.

Despite their tumultuous marriage their family grows and Davis, as we know, eventually accepts the Presidency of the Confederacy states when the Civil War begins.

Varina, is left mostly on her own, to raise the children during the horrible war of the states.  She is one of the most intelligent, courageous and amazing female survivors I have had the pleasure to read about.  The loss of people she loves, particularly her children, brings her to the brink and yet she endures.  Her courage during her flight with her small children from Richmond at the end of the war is remarkable. It however, does not end happily.

Varina is an important American historical figure, who is little known and rarely written about.  I loved the story, particularly because it shines a light on an American women, whose story has been lost in the glut of Civil War stories about men and soldiers.  She deserves to be remembered in history for her courage, her life’s tragedy, and her life’s realization that complicity carries consequences.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Five Stars for Varina.

Read last weeks review of The Wife Between Us here.

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