3.5 stars. Rousing novel detailing the dynamic life of President Ulysses S. Grant through numerous iterations: son, husband, brother, father, general, president, grandfather, private citizen, raconteur, and much more. Not knowing granular specifics of the Civil War beyond keywords like "Shiloh," "Gettysburg," and "Appomattox Court House," I was ready for some kind of gateway into the complex subject matter through the lens of a famous, yet lesser-known marriage. That outcome was partially rendered. Grant's beloved wife, Julia, always hovered in the background as a cipher of sorts, but the story itself is no two-hander. It's more "The General & the Civil War & Presidency & Financial Ruin & Julia," where I never felt like there was an adequate outlining of Julia's motivations or day-to-day realities. Maybe little is known about her, or that stoic meekness is wrapped up in her overall disposition. No single novel can accomplish everything, I realize, but in terms of how the novel was marketed and for what audiences, I was slightly disappointed in that regard. The war sections were absolutely thrilling, and the episodes of Grant's fortunes being swindled in a Ponzi scheme by one of his son's business partners kept me invested until the end. (Honestly was taught none of this in school, and it's all included in Grant's lengthy Wikipedia entry.) This book would have made a fine Father's Day gift as a classic "Dad book," perfect for the types who only read David McCullough and Jon Meachum and want to dabble their toes into some historical fiction instead. I also wavered if the nonlinear framing device of going back and forth between Grant's heroic exploits and his deathbed recounting was necessary or not. The forward momentum constantly stopped whenever the latter occurred, but I guess if I wanted a womb-to-tomb approach, I could have settled for reading one of Grant's many biographies. One illuminating aspect of Grant's thinking that I hadn't realized was his ambivalence toward slavery, something that might be considered ironic for a person just learning about the famed Union general. Grant's main directive in the end was the country's restoration, not any genuine path for slaves to have lasting prosperity or security. He certainly didn't approve of his staunchly pro-slavery father-in-law, Colonel Dent, but he didn't attempt to sever his plantation practices either. Julia's long-term house slave, Jule (short for Julia, not to confuse the two women), also factors into the narrative, and it's possibly the only time where Julia as a character is given a hint of depth or complexity. Regardless, the writing was taut and descriptive throughout, and I'll gladly use this content as a springboard in understanding more about Grant's story.

Many thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for ARC access.

Ulysses S. Grant reflects on the crucial moments of his life as a husband, a father, a general, and a president while writing his memoirs and reckoning with his complicated legacy in this epic and intimate novel from the author of the “masterly” novel Marley.

I really enjoyed this historical fiction account of General and later President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia. The book starts when he is a Colonel coming to see Julia. You know he is interested when he sits in her father's hot office talking to him first; or when Julia's bird dies and he builds a tiny box to bury her bird.

We follow his life through the war years, the rebuilding, his Presidency, his life in NYC and his children and grandchildren to his death from cancer. The reader can see the human, caring side of this President. He was not a perfect person and made some mistakes he owned up to, with great integrity.

For me, historical fiction, when it is mostly history that weaves a readable story that I can learn about something or someone new from history that I didn't know much about, endears me to the book.

My thanks to Net Galley and Atria Books for an advanced copy of this e-book.

THE GENERAL AND JULIA is a look at the life of Ulysses S. Grant through a more personal lens. Clinch’s eloquence and ability to delve into this time in history made this book flow effortlessly through Grant’s life. It was a true gift to be able to read the events I have studied in school with a new perspective even if they were a fictional retelling. The only thing I was hoping to have more of was Julia. Though her presence was always there, it might have given the story more heart if she was front and center in a few more places within the narrative.

For anyone who loves historical fiction and/or books about American history, this one is for you.

This was an interesting read, I knew little about General Ulysses Grant and this read does a good job of giving insight into his life story, though it is not overly detailed, it is still enjoyable. The story is told from different time perspectives, each covers a phase in his life that had an impact on him, including his owing of slaves (though they were really owned by his father in law), his military service and all the destruction he saw, his financial ruin at the hands of a close friend, his desire to complete his memoirs to ensure financial stability for his wife and family. He was a devoted family man who cared deeply for all who came into his life, perhaps a bit too trusting at times. Overall this was a very good story that does not delve too deeply into the life of a revered General/President. If you have an interest in American History, Civil War and Grant in particular you will enjoy this read. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Atria Books for the ARC.

Ulysses Grant's story is fascinating to me--a rise from mediocre West Point cadet to victorious Union general to US president to seemingly successful businessman to business failure and, ultimately, acclaimed writer. I looked forward to Jon Clinch's book "The General and Julia" for more personal glimpses into all these phases of Grant's life and to some extent the book, with its dual timeline format chronicling these historical events alternating with the story of Grant's final, desperate race to capture these memories in writing before his death from throat cancer, provided them. The chapters detailing how Grant was swindled by a trusted financial associate had me on the edge of my seat even though I knew what the outcome would be--a impressive feat of historical writing. And I did enjoy the portrayal of Grant's relationship with his wife, Julia, who, though only a peripheral presence in this novel, was clearly the lodestar of his life. (The chapter entitled "The Peach" was particularly well done.) I only wish there was a bit more time given to Grant's war exploits and less to some narrative tangents--one, for example, involving the creation of the uniform General Lee wore for his surrender which, though interesting, often seemed to interrupt the flow of the story. Overall, though, I enjoyed "The General and Julia" and will look for more from Jon Clinch.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books/Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Ulysses S. Grant is at the end of his life, dying of throat cancer. His last task on earth is to finish his memoirs in order that the proceeds will provide for his beloved wife as well as his children and grandchildren. Otherwise, the family will be left destitute–a situation he sees as largely his own fault. How did such a thing come to pass for the hero of the American Civil War and one-time president?

The General and Julia by Jon Clinch explores Grant’s life through his own memories as he writes his memoirs, sometimes with surprising clarity and ofttimes in a drug/pain/sleep-induced haze. It is a beautiful, contemplative novel that focuses on the man himself rather than his achievements. Given the circumstances in which he finds himself and his own…humility, Grant seems more consumed by regrets and guilt than by pride or self-satisfaction.

I knew next to nothing about Grant. I thought of him as a brutally efficient Civil War general who became an unmemorable president. Maybe some financial scandal attached? And weren’t there rumors he was an alcoholic?

This fictionalized version sweeps that image away, replacing it with one that is much more rounded. Grant was a devoted husband and father. The fact that his beloved wife, Julia, who came from a Missouri slave-holding family, kept “her girl” Jule into the early days of the war until the woman escaped is one of the incongruities in his life. Grant makes excuses for slaveholding even as he is leading the Union forces. Those excuses, and the failure of the war to make the difference he’d hoped for, haunt him throughout his life. The war years are lightly remembered even though, as a general, he was most in his element. Likewise, he does not delve into the politics of his presidential years. He does ruminate over the scandal that left him financially ruined. Interestingly, here he portrays himself as a victim of his own naivete and gullibility: he is such a good man that he is unable to see evil in others.

Like any biographical novel, there are certainly elements of imaginative license mixed in with the historical facts. Clinch does a superb job of immersing the reader into Grant’s mind-set, so that it all seems believable – or at least, we can believe that it is what Grant believed. And Grant is now, in my mind, an admirable and sympathetic human being.

Highly recommended.

A well-written, easy-to-digest account of Ulysses S. Grant and his early, middle, and later years. Barely able to walk and rendered mute by the cancer metastasizing in his throat, Grant is putting pen to paper, hour after hour, day after day, desperate to complete his memoirs before his death so his family might have some financial security and he some redemption,

He had once been the savior of the Union, the general to whom Lee surrendered at Appomattox, a twice-elected president who fought for the civil rights of Black Americans and against the rising Ku Klux Klan, a plain farmer-turned-business magnate who lost everything to a Wall Street swindler, a devoted husband to his wife Julia and loving father to four children. Grant rises from the page in all of his contradictions and foibles, his failures and triumphs.

This General was one of the most famous ones ever. This General who married Julia was Ulysses S. Grant. What a life he had. A lot of this was centered on his Civil War role but, of course, he was also a president and much more.

In this beautiful work of historical fiction, Clinch takes on the voice of a Grant who can no longer speak due to throat cancer. Clinch shows who Grant was and what was important to him as he tells his subject’s story here. Readers will learn not only about the public man but also the husband and father.

Grant had massive triumphs in his life but also moments of despair. Get to know the full man in this terrific novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this Advanced Readers Copy of The General and Julia by Jon Clinch!

The General and Julia
By Jon Clinch

This is the story of Ulysses S. Grant – farmer, soldier, savior of the nation, president – in his final days. He is dying of throat cancer, a mere shadow of himself. Because of his poor decisions, framed by his naivete in money matters and his misplaced trust in unworthy men, he is racing against death to finish his memoirs and protect his family from penury.

Jon Clinch books all reflect a certain darkness, and this is no exception. While it is a novel, Clinch makes no attempt to tone down Grant's despair, nor his culpability in the financial losses he and many others incurred due to his bad advice. Nor does the author gloss over the horrible suffering caused by his illness.

Grant was always a man to accept his responsibility – including what he felt about the deaths of thousands in order to save the Union. As he ruminates for his memoir on the price paid for his victories, on the irony of the fate of Blacks after a war to secure their freedom, he never flinches from accepting what he has done, whether the result has been for good or bad.

This is a man who rose above his humble beginnings to be first the General of the Armies and then President of the United States. But first and foremost Clinch's Grant is a man, strong and honorable, weak and fallible. With all his flaws, he achieved greatness. His love for his wife, Julia, his children, and his country make him the kind of man we are so needful of today.

The General and Julia is a fascinating historical fiction novel detailing the adult life of Ulysses S Grant as he lay dying while trying to complete his memoirs in order to not leave his family in financial ruin. I thought the author did a great job of showing Grant as he likely was, both very good, yet deeply flawed. His wife, Julia, is important to the story; however, I didn’t think the title was especially fitting as the focus isn’t really on her or even their relationship. Thanks to Netgalley and Atria for this ARC.

The General and Julia grabbed my attention due to who one of the main characters is. Why? Because I am always open to learning more about the American Civil War. Between growing up in the Heart of the Confederacy and having several ancestors who fought in the war, it is something that has always grabbed me.

With my love of the history around the Civil War, my favorite parts of the book revolved around that time. While I did know some about some of the events, it is always great to learn more or see things from a slightly different angle.

The General and Julia is a relatively short book; it comes in under 300 pages but covers an extensive period of time. Chapter one is where readers meet Grant in the year 1843. Chapter 21 is where the readers say goodbye to Grant in 1885. No, that isn’t a spoiler; that is just a fact. Every chapter in between takes readers through Grant’s life over those 42 years.

Each chapter is told in two parts. The first part takes you to the time and place mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. The second part takes you to the remote cabin in the Adirondacks where the Grant family has gathered out of the public eye while the General writes his memoirs.

Most of the book is written as though readers were shadowing Grant himself through life. But there are a couple that give you a view into the minds of those on the other side of the story.

Not all books with real-life protagonists, especially well-known ones, are easy reads. But this book is an exception to that rule.

Who would I recommend read The General and Julia? Easy, those who enjoy reading books based on actual historical events!

This was my most anticipated book releasing in the fall and it did not disappoint! A beautifully written, searing look at the life of Ulysses S. Grant, The General and Julia by Jon Clinch will be one of my favorite books of the year.

A literary take on historical fiction, this novel weaves through time to look at Grant’s life as a young husband, military general, president, and dying man writing his memoir to save his family from ruin. Clinch does a masterful job at structuring the story in a way that’s easy to follow even with all of the time jumps. I was familiar with the basic story of his life, but reading Clinch’s lyrical prose was illuminating and mesmerizing. Even with its slow pace and beautiful language, I read the book in a day. It’s engrossing and a must read for any historical fiction fan who wants to learn about a little known time in American history.

John Clinch delivers an immersive portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, the savior of the Union and a twice-elected President. Clinch presents Grant in moving snapshots that span his life and reveal a thoughtful man of deep integrity who spurns the limelight and is devoted to his wife, Julia, and their four children. Clinch glosses over Grant’s triumph in battle and his presidency, focusing instead on Grant’s interior life. We meet Grant as a young soldier in 1843 as he courts Julia Dent whose father owns a rich tract of Missouri farmland maintained by “the ceaseless toil” of thirty-six slaves. It is Grant’s future father-in-law who informs his understanding of how tied the men in the Confederacy were to a practice that many of their countrymen found intolerable: “How disastrous the loss of compelled labor would be to him and to his possessions and to his very way of life.” After he quit the army, Grant worked the property that he and Julia purchased that they called “Hardscrabble” and Grant peddled firewood to stay afloat, having to put gifts for his young family on lay-away. Despite living in Missouri for several years, “to a young man raised in Ohio according to his father’s abolitionist principles, [slavery] is a puzzle at best and an error in management at worst.”

Clinch dedicates several chapters to vignettes of Grant’s military career, including his meeting with Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederacy who found it hypocritical that Julia Grant traveled with a slave, Jules, who was Julia’s father’s “property” and who tended to the Grant children (until she ultimately ran off shortly after Emancipation). Another portrait focuses on a tailor in Richmond who was charged with preparing a uniform for General Lee which signaled to the tailor that “Lee is fixing to make fast a Confederate victory, and he means to look the part on the occasion of Grant’s surrender.” It is Lee, however, who surrendered at Appomattox and the tailor’s bill goes unpaid and unacknowledged. In later years, Grant wrestled with whether he was too forgiving of Lee, but he resolved that it was appropriate that he forgave the confederate soldiers without condition.

When Grant was persuaded to run for President, he was required to surrender his commission and his claim to a pension. After his term, he enjoyed some financial prosperity until a Gilded Age Bernie Madoff, who traded on Grant’s celebrity, fleeced Grant, his family members, and his friends, altering the trajectory of his life: “It made his younger self — boy and man, farmer and soldier, general and president — into a person who would one day lose everything — wealth, reputation, health, self-respect.”His precarious financial condition caused Grant to pen his memoirs despite the fact that he was barely able to walk and debilitated by throat cancer (his cigar habit is explained in another chapter of the novel) as his family had two possible destinies — “comfort if he succeeds in his work, woe if he fails.”

Clinch has masterfully succeeded in creating an emotional study of Ulysses S. Grant in 21 gripping chapters that focus on crucial moments of his life but do not get mired in battle scenes or politics. Clinch has crafted a moving and empathetic portrait of a towering American hero. This is historical fiction at its best. Thank you Atria and Net Galley for providing me with an advanced copy of a book that I will highly recommend.

It’s true that I’ve watched all the documentaries about the Civil War by Ken Burns, and the History Channel specials about Ulysses S. Grant. I’ve also read and loved Jon Clinch’s fiction (Kings of the Earth, Marley).

I adored this book for so many reasons – and mostly because Clinch managed to plunk me down in a chair as if I were right next to Ulysses S. Grant. Many times, he placed me firmly inside the great General/President’s head.

I admit, this novel got me in the old squirters. There was crying, yes, even though Grant has been dead for 138 years – and I knew the book would end with his death. But Clinch painted such a vivid picture of the funeral procession and the nation’s grief that I crumbled. Phew.

I questioned why I was so emotionally touched. Again: because Clinch allowed me to feel this man’s heart and soul, to experience his valiant personal-life battles. I was also grieving for the nation, then. I think I was grieving for the nation, now, realizing, with profound sadness, that ‘great men’ like this seem no longer to exist in our political realm.

Let’s be clear: this book isn’t a dry, historic battle account. It’s a story of the man’s personal life and his relationship with his wife, his relationships with those around him. What’s more, Clinch doesn’t paint Grant as a man of perfection. He paints the ugly realities of war and does not romanticize the suffering of both sides - the loss of so much. He draws attention to the hypocrisy of his wife’s black servant. He draws attention to the freeing of slaves as a political vehicle during the war. He draws attention to Grant’s (and Lincoln’s) consideration of Santo Domingo as an island to “send” freed slaves to. In the end, though, Clinch shows Grant’s great suffering and regret at these choices (I assume Grant’s true memoir addresses those beliefs as genuine).

One of the most memorable scenes for me is when Robert E. Lee shows up for his surrender. The humility and kindness and respect in that scene (and Lee’s point-of-view) sent chills up my spine. And the love. So much love in this book: Grant’s love of his family, of fellow soldiers on both Union and Confederate sides; love of soldiers and citizens for Grant; love of colleagues for Grant; love of country.

It is a great reminder of the galvanizing impact great leaders can have. I am not an overly political person, but this book will make you wonder: will we find another Grant? Can we afford not to? I was wholly moved by this beautiful fictional account. And, as usual, Clinch’s writing is sublime. This scene depicting men who’d secretly learned of Grant’s passage aboard a train, and who had lined up for miles along the route, as Grant looks out the window, also did me in:

"…the firelight illuminates his features from without, and a roar goes up from beyond the glass. The men along the tracks are soldiers. He sees that now. Some are in uniform and some are in partial uniform and some are not in uniform at all, but they are soldiers every one. Union soldiers. His soldiers. … By God, he thinks, they’ve lighted the tracks all the way to Nashville."

Clinch is a beautiful writer and he handled the nineteenth-century vernacular authentically and with ease. The third omniscient point of view was spectacular… Here, Julia’s servant Jule, considers life outside of slavery: The cabin seems to her a soap bubble in the wind, an egg in the ocean, some small and fragile thing afloat within a limitless and powerful one.

Hats off to Clinch who brought a man of legendary status to life. I felt as though I knew Grant personally. Clinch made this legend accessible, flawed … human.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

Good solid historical fiction about the life of Ulysses Grant. Traveling back and forth in time from his days as a General to his life after the Presidency to his final days finishing his memoirs.

Ulysses S. Grant is dying, and during his final days is writing his memoirs. The story is told in snippets of memories of his past and then alternating back to the present. As a fan of Grant, I really wanted to like this book. It's well written, and the author has clearly done extensive research on Grant. I found myself growing bored. Although this book wasn't a good match for me, I think it will be well received by historical fiction readers who enjoy in-depth fictionalized accounts of important historical figures.

“The General and Julia” is a historical fiction book by Jon Clinch. This book is mainly about US Grant, focusing a bit on his war days, presidency, but also his failures (of which he had a number). This book is told in two storylines - one in the past (with years listed) and one in the present (chapters entitled Forty Days and Forty Nights). In the past, the stories are snippets of memories. I thought that the idea of this book was a rather interesting one - a man looking back over his life, hoping to preserve his life story which will provide financial support for his wife and family. I found myself wishing that this book had more of a linear flow - as time does bounce around a bit (as we all do when thinking about the past, but it makes for difficult reading at times). Since I knew so little about US Grant, I found this book historically interesting. I would recommend this book to some interested in the US Civil War/War Between the States, Reconstruction, or wanting to know more about US Grant.