My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/pi6HW2YDiNc

Enjoy!

This is the second Jacob Appel book i have read. I struggled through the first third of this and then just when i started complaining to myself, I started to enjoy it! This is a good read, not great, but well enough written and a unique story line! Some very odd characters but what I really enjoyed was the story tellers honesty with himself. "I should even care, but I do..." I can't believe I care what a adolescent thinks, but...." Enjoy! ( )

SURRENDERING APPOMATTOX did not offer Jacob Appel's usual high quality humor and engaging plot twists. ( )

This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaway

I go back and forth on this book! I wonder if you have to be in the right mood to appreciate the humor?

The premise is so outlandish and ridiculous at the outset -- the Civil War never actually happened -- and the rest of the story follows suit, including the subplots and the people.

There's really nothing believable about this story, so you can't go into it with a realistic mindset. All of the characters are taken in their appointed rolls to absurd heights.

If you read this book, just accept that you are to be entertained. Once I went that route, I found I enjoyed it a lot more. ( )

This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaway

Surrendering Appomattox deals with a cult of denial. Horace is a high school history teacher who just happens to have the daughter of a Civil War denier in his class. What can one do when the principal first defends the position and tells Horace to teach both sides. then later changed her mind? The teacher is approached by a former classmate and girlfriend from The Treasury Department's Historical Cult Denial section (your tax dollars at work) to infiltrate the Surrender Appomattox movement. As with most of author Jacob Appel's stories, things go downhill fast. There is Horace's roommate, who is producing a Prophet Mohammed coloring book and his sister, who is trying to adopt a baby, along with numerous other slightly or all out wacky characters. There is even an appearance by Spotty Spitford from The man who wouldn't stand up as well as the lawyer for the Bare-Ass Bandit.

In this day and age, when even a representative in the US House of Representatives is a Holocaust denier, the subject of what is real and what is fake concerns us. Appel has taken this serious subject and given it a twist. Certainly the Civil War existed; my great-grandfather fought at Gettysburg. Certainly the Holocaust existed; several local gentlemen were liberators of the camps and spoke at the local coillege about their experiences. How can either event be faked? The cost of altering the New York Times archives alone would be staggering. Appel has entertained us with his story and, at the same time, made us think about what constitutes the news. ( )