Woe to Live on - by Daniel Woodrell (Paperback)

About the Book

In 1861, sixteen-year-old Jake joins the secessionist group known as the First Kansas Irregulars, and partakes in brutality excused in the name of retribution.

Book Synopsis

Set in the border states of Kansas and Missouri, Woe to Live On explores the nature of lawlessness and violence, friendship and loyalty, through the eyes of young recruit Jake Roedel. Where he and his fellow First Kansas Irregulars go, no one is safe, no one can be neutral. Roedel grows up fast, experiencing a brutal parody of war without standards or mercy. But as friends fall and families flee, he questions his loyalties and becomes an outsider even to those who have become outlaws.

Review Quotes

"A renegade Western...that celebrates the genre while bushwhacking its most cherished traditions...Jake Roedel recites his tale of woe in an improbably rustic idiom, with a malignant humor and a hip sensibility that are wise beyond his years and way ahead of his times."--Chicago Tribune

"The violence is fast and understated, and bawdy humor relieves the story's intensity."--Kansas City Star

"Woodrell pins it down just right...speaks to the universal cruelty of civil war."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

PRAISE FOR WOE TO LIVE ON

"[A] fine novel...Daniel Woodrell has captured the devastation of war and, more importantly, the twisting of men's minds."--United Press International

About the Author

Five of Daniel Woodrell's published novels were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Tomato Red won the PEN West Award for the Novel in 1999. Woodrell lives in the Ozarks near the Arkansas line with his wife, Katie Estill.