Book Analysis: LOVE AND HONOR

Author: Randall Wallace
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 2004; 402 pages; Hardcover)
ISBN: 0-7432-6519-X
Genre: Historical Epic

In 1774, American mercenary Kieran Selkirk races across the frozen plains and forests of northern Russia. Attacked by a horde of wolves, he shares the difficulties--if not the secrecy--of his mission with his close friend and military mentor, Gorlov. Together they escape death for the greater and more intricate dangers awaiting them in the royal courts of St. Petersburg.

Selkirk races against time, his course plotted out by Benjamin Franklin. When the harbor thaws in less than two weeks, Britain will request seasoned Russian troops to quell the developing rebellion in its North American colonies. A patriot to a country not yet born, Selkirk's goal is simple. He must plead America's desperate cause with the Empress of All the Russias, Catherine the Great.

A private audience with the most powerful woman in the world is a prize sought by many. To claim it for himself, Selkirk must dodge assassination attempts, shatter social and political intrigues, and ride boldly against bloodthirsty Cossacks. Along the way, he discovers unexpected love and reunites with forgotten faith that together heal his wounded heart and give him the will to live...or die...for love and honor.

This is a historical drama of epic proportions. It skillfully balances sweeping vistas of world wars and international politics with simple insight into the hearts of realistic characters. The characterizations are sufficiently well rounded to evoke chuckles, gasps, and tears. Selkirk is particularly fascinating as a lead character; he's both fiercely courageous and devoutly innocent. The latter quality spares him many devastating pitfalls, but also brings heartbreaking pain. Sexual intrigues swirl around him, which everyone is aware of except him. When the veil of innocence is ripped from his eyes, his ultimate choice shapes the point of the whole book.

Love and Honor reads like the hero's memoirs, in first-person point of view. The intensely personal quality of this viewpoint protects readers' respect for him, especially at those times when he appears most naive. It also preserves his humanity while he performs nearly inhuman feats of warfare.

The natural downside of this extremely intimate viewpoint in an epic is the story is limited to one person's perspective. Typically, epics involve a large cast of significant characters and play out over many diverse settings. Since a first-person narrator can only relate scenes where he/she is present, toward the end of the book the singular viewpoint could have grown constraining and cripple the story's scope. Wallace slides around this limitation by highlighting the first-person conceit that this is a memoir and periodically adopts a semi-omniscient style. (Presumably, Selkirk is writing this story several years after it happened and has since consulted with other important characters about key scenes where he wasn't personally present.) Because the limited first person point of view is strictly maintained for the first half of the book, thereby establishing intimacy and trust with Selkirk as a narrator, the slide into pseudo-omniscient for a few scenes later on works.

This was an engrossing, well-paced read. The hero won my support with his courage, and captivated me with his resolute innocence. Wallace's main character flies in the face of the thinly veiled sexual promiscuity and manipulation of Catherine's court, so reminiscent in attitude of the modern era's "sexual revolution." Selkirk's love of honor--the type of honor based on love and faith in God--earns the biggest reward of all: reader satisfaction.