Books by David Greene

From Kindle Nation Daily:  (Read the full review.)

I want you to read David Greene's novel Unmentionables, because it is a terrific, life-affecting read.

It should have a place in every reader's library, and the sooner you make time to read it the sooner you will share the great experience I've had the past few days. 

I'm not going to pigeon-hole Unmentionables by saying "think Gone with the Wind meets Brokeback Mountain," because that wouldn't do justice to the novelist's achievement in recreating a historical world that seems to suggest the impossibilty that he might actually have been present for everything that happened out of Margaret Mitchell's earshot.

One important element of Greene's triumph here is strikingly reminiscent of the great tradition of English novelists from Eliot and Hardy to D.H. Lawrence. Part of what made the English novel of the 19th and early 20th century so compelling was the existence of class and social barriers that locked characters out from opportunities to live their dreams.

American culture has often tended to homogenize our experience and deny the existence of such barriers to focus on less compelling personal idiosyncracies, but the barriers are there, they have always been there, and in Unmentionables Greene gives resonance both to those barriers, to their human cost, and to the passion and nobility that such barriers can inspire in "ordinary people."

From ForeWord Clarion Reviews  Five Stars (out of Five): 

"...David Greene's work surpasses the majority of Civil War novels by bringing together two enthralling love stories. In Unmentionables, Greene primarily focuses on the touching affinity between Jimmy, a black field worker, and Cato, an educated, half-white servant from a neighboring plantation. Cato also happens to be the illegitimate son of Augustus Askew, his owner. The passionate love between Jimmy and Cato is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes glimpse of gay romance in the 1800s. 

Any reader looking for a departure from the tradition of Gone with the Wind, will find this novel an excellent alternative. Unmentionables is superb historical fiction with a contemporary angle; an enlightening look at the hidden elements of our past." 

--Julia Ann Charpentier (for ForeWord Clarion Reviews)   Read the Full Review.  (Contains spoilers.)

Read a review by award winning Canadian blogger James Viloria at OpenSalon.com:
Gay Persons of Color

June 25, 2011: 
Unmentionables won the bronze medal at the 2010 Book of the Year Awards in the Gay/Lesbian Fiction category at the American Library Association convention in New Orleans.

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