“Willis Carr at Bleak House" by David Madden

The story, “Willis Carr at Bleak House,” was written by David Madden. The genre of this piece was War related, because it took place after the Civil War. The story is about a man, who, as a boy, joined the war with his dad, brothers, and grandfather. After their lead marksman is killed, he is up to bat. He looks down his sights on an enemy general, and fires. But he never saw if he killed him or not. The rest of the story is about him traveling around TN to find the answer of if he killed the general or not. An audience who would like this would be the ones who want to quit on something they have been trying a long time to get, find, or accomplish.
I liked this book because it had to do with the Civil War. It was somewhat confusing because it was written in the first person, and the narrator was telling his story as an old man in a bar called “Bleak House.” The narrator always jumped around to other stories about his life and rarely stayed on the real story. I cannot relate to this story in two ways: I have never joined a war, and I have never been so focused on trying to find an answer to something that could change my life.
Madden did a good job on writing this story. He really made it seem like the narrator was the author, even though it was hard to stay on subject. The story won two awards, the Rockefeller Grant of 1969, and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1970. The author wrote this story based off of a speech he heard from a Civil War veteran who was in a similar situation. The speech must have meant a lot to the author to write a story about it. Maybe the author can relate to the veteran.