“Life is fired at us point blank.” Though these are the words of Jose Ortega y Gasset, a Spanish philosopher who wasn’t even born at the time of the Civil War, Dr. Carmine Sarracino, professor of English at Elizabethtown College, thinks this best encapsulates what his novel has to say. “We might have ideas about what’s going to happen, plans, hopes, but what actually happens, happens suddenly,” Sarracino said.
“Point Blank: A Novel of the Civil War,” a historical fiction by Sarracino, is scheduled to be published in 2016 by Wild Rose Press, chosen because it was the only one of the three publishers that offered contracts which included electronic publishing in addition to a printed book.
Sarracino has an abiding interest in poet Walt Whitman, who served for two years as a volunteer nurse in hospitals around Washington, D.C. “I began to research Civil War medicine and hospitals to get a clearer idea of what he was involved in,” he explained. His scope of curiosity broadened, and he became more and more engaged in the topic. “I could be a doctor in a Civil War hospital,” Sarracino joked, adding that because no certification was necessary, he truly could be.
While Whitman appears in a cameo role in the novel, Sarracino chose to focus on Louisa May Alcott, most famous for authoring Little Women. While she only served as a nurse for a short time before becoming very ill herself, Sarracino finds her to be a fascinating 19th-century woman.
Sarracino admits he is unsure how basing his main character on Alcott will affect readership, because he is uncertain of the demographics. He noted how few of his students have read Little Women and how different that number is from even 10 years ago. All the main characters are based on historical figures. The two surgeons in the novel—Dr. Valentine and Dr. Holt–are based on actual Civil War physicians who worked alongside each other in the same hospital. The novel is a work of fiction, however. Sarracino has taken creative liberty with the characters.
To achieve authenticity in his voice–because some of his characters are Southern, are women and are from a different century, in general–Sarracino has marinated his head in the era. He credits his ability to find the correct word choices and create dialogue to long years of immersion, especially in the works of Whitman and Alcott, and his familiarity with the topic.
The topics of drug trafficking, espionage and murder are plot points in the novel. Drug trafficking and espionage were especially prevalent during the Civil War era. According to Sarracino, there was an “enormous amount” of espionage present during that period, especially by Southern women. The beginning of the illicit drug trade in the United States also began around this time. Though the terms “black market” and “drug dealer” were not spoken, the concepts, themselves, were present. Drug trafficking, especially of opiates, was common. People naively became dependent without realizing the opiates were addictive. Sarracino explained there was also the presence of “shady figures” in Baltimore. The “Plug Uglies” were one of these well-known gangs. Sarracino’s novel includes all of these elements.
The notion of rooting his fictional novel in a Civil War hospital, amid drug trafficking, espionage and murder, as well as populating it with characters he knows so well, appealed to Sarracino because “what actually happens in life is stranger than anything you can make up.”
To read the first several chapters of “Point Blank: A Novel of the Civil War,” visit Sarracino’s website, linked in the original article at E-town NOW, published 2/17/15.
