AUTHOR: Rinaldi, Ann
TITLE: An Acquaintance with Darkness
Date Read: 11/11/13
RATING: 4/B
GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS: YA historical fiction/1997/Gulliver books/291 pgs
SERIES/STAND ALONE: SA

TIME/PLACE: 1865, Washington DC
CHARACTERS: 14-yr-old Emily

FIRST LINES: I knew things were going to be bad when I heard the knock on the door early that morning.

COMMENTS: This book was given to me in a book swap -- had never heard of it before. It is a young adult historical fiction set at the end of the Civil War in Washington DC. Emily is a 14 yr old girl living w/ her widowed & dying mother. When her mother passes she is sent to live w/ her uncle & she is very unsure of him. Her mother had strained relations w/ him & Emily is not quite sure about the nature of his medical profession. The family that Emily has been friends w/ since childhood are associates w/ John Wilkes Booth presenting an interesting choice of loyalites for Emily. ( )

Excellent book and not just for Young Adults....I thoroughly enjoyed it....thanks Ann for the all accurate history you take the time to put into this book....I'm going to ready more of your books for sure.... ( )

Many thanks to countrylife for recently recommending this very interesting book.

I've read a number of Ann Rinaldi's books, some are good, others fall flat. This one is worth the time and effort spent reading.

Using the backdrop of Washington, DC at the turbulent time of the
end of the Civil war, Rinaldi takes us through the streets of a city in turmoil as the country is reeling with the aftermath of a nation torn apart.

Slaves who were freed now have no where to go. Expecting President "Linkum" to find homes for them, they sadly seek shelter and food to no avail.

Widows with no source of income are pressed to take in boarders. Soldiers returning home to the North after the war suffer from disease, loss of limbs and the stress of combat fatigue.

We learn of life in Washington, DC 1865 from the point of view of fourteen year old Emily Pigbush who lost her father in the war and her mother to "the wasting disease".

Upon her death bed her mother forbid Emily to live with her Uncle Valentine, a prominent physician and teacher. Instead, Emily was slated to live at the home of her friend Annie Surrat, daughter of Mary Surrat.

Weaving a cast of characters including John Wilkes Booth, Dr. Mudd, General Custer and the Surrats, Rinaldi provides accurate historical detail regarding the assignation of President Lincoln and the effects of a city and nation in tremendous grief.

John Wilkes Booth was known to visit the home of Mary Surrat and thus she was implicated with seven others.

History shows that on the afternoon of Lincoln's assignation, Booth went to Mary Surratt's boarding house in Washington, D.C. It was discovered that guns and ammunition were stored there.

Of the eight alleged conspirators, she was the only woman. She was found guilty and hanged. She has the historical notoriety of being the first woman executed by the United States government.
While the title and cover of the book leads the reader to believe this is a ghost story, in fact, the sub plot of the book is an excellent depiction of Ann's Uncle, who for the sake of learning new medical techniques in order to help wounded and those afflicted with disease, works with a few others to rob graves or attain bodies. These are the times before legal autopsies and the moral/ethical procurement of bodies is balanced by the need for knowledge.

Recommended. ( )

Ann Rinaldi doing what she does so well – historical fiction for young adults. It is the spring of 1865 in Washington D.C., where 14 year old Emily Pigbush has just lost her mother. Now an orphan, her father having died in the civil war, she plans to live with her friend, Annie, and help out with the Surratt family's boardinghouse. When President Lincoln is assassinated and her friend's family comes under suspicion, her only other alternative is to live with her Uncle Valentine, against her mother's expressed wishes. For she had known something shady was going on there.

The American Civil War had made the physicians involved in it even more aware of the deficiencies of their medical education, specifically anatomy and dissection. Even as more people were training to be doctors, there were fewer bodies available for dissection. In the author's note, she details that in Vermont, between 1820 and 1840, there were more than 1600 medical students, needing 400 cadavers. “Only two bodies a year were made available legally. … State legislators had not yet made up laws to deal with supplying bodies for teaching. … Grave robbing became a lucrative activity.”

Emily and her uncle are fictional characters in this story, which also includes appearances by Elizabeth Keckley, John Wilkes Booth, Annie and Johnny Surratt, Dr. Samuel Mudd, General George Armstrong Custer and other people of historical significance. Ms. Rinaldi did a fine job of making her characters believable. The setting was adequately pictured. The story was engaging for a young adult history lesson. She covered the assassination, the city in mourning, and the trials well enough for a YA novel. I thought she gravitated too much to the eery side of the procurement of cadavers, and not enough to the medical advantages once procured. As that seemed to be the point of the book, I thought the story short-changed itself there.

Otherwise, a very good book. (3.2 stars) ( )

Rinaldi incorporates an incredible amount of historical fact into her novel of a young girl living in Washington D.C. at the time of President Lincoln's assassination. Emily, our protagonist, claims Annie Surratt, daughter of the first woman ever hanged by the United States Government, as her best friend. Because of this, Emily is witness to some extremely important events in our nation's history, and Rinaldi employs this strategy to make these events come alive for a young reader. Never once does Emily's involvement in the action feel forced, as some historical novels tend to, and her presence at Mary Surratt's hanging seems neither inappropriate or extraneous.
Rinaldi has also managed to include a secondary plotline that is just as entertaining and informative. Emily's uncle, whom she lives with is a physician struggling to advance his field. In order to do this, he may or may not be engaging in illegal methods to procure cadavers for his medical school.
Emily is a very realistic protagonist, who is definitely a product of her upbringing and her era. There is quite a bit of the 'southern belle' in her character, but also a delightful amount of spunk. I wavered back and forth while reading this book about whether or not I liked her. I still am not sure, but I certainly got to know and understand her, as well as watch her learn and grow. Which is what a coming of age tale is all about. ( )