This is an amazing book by a writer who deserves much wider recognition! Bonner, unfortunately, continues to be neglected by literary critics and scholars. But this novel, published in 1878, while certainly of interest to the literary historican, will also appeal to lay readers interested in the South, American womanhood, and the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. What makes this novel of superior worth, however, is not only its historical value but also the high quality of the writing. Let me assure you, this is one very well-written book. Bonner combines a coming-of-age narrative with an early realism and generally avoids the sentimentalism of most popular fiction of the nineteenth century. Therefore, readers today will find it very accessible and a pleasant surprise! I taught this book in a college course and my students unanimously enjoyed it and wondered why they had never heard of Sherwood Bonner before.

Like Unto Like challenges many of our stereotpyes about Southern women as passive, dainty belles. Blythe, the heroine, is a very thoughtful, independent-minded young woman, so much so that she is eager to welcome the Northern soldiers stationed in her Southern small town (Yariba) after the Civil War. Much to the chagrin of all around her, she initiates a reconciliation between North and South, only to discover how complex a relationship she has to her family and region. In her love affair with a Northern officer, she confronts her feelings about love, politics, race, the legacy of the war, and, ultimately, her own independence.

The main interest of the book derives from its insider's view of what it felt like to live in the conquered South after the war. But its real charm derives from its heroine, who reminds me very much of Jo in Little Women. Bonner writes of her, using her characteristically ironic tone: "Perhaps if Blythe had been more popular among the young people she would have absorbed herself more happily in the usual interests of a girl in her father's home; but she had never been a favorite. She was called literary. This was an unfortunate adjective in Yariba, and set one rather apart from one's fellows, like an affliction in the family." This, of course, is what endears her to the narrator, and to us. Blythe is different and embraces her difference. But as she grows up and learns to reconcile herself with her community, she struggles to understand her place in a nation that was so recently torn apart and is trying to heal. That this book offers no easy solutions to the dilemmas of its heroine and a nation emerging from Reconstruction is a testament to its excellence.