Riveting ... Weisberg reassembles the story with the clear determination to treat both sides equally, and without leering ... She cloaks the jagged facts of the case in the soft trappings of their social backdrop to soften their impact. Nevertheless, sharp edges pierce the velvet veil ... By letting public and private records reanimate this vivid chapter of the past, Weisberg tells a story that fiction could not touch.
A case from the 1860s that has all the elements of a soap opera—powerful families, a tearful confession, adultery, abortion and the fate of two innocent little girls ... The author had no access to the unfiltered voices of the main actors in this family saga, and she has struggled to bring them to life ... Has more than its share of words like 'probably,' 'perhaps,' 'likely' and 'undoubtedly' ... When...contextual passages are linked to the main narrative, they are successful. Less successful, however, are the paragraphs into which the author crams an overview of national events ... Nevertheless, Strong Passions gives us insights into a snobbish society.
Details anchor the story in its era, but without much access to diaries, journals, or letters, Weisberg tells her tale in unsatisfying hypotheticals ... Her attempt to weave the Civil War, the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution, and the 1868 impeachment of President Andrew Johnson into her protracted narrative proves to be 'more lightning bug than lightning.'
Every character feels alive; many involved believed the case could decide not just the fate of one family but the fate of marriage itself. This sense of moral conviction makes the betrayals and redemptions within the Strong household all the more riveting.
Narratives about rich people behaving badly captivate readers, and this account of a lurid Civil War–era divorce should satisfy all parties ... Entertaining Victorian courtroom fireworks.
