Playing Custer Reviewed in Forward Reviews by Camille-Yvette Welsch

  Camille-Yvette Welsch's review of Playing Custer appeared in Foreward Reviews on August 10, 2015; the following are excerpts. To read the complete review online, click here.

"With multiple players, diverse voices, and characters living over a century apart, Gerald Duff brings life to Custer’s last stand and the twenty-first century reenactors who relive it every summer...From Native Americans to former slaves to Custer’s own wife, Duff considers the broad spectrum of experience and ideology that came to a head on the Greasy Grass, as it was known to the Indians, aka Little Bighorn. This novel is rife with historical detail, rich characterization, and a sense of the grand impact a single day in history can have."

"In addition to the historical insight and the imagined personalities, Duff walks in the footsteps of Twain, with his understanding of the complexity and hypocrisy of military action, and side by side with Tony Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic), with his revelations about reenacting and the Civil War, adding new chapters to both.

For students of history as well as lovers of the novel, Duff delivers, piecing together historical record with the tenets of fiction—quick pacing, deft characterization, vivid scenes."

The complete review may also be downloaded as a PDF from the Foreward Reviews site by clicking here.