How to Dodge a Cannonball: A Novel

Anders is a hapless white teen volunteering as a flag twirler for the U.S. Civil War’s Union Army. He’s doing this to dodge his abusive mother. Then, he dodges one deadly battle, playing dead in the mud and escaping to join an all-Black squad of soldiers. He claims to be an octoroon: one-eighth Black. Perhaps he’s more lucky than hapless—he keeps finding ways to survive.

Full of characters, race swapping, gender swapping, writing plays within the novel, and engaging in other slapstick spy absurdities, Dayle’s satirical comedy How to Dodge a Cannonball would make Shakespeare himself unsure where to look.

With a great concept and title, the execution disappoints. Stylistically, this novel fails at achieving a language believable to the time. Worse, no single character has a distinct voice. The author’s voice—that generally comes across as trying to be clever—invades each line. There should be more action descriptions to break up all the dialogue that bleeds together.

Though the plot was losing me more and more the further I read, I have to say: it has a pretty good ending.