"How to Dodge a Cannonball" is a 2025 novel by Jamaican-American writer Dennard Dayle, and is a black comedy set in the Civil War. It follows the wartime career of Anders, a teenage flag twirler that pretends to be black as he fights in an all-black regiment, and as he gets swept up not just in the war, but in a series of tangentially related conspiracies.

Several comparisons have been made to Catch-22, and Slaughterhouse Five is another obvious comparison. I myself was reminded of Candide, as our hapless and innocent protagonist is swept from one adventure to another. And since this is a book by a black writer writing in 2025, despite the Civil War setting, there are actually topical allusions to current events, with the Civil War era being mostly a backdrop. In fact, while the beginning of the book focuses on the typical blood and mud suffering common to Civil War narratives, the book is not merely a pastiche of what we all know from Ken Burns documentaries, but

i want to share with you
something of myself
but you are so delicate
and i don't know my own strength

an earthquake, a flood
your teeth fall out
bones crushed into powder
the sky sings every day
of the great mystery of truth

the breath is a refilling
the lifetime is a refilling

Being a true and honest transcript of my keynote of the same name at the 1st International Noder Symposium on Malarkey Studies

Int. Exhibition Hall. Day.

MUSIC: "Love Me Like You Do," by Ellie Goulding.

Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Erm. Oh wait. That bit's later. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Christ, this public speaking thing is