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cnricochet's review
2.0
FIRST-READS REVIEW
This was my first Sharyn McCrumb novel, and it was a decent read with some intriguing story lines and gentle prose, but I have to be honest and say I don't feel too compelled to read any more McCrumb books.
The book did well to accomplish McCrumb's self-proclaimed goal of "making a point about cultural issues that concern me," (forward, Advanced Readers' Edition). I felt the same uneasiness and resentment that the local characters felt with the national journalists' biased reporting about mountain folk. Including the Sight as such an integral part of the story, however, probably did more harm than good in trying to dispel the idea that Appalachian people are fairy tale characters entrenched in myth and silly superstition.
As a novel, the book was a good read, but it had its weaknesses. There were too many characters and too many over-developed side stories. I believe McCrumb intended these to advance the main story line and provide context, but the side stories often spiraled out of control away from the main plot and became too much their own entities. What resulted was a decentralized novel, and to be honest, I became more interested in one of the side stories than the criminal trial.
The central conflict was also rather weak, and thus the climax and conclusion of the story were even more so. Again, I felt more connected to a side character and his struggles than I did to Carl Jennings and his quest to... prove the truth? Get ahead as a journalist? Be true to his roots? I can't quite decide what Carl wanted most, and so I didn't get the satisfaction of a good resolution to that quest.
Summary: McCrumb needed to trim the side stories and focus on the main plot for this to be the solid novel I think she intended to write. On the other hand, I did enjoy the side stories and characters, and she does have a pleasant written style. I actually would have liked to see a separate book or short story about the characters I was most interested in, but that would have been an entirely different novel far away from McCrumb's goal of illuminating Appalachian culture.
This was my first Sharyn McCrumb novel, and it was a decent read with some intriguing story lines and gentle prose, but I have to be honest and say I don't feel too compelled to read any more McCrumb books.
The book did well to accomplish McCrumb's self-proclaimed goal of "making a point about cultural issues that concern me," (forward, Advanced Readers' Edition). I felt the same uneasiness and resentment that the local characters felt with the national journalists' biased reporting about mountain folk. Including the Sight as such an integral part of the story, however, probably did more harm than good in trying to dispel the idea that Appalachian people are fairy tale characters entrenched in myth and silly superstition.
As a novel, the book was a good read, but it had its weaknesses. There were too many characters and too many over-developed side stories. I believe McCrumb intended these to advance the main story line and provide context, but the side stories often spiraled out of control away from the main plot and became too much their own entities. What resulted was a decentralized novel, and to be honest, I became more interested in one of the side stories than the criminal trial.
The central conflict was also rather weak, and thus the climax and conclusion of the story were even more so. Again, I felt more connected to a side character and his struggles than I did to Carl Jennings and his quest to... prove the truth? Get ahead as a journalist? Be true to his roots? I can't quite decide what Carl wanted most, and so I didn't get the satisfaction of a good resolution to that quest.
Summary: McCrumb needed to trim the side stories and focus on the main plot for this to be the solid novel I think she intended to write. On the other hand, I did enjoy the side stories and characters, and she does have a pleasant written style. I actually would have liked to see a separate book or short story about the characters I was most interested in, but that would have been an entirely different novel far away from McCrumb's goal of illuminating Appalachian culture.
carolsnotebook's review
3.0
This was a good story, although not the story I expected. In 1935, a young school teacher in the remote mountains of Virginia is charged with murdering her father. Because she is beautiful and the story sensational, national reporters are sent to cover the trial, and the young woman’s brother seeks exclusive rights to her story, with the money supposedly going to her defense fund.
The national reporters don’t find the hillbillies living in run down shacks that they expect, so they fabricate them. Carl Jenkins, a recent college-graduate, is a reporter from Tennessee, who realizes that the star reporters are not actually reporting the turth, more perpetuating myths about Appalachian life.
Truth is the main issue here. Reporters shape what they know and see into a story their audience wants. But what is the truth? Is there a truth?
We really get to know more about the reporters than the town’s inhabitants. We learn their backstories, their view on the mountain people and how little they value the townsfolk. When what they see doesn’t match up with what they want to see they make up their own story, aware that they can twist public opinion in whatever they want. Made me think about our media today. I’m sure they report the truth, eh?
Although we learn about Carl, a semi-local boy, and Nora Bonesteel, a recurring character in McCrumb’s Ballad novels makes an appearance, I really wanted to learn more about the people who live in the hills of Virginia, about heir lives and the environment, which is why the book was different than I expected. The novel really focuses on the trial and the media circus that surrounds it. It’s not as much about the land, the music and the people as I thought it would be. That being said, I do love McCrumb’s writing style, she has a way with words that I really connect with, that brings her characters and settings to life for me.
The national reporters don’t find the hillbillies living in run down shacks that they expect, so they fabricate them. Carl Jenkins, a recent college-graduate, is a reporter from Tennessee, who realizes that the star reporters are not actually reporting the turth, more perpetuating myths about Appalachian life.
Truth is the main issue here. Reporters shape what they know and see into a story their audience wants. But what is the truth? Is there a truth?
We really get to know more about the reporters than the town’s inhabitants. We learn their backstories, their view on the mountain people and how little they value the townsfolk. When what they see doesn’t match up with what they want to see they make up their own story, aware that they can twist public opinion in whatever they want. Made me think about our media today. I’m sure they report the truth, eh?
Although we learn about Carl, a semi-local boy, and Nora Bonesteel, a recurring character in McCrumb’s Ballad novels makes an appearance, I really wanted to learn more about the people who live in the hills of Virginia, about heir lives and the environment, which is why the book was different than I expected. The novel really focuses on the trial and the media circus that surrounds it. It’s not as much about the land, the music and the people as I thought it would be. That being said, I do love McCrumb’s writing style, she has a way with words that I really connect with, that brings her characters and settings to life for me.
mimima's review
3.0
I like seeing the recurring character, Nora Bonesteel, as a young child. A pleasant read.
queerbillydeluxe's review
5.0
I could have rated this before even reading it. Sharyn McCrumb has never once disappointed me; every book is beautiful. As much as I've liked the books I've read lately, this is the first one in a while that I did not want to put down until I was done. Read everything she's written. Seriously.
rainweaver13's review
5.0
I love all of McCrumb's "Ballad" novels, and this one is no different. Along the way of telling a fascinating story about a trial in the early 1900s of a woman accused of murdering her father, McCrumb paints an infuriating and far too accurate picture of how bad journalism and the legal system often work.
As a retired journalist, I found her insights painful but all too often so very accurate. Plus, good story.
As a retired journalist, I found her insights painful but all too often so very accurate. Plus, good story.
djrmelvin's review
2.0
So little story, so much cynicism! A young woman in a small 1930's mining town is accused of murdering her father, and reporters from "the big city" descend to cover the story, biased and condescending to the last letter. Even the reporter who comes from the mountains attempts to use something other than hard work to get to the bottom of the story. Are there no good journalists in the mind of Sharon McCrumb? Back stories are given for most of the major characters, back stories that do nothing to deepen the shallow plot. Nora Bonesteel, the ancient mountain seer from McCrumb's (so much better than this book) Ballad Series gets her chronological introduction in this book, and she, along with the setting, are the only thing that kept me reading. This might be McCrumb's weakest attempt at story telling.
librarydino's review
5.0
I could have rated this before even reading it. Sharyn McCrumb has never once disappointed me; every book is beautiful. As much as I've liked the books I've read lately, this is the first one in a while that I did not want to put down until I was done. Read everything she's written. Seriously.
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