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A review by zena_ryder
My Old True Love by Sheila Kay Adams
5.0
This book is beautiful. The characters are well drawn and I love the writing and the story. The very end is not perfect, so I'd probably give it 4.9 stars if I could. ;) However, it's still one of my all time favourite books and I'm not sure exactly what is wrong with the ending, but it was somehow unsatisfying.
The setting of the novel is also interesting. It is set in the North Carolina mountains and the reader sees how irrelevant to most people the looming Civil War is. They are not slave holders (they are poor themselves, working hard to get by) and they feel far more loyalty to their mountains — and of course their families and local community — than they do to the abstract notion of the United States. And the Union side began the war with the goal of restoring the union, not fighting slavery.
I love Appalachian folk music, so this novel was also a treat because of that theme that runs through it. I envy these people their music, dancing and close knit families and communities. (I can do without the poverty, back-breaking work and random disease though.)
The setting of the novel is also interesting. It is set in the North Carolina mountains and the reader sees how irrelevant to most people the looming Civil War is. They are not slave holders (they are poor themselves, working hard to get by) and they feel far more loyalty to their mountains — and of course their families and local community — than they do to the abstract notion of the United States. And the Union side began the war with the goal of restoring the union, not fighting slavery.
I love Appalachian folk music, so this novel was also a treat because of that theme that runs through it. I envy these people their music, dancing and close knit families and communities. (I can do without the poverty, back-breaking work and random disease though.)