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A review by thesonorista
The Ballad of Tom Dooley: A Ballad Novel by Sharyn McCrumb
4.0
If you are a big fan of historical fiction...this novel may not be for you, but the afterword may.
McCrumb did some serious digging into the story behind the The Ballad of Tom Dooley, tracing it to a Civil War veteran, Tom Dula; and his married lover, Ann Melton. Melton's cousin, Laura Foster was murdered and Tom hangs for it. What McCrumb uncovers will interest history buffs, but if you're not a fan of reading unlikable narrators, this probably isn't for you. Despite that, I found this to be an entertaining story. McCrumb tells the story from the point of view of a minor witness in the trial, Ann Melton's cousin, Pauline Foster. McCrumb makes Pauline the catalyst for the actions, and a complete psychopath, possibly sociopath. Honestly, I still liked her better than Rachel from Girl on the Train; at least Pauline was openly manipulative and unfeeling.
While I didn't really get the Wuthering Heights thing (Tom was certainly no Heathcliff), I did really enjoy the counterpoint of Tom's defense attorney, Zebulon Vance. While his sections could be repetitive, the more he revealed about himself, the more he showed himself to be more like Pauline Foster than he would ever like to admit. It was a nice little twist.
This book could have easily been called American Psycho if the name hadn't already been taken.
McCrumb did some serious digging into the story behind the The Ballad of Tom Dooley, tracing it to a Civil War veteran, Tom Dula; and his married lover, Ann Melton. Melton's cousin, Laura Foster was murdered and Tom hangs for it. What McCrumb uncovers will interest history buffs, but if you're not a fan of reading unlikable narrators, this probably isn't for you. Despite that, I found this to be an entertaining story. McCrumb tells the story from the point of view of a minor witness in the trial, Ann Melton's cousin, Pauline Foster. McCrumb makes Pauline the catalyst for the actions, and a complete psychopath, possibly sociopath. Honestly, I still liked her better than Rachel from Girl on the Train; at least Pauline was openly manipulative and unfeeling.
While I didn't really get the Wuthering Heights thing (Tom was certainly no Heathcliff), I did really enjoy the counterpoint of Tom's defense attorney, Zebulon Vance. While his sections could be repetitive, the more he revealed about himself, the more he showed himself to be more like Pauline Foster than he would ever like to admit. It was a nice little twist.
This book could have easily been called American Psycho if the name hadn't already been taken.