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Summary: Explores social issues in an 1831 event and its folklore.
Review: In The Ballad of Frankie Silver Sharyn McCrumb taps into the history and lore of a murder that took place in western North Carolina in 1831. The event gave rise to a ballad that surfaced in print in 1886 and an oral legend cycle first published in a newspaper article in 1903. Readers of the novel can explore this traditional background in a Tom Davenport video also entitled The Ballad of Frankie Silver, featuring furniture-worker Bobby McMillon, a Silver descendant and wonderful Appalachian storyteller. For a half century the folklore gave rise to a stream of newspaper articles and accounts in memoirs, folklore collections, and books like Muriel Sheppard's Cabins in the Laurel. In recent decades it has begotten more serious presentations, including this fictionalized retelling by McCrumb, another novel and three plays (all unpublished), historical accounts, two other videos, and a ballet by the composer Panaiotis performed at the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta by the Tanz Ensemble Cathy Sharp from Basel. McCrumb based her fictional account on careful research into documents about the murder and the social history of the region and the era. She does a commendable job of evoking the era, and, especially in the powerful execution scene, of imagining Frankie's experience. Like many currently using the story, she is drawn by the feminist issues embedded in it, the abuse that may have caused Frankie to murder her husband and the peculiar disadvantages all defendants and especially female ones suffered in American law courts of that period. McCrumb, however, probes deeper into the material, exploring the influence of cultural codes upon the events. In her interpretation, which is probably correct, the prejudices of the gentry and the family loyalty of Frankie and her back-country Scotch-Irish parents contributed to her fate. McCrumb highlights these themes by counterpointing Frankie's story with a modern case in which the same code complicates the investigation of a crime. The sensitivity with which McCrumb handles her regional story and issues implicit in it was proved by the warm reception she received at the Silver Family Reunion in July of 1997, when she gave a brilliant reading of a portion of her novel. In a curious paradox, the folklore of the murder, while the product of the local culture, explores not these social issues of the time and place but deeper existential ones, the mysteries of human character and human fate.
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Summary: Another comment...
Review: I loved this book. She managed to make the mean little town of Morganton come alive!
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Summary: Shayn McCrumb Brings Frankie Silver Back from the Gallows...
Review: The audiocassette is eerily excellent. When the author herself reads the novel in her haunting, Appalachian voice, chills will go up and down your spine! I have always been fascinated by the story of ol' Frankie, and I am delighted to have heard Sharyn McCrumb's approach to the tale...Spooky!
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Summary: A deep look into the past and paralells to the present
Review: I have known the Frankie Silver(Stewart) story for some time, but the detail of life during those times including the court process, the prison conditions, the struggle that everyday life had to be back then really struck me. Frankie was my great, great great aunt. Her brother Jackson was my great, great, great grandfather. He was a colorful person in his own right, also meeting a strange and untimely death. This book takes the reader to the scene, bathes them in it and makes them feel the pain and suffering all must have gone through. The modern story was an interesting mix and I found it to be entertaining.
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Summary: Not McCrumb's best but a very good read
Review: To my mind, this is the only one of the acclaimed Ballad Series that just doesn't hang together . A large part of McCrumb's appeal has always been her ability to effortlessly tell several stories at the same time. This is the first one of her books where I felt that the different stories detracted from each other. Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace has a very similar stort line and is a much more satisfying read.
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Summary: OUTSTANDING STORY TELLING
Review: This story was wonderful! Ms. McCrumb's writing and the way she tells the story one can actually see the events in person. I could feel the pain and suffering of Frankie. I sat and cry in some parts of this story. I would recommend all Ms. McCrumb books to anyone, young or old. I have all her books and I don't let them out of my sight. Can't wait for the next book out.
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Summary: Three mysteries in one for McCrumb fans.
Review: Sharyn McCrumb is first and foremost an elegant storyteller; secondly, she is a wonderful mystery writer. In her latest book, the nearly poetic prose of her earlier Appalachian series gives way to a cleaner, leaner style. The reader soon appreciates the necessity and McCrumbs capability as not one, but three mysteries taking place in three different time periods emerge. Surely another award-winner!
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Summary: I could not put it down!
Review: I only discovered Sharyn McCrumb,s work about a year ago. What a wonder I have been missing! I love her satires, including the Elizabeth MacPherson books, but her "Ballad" series has fascinated me since I first read "If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-o". I read her explanation of how she was able to write two such different forms, and I am only too glad that she can. The her latest book, "The Ballad of Frankie Silver", is by far her best. It is a masterful blend of real history, modern mystery, and social commentary. As an old history major, I appreciate the degree to which she has accurately woven the historical component into this wonderful book. Simply, I could not put it down!
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Summary: A book in search of an editor
Review: The Ballad of Frankie Silver was due out in the fall of 1997, and I suspect that McCrumb found herself with much too much material to handle. The story of Frankie Silver is told splendidly; the reader comes to love the tiny young woman. However, the other pieces of the storyline get slighted. The book desparately needed a solid copyediting; paragraphs and ideas are repeated within pages of each other; details are contradicted or ignored. To blend the Harkryder and Silver stories, McCrumb should have been much more even handed with her material. Make no mistake, parts of this book represent McCrumb at her finest; however, she and her publisher owed to her readers to pay more attention to detail.
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Summary: Demonstrates Complete Understanding of Appalachian Life
Review: A beautiful piece of modern literature which captures the essence and the mystery of the Appalachian area. Surely one of her better works, this novel allows history to come alive in a provacative and thrilling manner. She reveals her love and appreciation of the Appalachians in her alliteration, personification, and narrative structure. This is truly her best work and I can only hope that her next novel can compare.
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