Ghost Riders

Rating:
Summary: Spencer Arrowood is superfluous
Review: McCrumb's premise in GHOST RIDERS is that the Civil War in Appalachia never did end. In her author's note she compares it to the war in Bosnia. In order to dramatize this notion, McCrumb uses modern-day reenactors who attract the ghosts of the Civil War soldiers who died in the mountains but were unable to pass into the next world.
I ordered this book a couple of months before it was published so obviously I enjoy McCrumb's work, but I had trouble getting into this one, mainly because of the multiple viewpoints and the shifting back and forth from modern Appalachia to the 1860s. Also, as she did with Frankie Silver, McCrumb tries to fictionalize historical personages, namely Malinda "Sam" Blalock and Governor Zebulon Baird Vance (Tom Dooley even makes a cameo appearance). Blalock fought alongside her husband in the Civil War and Baird was governor of North Carolina. When she flashes back in time, Baird is the protagonist as is Blalock. In modern day Appalachia we have Sheriff Arrowood and Nora Bonesteel, as well as Rattler.
Because of these shifting viewpoints the novel never does gather any momentum. In McCrumb's earlier work, Spensor Arrowood was the center who made McCrumb's psychic elements believable. In this one he's almost a superfluous character, as is Nora Bonesteel.

Rating:
Summary: Fun to read
Review: Ms McCrumb did an excellent job! Her book is entertaining, informative (regarding the history of the Appalachians), and her prose was a joy to read. Other reviewers didn't appreciate her style of going back and forth between the past and present characters, but I thought it worked well into the story, and gave the novel another dimension. After reading Ghost Riders, I plan to read Ms McCrumb's other books; as I really enjoyed her writing style.

Rating:
Summary: War and Remembrance
Review: Sharyn McCrumb chronicles the Civil War in the Southern mountains in Ghost Riders, an extraordinary tale of the war that was fought farm-to-farm, neighbor to neighbor in the part of the South that never wanted to leave the union.
As in her previous novels, The Ballad of Frankie Silver; The Rosewood Casket; She Walks These Hills; The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter; and The Songcatcher, the last of which The Atlanta Journal and Constitution hailed as "a ballad in itself to the Appalachians and the history of the people who have settled it," McCrumb celebrates her heritage and the land of the mountain South, crafting a story rich with tradition and the true character and spirit of that breathtaking region.
The novel's primary narrators are two historical figures: Malinda Blalock and Zebulon Vance.
Malinda Blalock a young mountain woman, whose husband was forced to enlist in the Confederate army, disguised herself as a boy and went with him. Discharged soon afterwards, it isn't long before the Confederacy wants Keith to take up arms again, and he does, only this time it is as a bushwacker for the Union. With not many people left to trust in a war that has pitted brother against brother, the couple heads for high ground to avoid the county militia, and soon become hard-ridng, deadly outlaws who avenge the deaths of their kin and neighbors at the hands of the Rebels.
North Carolina Governor Zebulon Baird Vance, a young lawyer from Asheville rose from humble beginnings on a frontier farm to serve in the U.S. Congress. Opposed to secession, Vance chose to remain loyal to his home state, but when the war broke out, he left Washington to become colonel of the 26th North Carolina, later becoming the Confederate governor of North Carolina.
In the present, the war resonates like a half-remembered nightmare. It lingers on in the Confederate battle flag flying in the yard of a trailer, in the church names "Union Baptist" and "Cumberland Presbyterian, " which are expressions of politics not faith, and in the minds of scholars and weekend warriors who continue to relive the war.
In Wake County, Tennessee the local Civil War re-enactors' group is planning a mock battle. Most of the local men who participate in the re-enactments prefer to fight on the Confederate side, and most of them are unaware that in all likelihood their mountain ancestors favored the Union. Rattler, an old mountain root doctor who has the Sight speaks for the present, fearing that the zeal of the re-enactors will awaken the restless spirits of the real soldiers still wandering the mountains.
Ghost Riders captures the horrors of a war that tore families apart, turned neighbors into enemies, and left the survivors bitter long after the fighting was officially over. It is a fascinating narrative, rich in historical detail that once again highlights Sharyn McCrumb's gift for story-telling and her love of the mountain South.

Rating:
Summary: More mountain magic
Review: Sharyn McCrumb's latest Ballad novel, "Ghost Riders," introduces several Civil War-era spirits who aren't quite ready to give up the fight. The story links historical unrest of the region with the lives of modern-day mountain settlers. As usual with McCrumb's work, the book contains a great deal of well-researched local mountain history delivered in a strong and interesting narrative.
The book incorporates real historical figures such as former North Carolina Gov. Zebulon Vance and the discorporate spirits of the "ghost riders" of the title. The Civil War comes alive in both not only its inglorious past but in its modern reenactment by thousands of hobbyist historians.
McCrumb's ancestors settled in the Smoky Mountains in the 1790s and her great-grandfathers were among the region's early circuit preachers. McCrumb still has that "preachering" in her blood, though her sermons are delivered with wit, charm, and great doses of delight.
Though her themes are broad in scope, the reader happily travels several different trails and time lines to end up in one location. From the slopes of Grandfather Mountain to the summer home of a misplaced Floridian, McCrumb paints a true picture of an Appalachian mountain region that has never had a single identity but rather harbores a large collection of individual identities.
Unlike many writers who find a winning groove, McCrumb has consistently improved as a writer over her career and continues to challenge herself with intense research and complex plots. Also unlike some writers who manage to "improve," she doesn't outwrite the patience of her readers, remembering from her Appalachian roots that first and foremost a storyteller is obligated to tell a story. "Ghost Riders" may be the best book yet among her litany of successes.