The Ballad of Frankie Silver

"Frankie Silver" was the first McCrumb book I read and, like so many other reviewers, I was hooked. While I believe that all of her ballad books deserve five-star ratings, I can see how some people, especially younger readers, might not like them. I will not write a "book report." Instead I will offer ideas about why her stories do not appeal to certain readers: 1) Her exquisite storytelling ability is historically accurate. If the times are set in the early 1830's, she is not going to write in a contemporary style. She captures the dialogue of the era based on written documents of the time. Therefore, her dialogue sounds stilted or dry at times. 2) Ms. McCrumb is a baby boomer. One complaint was that the stories were about people in an older generation. Well, to that I suggest our young reader return to Harry Potter and wait for puberty to pass. McCrumb is a middle-aged adult who writes for adults. 3)When history is viewed as dry and boring, (I fault public school education for teaching history as a dry and boring subject) McCrumb's ballad books will also seem dry and boring. When history is viewed as the true tale of humanity, there is much to learn from her books. Or, to quote George Santayana: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." We do not know where we are going if we do not know where we have been.4) McCrumb's ballad series have overall themes, in other words, a big picture. For example, in the "Ballad of Frankie Silver" the theme is the inequality of justice for poor people. She even explains the theme in the Author Notes at the end of the book. If one has trouble with big pictures, or synthesizing information, he or she will be disappointed with McCrumb's ballad series. And finally, 5) McCrumb's ballad series is written for thinkers. In the age of fast-paced computer technology, her ballad series books are slow by comparison. They reflect the pace of the times in which she writes. The above reasons probably explain why a lot of people don't like her ballad series books, but they are exactly why I love them. I especially respect the fact that McCrumb writes for herself. She is true to her own voice and heritage and writes with honesty. She does not seem to have a need to write for false mass appeal to make a buck. She keeps her integrity as a writer and still manages to be on the Best Seller list. In other words, she hasn't sold out. I don't believe many popular authors can make the same claim.

I do so much like Sharyn McCrumb's Appalachian so much better than her Elizabeth MacPherson novels, though I will not stop reading the. But in the Appalachian series, she captures so much of the flavor of the area that they become books the reader cannot put down. She does not fail in this book. She particularly has the skill of combining three stories together, whether one be in the past and one the future, and in the end all of them coming together, thereby always making a cohesive, dramatic ending. The present-day story in this book is about an upcoming electrocution of Fate Harkryder for murder. The story of the future concerns Frankie Silver who brutally murdered her husband in 1832 (or did she?). But wait, there is then a third murder in the book. What do the three have in common? That is the mystery in this book. As another review put it, this book all encompasses the story of the Celts versus the English - from the past down to even the present. It still makes for good reading.

The Ballad of Frankie Silver is two stories, one true and one fiction, woven together through mystery and similarity. The one story is the story of Sheriff Spencer Arrowood and someone whom he arrested long ago who is due to be executed. While he is stuck at home recuperating from a bullet wound, he starts thinking about the trial of Frankie Silver and starts researching the case. He believes that there is some similarity between the Frankie Silver case and the case of the man about to be executed. The second story goes back in time to the true story of Frankie Silver. It's told mostly from the point of view of a clerk of the court at the time of the Silver trial. What I found the most interesting was the way that Sharyn McCrumb took a true story, added her own imagination in the role of the court clerk and wove it into a more modern setting. The legalities of both of the cases were interesting and seemed to be well researched. I thought the book was captivating.

While I will admit that the Ballad of Frankie Silver is not on the level with her three stellar Appalachian-region novels, Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, She Walks These Hills, and the Rosewood Casket, I am at a loss with the numerous negative reviews this book has received.Yes, the switching back and forth between three different time periods was problematic. Yes, the outcome was somewhat predictable, but lets not throw the proverbial bay out with the bathwater. The characters in this book are three dimensional, the premise is gripping the the plot is suspensful. I simply could not put the book down. And, in a way this book moves beyond the others in the ballad series in that this is an actual work of historic fiction. The principle charcters in the 19th century segement of the book were actually people. If you enjoyed the others books in the ballad series, you will enjoy this one. Indeed, I found the book a great way to spend a couple of evenings.

Sharyn McCrumbe's new book is The Ballad of Frankie Silver, the story of the first woman to be hanged in North Carolina. McCrumb's ballad books are based on the early English ballad. They have a sad tone and often tell of an historic event--star crossed lovers are a staple. Frankie Silver was hung in 1832 for the murder and subsequent dismemberment of her young husband, whose body parts were buried in three different graves, each marked with a blank headstone.Hanging Frankie is no easy job. She weighs less than 100 pounds, and the hangman has to practice to get it right. Modern readers will be horrified by the errors in the trial, the attitude of some of the lawyers, and the politicking which leaves Frankie as the sole defendant. Sound familiar? The carnival attitude at the public hanging is, of course, disgraceful. It reminds one of the behavior outside our prisons during executions.The Ballad of Frankie Silver owes a bit--quite a bit--to Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time. Like Tey, McCrumb has a lawman, Spenser Arrowood, who has been injured on the job and spends his convalescence researching an old murder.ButMcCrumb adds two other murders to the plot. When Arrowood was a young deputy sheriff, he arrested and helped convict Fate Harkryder for the brutal murder of a young man and the rape and murder of a young woman on the Appalachian trail. Now Harkryder, after twenty years on death row, is going to be executed. Arrowood is invited to the execution.A third murder takes place in the present time. It is the double murder of a couple on the Appalachian trail. This murder is kept from Arrowood until late in the novel. I won't tell any more of the plot--I don't want to be attacked by crazed readers.As McCrumb herself has written, a book which started out as a simple mystery turned into a book about money and class and the law. McCrumb notes, "As I delved deeper into the story, I began to think that the case was really about poor people as defendants and rich peopl! e as officers of the court, about Celt versus English values in developing America, about mountain people versus the "flatlander's" in any culture." In fact, The Ballad of Frankie Silver is about equal justice under the law, and "not that much has changed since she [Frankie] went to her death...164 years ago."Sharyn McCrumb can tell a story. She pulls the reader into the minds of her characters, and she keeps the tension steady from beginning to end. The Ballad of Frankie Silver will keep your interest, and the puzzles increase from one page to another. This book is a keeper--I can't wait to read it again.