The Songcatcher by Sharyn McCrumb Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Songcatcher
Book Review: Haunting & Lyrical
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this one on my bookshelf for some time and just recently, in the mood for a good story, I picked this one up. I wish I hadn't finished it. It is a tale of a people that traveled from Scotland to the USA to the Tennessee/North Carolina mountains. This book travels back and forth from 1751 to present ~~ tracing the footsteps of a lineage and a haunting ballad that has been preserved in the family over the generations.
Lark McCourry is on her way home when her plane crashed in the mountains. She is haunted by the memory of a song that she had heard as a child, a song that was brought over to the States by her ancestor, Malcom McCourry, who was kidnapped as a child off the coasts of Scotland. He eventually became a lawyer in the States, fought in the Revolutionary War, raised a family, and headed off to the Wilderness Road to North Carolina, where he raised a second family. He passed the song onto his descendants, one of whom is Lark.
Lark is a famous folksinger on her way home to seeing her dad, with whom she has a rocky relationship with and is trapped in the plane that crashed. While waiting for help, she also asked for help in relocating this ballad to preserve it.
While the song travels over the years, McCrumb writes of people who lived in different times and their little stories become enmeshed with one another in a trickle of humanness and bits that make up the world today. Those ancestors of Lark's were all unique individuals who struggle to get ahead and still have a deep abiding love for their mountains and heritage.
It is a beautiful haunting story ~~ one to keep as a reminder that there are just some things that are worth preserving, a family song, a memory and family. It's a great book ~~ and one to cherish.
8-4-06
Book Review: Haunting, lyrical
Summary: 5 Stars
From the first page of this book Sharyn McCrumb gets her hooks into the reader and doesn't let you go. There are many reasons why I shouldn't have liked this book, and yet I did. Normally I won't read a book that has more than two or three viewpoint characters. This book had more than a dozen narrators, but such is McCrumb's talent that each character has a unique voice and point of view so you aren't jarred by the transitions.
There is no mystery in here per se, though the book is shelved in the mystery section. And the action switches between past and present, tracing one family through the generations while events in the present unfold over the course of a few days.
The real star of this book is the Appalachin setting, which McCrumb writes about lovingly but without sentimentality. Every time I read one of her books I feel as if I had spent that time in her beloved mountains, meeting some of the wonderful and quirky characters who fill her stories.
A great read. It's a treat to watch how McCrumb continues to grow as a writer in each of her books.
Book Review: I must agree with the Mountain Magic!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading this book I had a very strong feeling to write a review with hopes to Capture everyone out there who is drawn to intuition and also those skeptics. This was a very moving story for myself and I truly believe for those people who have a curiosity, a calling, feeling or intution, you will pick this book up for the blessing of it. McCrumb takes you through two and a half centuries of a famious singer, Lark McCourry's generation, bring you to a point of understanding her relationship with her father. One chapter is geared to the twentieth century Lark McCourry's life and the next chapter takes you back to her ancestors lives, weaving the story together all along the way. It was nearly impossible to put the book down at times.
I was actually drawn to this book in my local town library while looking for a good fiction to take along on a 4 day trip from Maine to Greensboro North Carolina (HOW COINCIDENTAL IS THAT!). I picked it up twice but decided against the choice and took two others instead. After arriving home I still had a very strong intuition to go back to the library for "The Songcatcher" which I'm extremely grateful for doing! It is a must read for any historical fiction lover. I will definately try more of Sharyn McCrumb's fiction.
Book Review: Interesting Structure and Substance
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the years I've probably read everything Sharyn McCrumb has written, including her short story collection FOGGY MT. BREAKDOWN.
In my estimation, THE SONGCATCHER eclipses all her other work and that's saying a lot. Not only is she a master wordsmith but the more than interesting structure of her novel is admirable, to say the least.
Not too many writers can combine such different time periods and do it as well as she does without resorting to the standard flashback, which I find annoying and awkward in many novels. McCrumb is able to go back and forth between the centuries without putting the reader off track.
All of McCrumb's novels are enjoyable but THE SONGCATCHER still tops my list.
Book Review: Intriguing Characters
Summary: 4 Stars
A book with a folksong as hero? I liked the idea and soon was engrossed in McCrumb's world and intriguing characters.
The novel centers around a contemporary singer's search for a song heard years earlier at a relative's funeral. The story is told by a number of viewpoints which vary from past to present, a technique which might be distracting were not the various characters so interesting.
Chief among them is Malcolm McCourry, who is kidnapped as a child from his home on the Scottish island of Islay, becomes a lawyer in New Jersey, then, in his middle years, abandons wife, children and profession to become a pioneer in the North Carolina wilderness where he builds a new life with a common-law child-bride.
Malcolm's descendant, Linda Walker, who has re-named herself Lark McCourry and honed a career as a folksinger, is the one who seeks his song and provides the modern storyline. While returning home to the mountains to see her ailing father, her plane crashes and she uses her cell phone to contact 911. She talks the dispatcher into joining the hunt for the song and he complies as a means to occupy her mind during the rescue effort.
Based in part on McCrumb's own ancestors (Malcolm McCourry, for one), the novel combines elements of genealogy, history, mountain lore, ghosts, mystery and, of course, music. In fact, the song at the crux of the whole is actually an original composed by the author.
I have to confess this is the first of McCrumb's Ballad series I've read. But, it won't be the last.