The Songcatcher by Sharyn McCrumb Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Songcatcher
Book Review: The Songcatcher
Summary: 5 Stars
In1751, ten-year-old Malcolm McCourry was kidnapped from his Scottish island to work on a sailing ship. Years later when he homesteated in the mountains of North Carolina he left his family two legacies; a folk song he learned on the ship and the family's Highland curse that no McCourry will ever love his first born best. The novel follows Malcolm's song and the curse from 1751 to the present and we watch the song, the family, and America itself change with the passing years. This novel is itself a ballad to all those who left one country and settled another, carrying their heritage in their hearts.Book Review: The Word Catcher: Is it a book or a ballad?
Summary: 5 Stars
Sharon McCrumb brings Celtic/Gaelic magic and mysticism to the pages of this book, a story very difficult to explain. Ghosts and genealogy and the mountain folks of the Carolina mountains, merge together in a melodious collage of vignettes, each chapter not flowing into the next, but eventually all merging together for a huge picture. McCrumb knows her craft and executes it beautifully in this Cosmic Possum of a tale, where I am visualizing Emmy Lou Harris melding into Enya, and somehow it just works. An unusually diverse and rather delicious mixture of characters, Nora Bridgewater, Sheriff Arrowood, a boy kidnapped from a Scottish Isle, a Country & Western Singer, a cantankerous old man, a Vietnam vet on a mission, a housekeeper/pseudo-daughter and lots and lots of dead folks. The missing main character/protagonist might right be the music? This is one of those books that should have come with a CD inside the front cover. Historical fiction? A mystery? Highly original, occasionally downright antisocial, still .... is it a ballad or a book? Read it and see.Book Review: Try the audio version to hear the song "Rowan Stave"
Summary: 4 Stars
Firstly, readers should know that this is NOT the book that the recent movie "Songcatcher" is based on. That's what I thought when I picked up the audio version, and boy was I confused for the first couple hours.Secondly, the audio version contains lovely sung versions of the pivotal song "The Rowan Stave", which is not a real vintage song but instead a facsimile created by the author and some musician friends. (It's available along with other period music from the book on CD.) However, it's so beautifully done that it is very convincing as a genuine 18th century folk ballad.
The audio version also includes an afterword by Sharyn McCrumb that explains that the story of Malcolm McQuarry is an actual history of her own distant relative coming to the Appalachians in the mid-1800s. It's such an incredible story that during the reading, I had dismissed it as somewhat fantastic, which shows you that truth is often stranger than fiction.
I had the priviledge of hearing this tape during a long drive through W. Virginia and Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. A perfect setting! Although somewhat overlong and possibly 2-3 too many characters and plot strings to be a real classic, it's still a "good read" and the music very haunting. A part of our history and cultural heritage that is much overlooked by those of us who live in other parts of the US. It definitely made me want to know more about this area and it's history, and I was sorry when it ended.