The Ballad of Tom Dooley
A Ballad Novel
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3.9 • 66 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The Ballad of Tom Dooley is a literary triumph—what began as a fictional re-telling of the historical account of one of the most famous mountain ballads of all time became an astonishing revelation of the real culprit responsible for the murder of Laura Foster
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley…The folk song, made famous by the Kingston Trio, recounts a tragedy in the North Carolina mountains after the Civil War. Laura Foster, a simple country girl, was murdered and her lover Tom Dula was hanged for the crime. The sensational elements in the case attracted national attention: a man and his beautiful, married lover accused of murdering the other-woman; the former governor of North Carolina spearheading the defense; and a noble gesture from the prisoner on the eve of his execution, saving the woman he really loved.
With the help of historians, lawyers, and researchers, Sharyn McCrumb visited the actual sites, studied the legal evidence, and uncovered a missing piece of the story that will shock those who think they already know what happened—and may also bring belated justice to an innocent man. What seemed at first to be a sordid tale of adultery and betrayal was transformed by the new discoveries into an Appalachian Wuthering Heights. Tom Dula and Ann Melton had a profound romance spoiled by the machinations of their servant, Pauline Foster.
Bringing to life the star-crossed lovers of this mountain tragedy, Sharyn McCrumb gifts understanding and compassion to her compelling tales of Appalachia, and solidifies her status as one of today's great Southern writers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her latest "Ballad Novel," McCrumb (The Devil Amongst the Lawyers) delves into the history of the song made popular by the Kingston Trio. It's 1866 and no one in the mountains of North Carolina has been left unscarred by the Civil War. This includes the scores of walking wounded Rebel soldiers back from the war, but also the women they left behind, like Pauline Foster, whose encounters with soldiers and drifters have left her with a death sentence in the form of syphilis, a disease that figures prominently among the story's players. Bitter and envious of her beautiful cousin Ann Melton, Pauline nevertheless takes a job as Ann's housemaid while undergoing treatment nearby. Pauline sees patterns and understands connections that no one else sees, and she manufactures drama for her own ends with tragic results. She is soon intimately involved in the romantic and sexual entanglements of Ann; Ann's husband, James, who Ann married for stability; Ann's lover Tom Dula, her passion from the time they were children; and the women's other cousin, Laura Foster, whose trysts with Tom lead to her murder. Narrated by Pauline and by Zebulon Vance, the former Confederate governor who defended Tom Dula in court, McCrumb's tale is impeccably researched. At times the deliberate accounting of facts and biography does more to show off that research than it does to advance the story, but McCrumb's novel casts light on the often bleak context surrounding characters who have become legend.
Customer Reviews
Not her best, but a good read
McCrumb takes on the Appalachian tragedy of Tom Dula. Problem, though, is that she sticks too close to the documented evidence and the tale feels disjointed and missing parts. There's long sections of Pauline and Ann talking, with Ann telling her cousin all about her long history with Tom -- we're being told, not shown, and the chat drags the tale down, as it's boring. McCrumb tries to make a case for Pauline setting up Laura Foster to be murdered by Ann in order to get revenge on Tom and Ann...but the motivation feels thin and lacking. Pauline might have been a sociopath, but that doesn't explain her involving someone who had nothing to do with Pauline's situation in the revenge plot. Worse, the sections narrated by Zebulon Vance just don't add anything to the tale. They're boring filler and only dragged me out of the tale whenever I started getting interested in Pauline. I would've loved to have seen Ann or Tom narrating, instead of a disinterested lawyer who doesn't even care enough about the story to witness his client's execution. Get this one from the library and pick up any of McCrumb's other books instead.
Great Story
I have always been a fan of Sharyn McCrumb's. "Ballad" novels and wondered why she never got around to the most famous ballad of all--Tom Dooley. It was worth the waiting for. Behind the murder we get to see life in impoverished North Carolina immediately after the Civil War. Not only was the area not wealthy to begin with, but many of it's young men never returned home or else returned changed from the brutality of that war. McCrumb is especially good at fleshing out the lives of the women who had to keep things going in the absence of their men. I'm sure many of the women were hardened and embittered by their experiences. We certainly see that in the novel's three main women characters. McCrumb's Pauline Foster is unforgettable (more than hardened.)
Great read!!!
This was a great book, especially if you like Appalachian history. The characters are real. Pauline Foster is shocking. I highly recommend this book..