The Songcatcher
A Ballad Novel

Sharyn McCrumb

Lark McCourry is a famous folksinger in search of a ballad. While on a road trip, she receives a call to return to western North Carolina to see her dying father. She and the Judge have been at odds for most of her life, but she rearranges her tour to fly back to see her father.

Nora Bonesteel is one of the Judge's contemporaries. She is the local seer, able to predict bits and pieces of the future, usually deaths. Nora is informed of Lark's search. She's not sure she can help. Even so, she is compelled to try after an unusual visitor stops by her home. She knows this song may help Lark in her current situation.

Malcolm McCourry was born in Scotland in the 1740's. When he is 8 years old, he is pressed into a ship's crew. His life changes irrevecably. He not only never returns to his home, he finally ends up in the American colonies. There he starts another lifestyle from the one in Scotland or the one he spent aboard ship.

This is an enjoyable novel that follows the Judge's final days, Lark's trip home, and Malcolm's life until his death. It goes back and forth between the present and the past. The common thread is the ballad Malcolm carries from his home and Lark tries to grasp. This is not one of McCrumb's mysteries, but a study of her roots and people she knows. The writing is average, readable. The characters don't come to life.

There is a side story as well of a middle aged man trying to find himself, having never shaken off the memories of the Viet Nam war. Although it is tied in to the main story with a connecting thread, it doesn't add to the novel overall. It seems to be an afterthought to fill out a novella length story into a novel.