- Paperback: 401 pages
- Publisher: Signet Book; Reprint edition (May 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0451211847
- ISBN-13: 978-0451211842
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 9.7 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,373,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Sharyn McCrumb moves away from the tenuous commections her books have had with the crime fiction genre and declares this story to be a novel. For those of us who have read and loved her previous Appalachian mountain tales this is a good thing because she frees herself from those restrictions and writes what is essentially a ghost story set in the American Civil war.
We learn of the war in the mountains when friends and family fought each other and when it was difficult to know what side to fight on. We also follow the political ambitions of one character and the unusual love and partnership between two others. This is linked with the present day and the Civil war enactors who are raising old spirits and reopening old wounds.
THis is a meticulously researched and informative novel which does not let the background get in the way. This is a story of people trying to be the best people they can in a time of uncertainty and death ; sometimes they succeed and other times they don't. There is love and hatred mixed together with the need for survival and ambition but all the people are very real and their decisions believable. The ghost element is convincing and necessary and although the ending seems a little contrived (one character seems to be introduced purely to resolve the situation) it is believable in the spirit of the story.
I recommend this as a good and intelligent read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
33 reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
War and Remembrance
20 July 2003
Format:Hardcover
Sharyn McCrumb's "Ghost Riders" is an account of the Civil War that is usually left out of the movies and the epic sagas of the war. This is the war in the southern mountains, where the conflict was personal, the atrocities were shocking, and the resentments lasted for generations.
Using the device of magic realism in a style reminiscent of Garcia Marquez or of Nichols' "Milagro Beanfield War", McCrumb symbolizes the unresolved issues of the war with supernatural "Ghost Riders", restless spirits of dead soldiers who still ride the hills to remind the living that "wars are easier to start than they are to stop." The true stories of moutain governor Zeb Vance and woman soldier Malinda Blalock bring the past to life in memorable fashion, and with a fascinating twist: usually in war novels, the women tell of the sacrifices made by civilians on the home front, while the male characters describe what it was like to be shot at and suffer hardships in the wilderness. In "Ghost Riders" it is the other way around! Union bushwhacker Malinda is out hiding in caves and seeing combat, while Zeb is in the governor's mansion, enduring the privations of the war at home.
"Ghost Riders" is an enthralling story, but its message and the evocative writing are the elements that make it not just a war story but a literary achievement.
Using the device of magic realism in a style reminiscent of Garcia Marquez or of Nichols' "Milagro Beanfield War", McCrumb symbolizes the unresolved issues of the war with supernatural "Ghost Riders", restless spirits of dead soldiers who still ride the hills to remind the living that "wars are easier to start than they are to stop." The true stories of moutain governor Zeb Vance and woman soldier Malinda Blalock bring the past to life in memorable fashion, and with a fascinating twist: usually in war novels, the women tell of the sacrifices made by civilians on the home front, while the male characters describe what it was like to be shot at and suffer hardships in the wilderness. In "Ghost Riders" it is the other way around! Union bushwhacker Malinda is out hiding in caves and seeing combat, while Zeb is in the governor's mansion, enduring the privations of the war at home.
"Ghost Riders" is an enthralling story, but its message and the evocative writing are the elements that make it not just a war story but a literary achievement.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Another McCrumb success!
17 Sep 2003
Format:Hardcover
With each book in the Appalachian folk series, McCrumb has moved closer and closer to history and has integrated more and more characters with the Sight, as well as the object of their Sightings. In my opinion, Rosewood Casket was a flawless balance, with each character rendered three-dimensionally and the supernatural touches deft and light. Frankie Silver and Songcatcher were close.
I wouldn't miss anything by McCrumb, but here I get the feeling she was pushing herself to a new level and at the same time covering some of the same ground. Because she sets the scene in the same place as earlier novels, we meet the old familiar characters, such as Nora Bonesteel and Spencer Arrowood. In Ghost Riders they make cameo appearances, almost dropping in to say hello to their old friends, the readers.
And the Ghost Riders are not at all subtle. They're seen by those who have the Sight and by those who are close to dying. I didn't get a sense that they were dangerous or even particularly scary. Nora Bonesteel's visions were tame compared to what went before.
And, for the first time in McCrumb's books, the historical scenes become more vivid than the present. We get a sense of the complexity of the Civil War and the ironies of who fought where.
McCrumb delivers another success -- well worth picking up and reading, though not quite as deep, and definitely not as lyrical as some of its predecessors. And I am already awaiting the author's next book...will she continue with the ballads or give us another chapter of the McPhersons?
Either way, I'm ready!
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
More mountain magic
25 Aug 2003
Format:Hardcover
Sharyn McCrumb's latest Ballad novel, "Ghost Riders," introduces several Civil War-era spirits who aren't quite ready to give up the fight. The story links historical unrest of the region with the lives of modern-day mountain settlers. As usual with McCrumb's work, the book contains a great deal of well-researched local mountain history delivered in a strong and interesting narrative.
The book incorporates real historical figures such as former North Carolina Gov. Zebulon Vance and the discorporate spirits of the "ghost riders" of the title. The Civil War comes alive in both not only its inglorious past but in its modern reenactment by thousands of hobbyist historians.
McCrumb's ancestors settled in the Smoky Mountains in the 1790s and her great-grandfathers were among the region's early circuit preachers. McCrumb still has that "preachering" in her blood, though her sermons are delivered with wit, charm, and great doses of delight.
Though her themes are broad in scope, the reader happily travels several different trails and time lines to end up in one location. From the slopes of Grandfather Mountain to the summer home of a misplaced Floridian, McCrumb paints a true picture of an Appalachian mountain region that has never had a single identity but rather harbores a large collection of individual identities.
Unlike many writers who find a winning groove, McCrumb has consistently improved as a writer over her career and continues to challenge herself with intense research and complex plots. Also unlike some writers who manage to "improve," she doesn't outwrite the patience of her readers, remembering from her Appalachian roots that first and foremost a storyteller is obligated to tell a story. "Ghost Riders" may be the best book yet among her litany of successes.
The book incorporates real historical figures such as former North Carolina Gov. Zebulon Vance and the discorporate spirits of the "ghost riders" of the title. The Civil War comes alive in both not only its inglorious past but in its modern reenactment by thousands of hobbyist historians.
McCrumb's ancestors settled in the Smoky Mountains in the 1790s and her great-grandfathers were among the region's early circuit preachers. McCrumb still has that "preachering" in her blood, though her sermons are delivered with wit, charm, and great doses of delight.
Though her themes are broad in scope, the reader happily travels several different trails and time lines to end up in one location. From the slopes of Grandfather Mountain to the summer home of a misplaced Floridian, McCrumb paints a true picture of an Appalachian mountain region that has never had a single identity but rather harbores a large collection of individual identities.
Unlike many writers who find a winning groove, McCrumb has consistently improved as a writer over her career and continues to challenge herself with intense research and complex plots. Also unlike some writers who manage to "improve," she doesn't outwrite the patience of her readers, remembering from her Appalachian roots that first and foremost a storyteller is obligated to tell a story. "Ghost Riders" may be the best book yet among her litany of successes.
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