Ghost Riders (review)

shunned by a society terrified of scars and imperfection, this collection offers not simply science in your back yard, but treasure. —Steve Rhodes VCI, m ^*Mz~ Sharyn McCrumb. Ghost Riders. New York: E P Dutton, 2003. 336 pages. Hardcover. $24.95. Rank Stranger as sungby Ollie Gilbert, Mountain View, Arkansas, on February 9, 1970. Cat. #941 (MFH #559). 07 Jan. 04. www.smsu.edu/folksong/ maxhunter/0941. J wandered again to my home in th' mountain Where youths early dawn, I was happy an'free I lookedfor myfriends but never couldfind them Ifound they were all rank strangers to me Everybody I met, seemed to be a rank stranger No Mother or Dad, not afriend could I see They knew not my name, I knew not theirfaces Ifound they were all rank strangers to me 75 Sharyn McCrumb's latest ballad novel, Ghost Riders, is a rousing ghost story. It has all the elements readers have come to expect from McCrumb's novels—involved and intertwined plots that keep the reader's attention on several levels, memorable characters, and humor in unexpected spots. Ghost Riders was originally titled Rank Stranger, but New York editors didn't know or understand that ballad, so they changed it. However, after hearing McCrumb and Jack Hinshelwood singing and talking about the song, I can't think of it as anything else. It's an exact match to the story—the two young lovers fighting side by side, alienated by the side they had chosen in the Civil War. So, we have Ghost Riders, which I suppose is familiar to a wider audience, but definitely changes the way the novel is perceived. Even without the ballad, the opening quotation by Galway Kinnell sets the tone of the entire book: "Is there a mechanism of death that so mutilates existence no one gets over it not even the dead?" The reader knows the supernatural is at work. But there is more here than just a ghost story— this is an historical drama based on the lives of real people in the Civil War. The fictional characters are pieced together, as McCrumb says, in a "quilt of words" with the real characters. Stitched together are Civil War re-enactors; those ofus who know re-enactors will instantly recognize the knowledgeable "sunshine soldiers/sunshine patriots," some of whom change sides with the change of a uniform. Portraying themwithhumor but without condescension, McCrumb seems to know them quite well. The past parallels the present in McCrumb's familiar style: two or more story lines running concurrently. In the present we find Rattler, a part-Cherokee recluse who knows nature and has the Sight. While passing time with a group of re-enactors, a visitor to the camp stirs interest and conversation. When asked why he didn't speak to the stranger, Rattler replies, " 'Cause I don't hold with talking to dead people." We learn a bit more about Nora Bonesteel, an old favorite from previous novels, and why she never attends funerals or burials and only tends one grave. She and Rattler are both necessary to put the past to rest, and they do so with grace and style. Spencer Arrowood shows up too, so previous readers are right at home, but the novel may be read independently also. In the past, the major historical characters are Zebulon Baird Vance, Malinda "Sam" Blalock, and her husband, L. McKesson "Keith" Blalock. Vance is a born politician—part rounder and rascal, but always concerned with his people first. He served as the governor of North Carolina for the Confederacy, yet never forgot his mountain 76 roots. In his picture (yes, she gives us pictures of Zeb and "Sam") Vance is a ruggedly handsome man with deep-set eyes and a clean strongjaw. It is easily seen why he inspired such loyalty from men and women alike. I'd vote for him in a minute! Malinda (Sam) is one of the women who "Tied back their hair, men's clothing put on" and rode with their husbands while the cruel war was raging. InMalinda, McCrumb has found a fitting example ofthese women who generally aren't acknowledged inhistory. Malinda stares directly...