Katie Wyler began her trek through the Appalachian Mountains in 1779, escaping from the Shawnee warriors who had abducted her and killed most of her family. Now, nearly 250 years later, she’s still wandering, showing herself mainly to Nora Bonesteel, the wise woman who lives at the top of the mountain and has second sight. Katie‘s trek creates the backdrop of this book, which is about journeys of love, life, nature, justice, and retribution.
Hiram Sorley, given the unfortunate nickname Harm, has just escaped from prison, where he was serving a life sentence for a murder he does not remember. He has Karsakov syndrome, a memory disorder that is caused by alcohol poisoning, no doubt from the moonshine he consumed in his mountain home. Harm has no fear of being caught because doesn’t realize he’s an escapee. He thinks he has been out hunting or logging, and is eagerly returning home to his beloved wife, Rita, and their daughter Charlotte.
One thing Harm is sure is that the Lord will take care of him, and the Lord oddly does provide Dinty Moore stew, a can opener, peanut butter, and even a backpack to carry it all in. In less biblical reality, these are all courtesy of Jeremy Cobb, who is also walking the hills tracing Katie steps as part of his doctoral work. He’s a better philosopher than hiker and is not so good at paying attention to regional experts, so he heads out with a pack far heavier than he can carry. To lighten his load, bit by bit he throws things along the path. Harm, following behind him, picks them up.
Jeremy doth provideth.
Author Sharyn McCrumb weaves together multiple stories of love—real, flawed, life-affirming, and dangerous—through the centuries. There’s Katie returning to a disastrous reunion with her fiancé Rab. Harm reuniting heroically and tragically with Rita and Charlotte. Deputies Martha and Joe, struggling with Martha’s new job and Joe’s PTSD from the Vietnam war. Sad Chrystal$ is looking for a warm body. Poor Sabrina, ensnarled in a miserable relationship and looking for a way out, responds to violence with violence.
Rita is living life enclosed in plastic with her second husband, the perfectly named Euell. Charlotte, now in graduate school, is becoming an expert on the geology of the Appalachians, which impresses her mother not at all, but gives McCrumb a vehicle for showing the richness of the land, even though Charlotte naively ignores its significance to the humans living on it.
Toward the end, Nora puts much of this into perspective, telling Jeremy that Sabrina is a modern embodiment of Katie. Despite centuries of folklore, Katie is not the beautiful, clear-skinned woman we might envision, but was poor, underfed, with stringy hair and sallow skin.
As with all of McCrumb novels, the mountains are a significant character. And their degradation, through environmental abuse and development, is a key plot driver. Nothing grows on Harm’s land, 30 years after toxic chemicals were callously dumped onto it.
This is the third of McCrumb’s 13 ballad novels. It was published in 1994, but it has lost little relevance. BBB has read two others in the series: The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter, and The Songcatcher.
— Pat Prijatel
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