Customer Reviews

My Old True Love

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This first novel is a haunting gem of writer's art. It literally pulsates from the realness of the people it brings to life.

"Some people is born at the start of a long hard row to hoe," the feisty heroine, Arty Norton says, "... and it seems to me that right from the git-go, Larkin Stanton had the longest and hardest row I've ever seen."

Growing up together in the shadow of Lonesome Mountain, in North Carolina, two boys are inseparable companions. As they mature, they find themselves at odds when the Civil War rips the fabric of their isolated community and they both fall in love with Mary, a redhead beauty who "smells like strawberries."

Like the ballads interspersed throughout the book to express emotions the characters find too intense to speak in words, the novel embodies the passion, violence, betrayal and tragic lyricism typical of mountain tales.

The characters speak in a dialect that is music itself--lilting, full of metaphors, an old-fashioned sidewise approach to conversation that makes today's in-your-face directness seem coarse.

I'm sorry this book ended. I could have read it forever.

Folks, this is a great book! As a professor of English and the facilitator of a book group for 12 years, I can recommend this book very highly. It is full of wisdom, it is about a North Carolina family just before and after the Civil War, and the characters that you will meet and the warm, down-home wisdom will stay with you. (...) You won't regret reading this one!

Sheila Ray Adams writes a thoroughly enjoyable novel using the voice, eyes and ears of Arty Norton, the mother of ten children living in the mid- to late 1800s around the time of the Civil War. She captures the honesty, simplicity and beauty of the Appalachian lifestyle. Based very loosely on the loves and lives of two of her male ancestors who lived in North Carolina and fought during the Civil War, she describes their close relationship and the complex emotions which ran deep during the unfolding of their interwoven lives. Arty tells us how some people have a longer and harder row to hoe in life than others and that is just how it is. She tells how Larkin Stanton was born, just before his mother died in childbirth and how he and Hackley Norton, his cousin, of age 4 or 5 years, became inseparable best friends throughout their lives ... even as they both woooed the same beautiful red-haired, freckle faced girl ... whom eventually one of them courted and married.

The reader is drawn to the cycles of time, community and social relations ... as it is lived in the mountains of North Carolina. The author includes her love of music and ballads throughout the novel in a highly creative manner. The ballads date back to the 1700s when immigrants from the British isles first settled the Appalachian Mountains. She occasionally includes lyrics to songs, using all the verses to dramatize the plot and story in a very effective manner. There is a nostalgic longing in this reader to live the more simple but physically harsh life described in this novel. The author gradually reveals the complex and deep emotions of the main characters. Her descriptions of mountain romance is highly engaging. As the multi-layered lives of the characters are presented, the apparent outward simplicity of events is shown in different hues of color, like the visual effects of a hand-sewn quilt. The patterns become more evident the longer the eyes read the book. There is one square pattern in the piece that stands out from the rest, almost shocking in its color and boldness. The reader is lulled into the cyles and patterns of life, until the Civil War changes everything. Reading this novel is like walking through a gallery of artwork, where one recognizes the era and style of brushstrokes but then ... one very unusual painting is striking in its contrast. In this novel, the ending is a huge bolt of lightening, unexpected in its impact ... yet ... in retrospect ... one should have seen it coming. Reading this book will be a pleasure for anyone interested in the Civil War era.
Erika Borsos (erikab93)

My Old True Love was chosen by my book group. The blurb on it left me unsure of investing my time in it, but oh my, I'm glad I did. Sheila Kay Adams is a master at characterization. Her protagonists were solid, real folks indicative of the time, Civil War, and place - the mountains of North Carolina. The conflicts of war, unrequited love, and betrayal are no different today than a hundred and fifty years ago. These families are imperfect, but that's part of what makes the reader care about and relate to them. Folk music lyrics are interspersed within the story, and become caught up in the tale itself. By the way, a CD is available if you want to actually listen to the music, some performed by Adams herself.
I felt that the ending was a bit rushed. I needed a little more time to ease out of the story, but that is a small comcomplaint and shouldn't hold anyone back from devouring this small gem.

I enjoyed this book very much. This novel reads like a ballad of long ago. It had happy times & very sad, tragic times. I will read more of Ms. Adams books.

WOW! If you like Lee Smith don't waste any time purchasing this. Not only is Sheila a very talented author she is an amazing storyteller. She makes me proud to be a "mountain girl"!

This is a book I could not put down, and it haunts me still, months after reading. The characters are so real! This is southern fiction at its best.

Not since Lee Smith's Fair and Tender Ladies, has there been a book as touching as this one. Other reviews have said what the story is about, so I won't repeat all that, but will say this is a fantastic book.
From the first page, I was hooked. It was the first page-turner I've read in quite awhile. I couldn't put it down. Every page was exciting to read, without a lot of fillers and descriptive junk. I love it. Love it. Love it.

I listened to the audio cd of this book and although I'm a book lover of the hand-held kind, I have been recommending this book to be listened to. And I've been recommending it over and over again. It is a haunting, lyrical, lovely story.
My reason for suggesting the audio version is that the mountain music, done with a sweet, reedy mountain voice is stunning. The narration was so well done that I was speaking with that dialect for at least a week after the book was finished. It gets into your head and heart.
I dreaded coming to the end of this story. I wanted it to go on and on, as only the best of books call to do...

Instantly grabbed by the opening lines, and further sucked in by the narration that stands out like the storyteller is sitting next to you recounting the life of her cousin, brother, and extended family, this is by far a novel you won't forget. I found the voice of Arty, the narrator, to be so natural and unforced. She's quite the busybody, and gave me a few chuckles at her claiming to be of the kind that minds her own business, and highly enthralled in the life of her orphaned cousin. He is close to Arty's brother, a playboy of the Appalachians circa 1860s, and both are after the same girl. Add the Civil War, family ties, loss, and the politics behind the times and you've got a wonderful read that seems to be undiscovered. I look forward to reading other work by this author.