St. Dale [Paperback]

Sharyn McCrumb (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp; 1st Edition/1st Printing edition (2005)
• ASIN: B000Y5HJS2
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)

More About the Author

I am an award-winning Southern writer. I am probably best known for my
Appalachian "Ballad" novels, set in the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains. These books include New York Times Best Sellers She Walks These Hills and The Rosewood Casket, which deal with the issue of the vanishing wilderness, and The Ballad of Frankie Silver, the story of the first woman hanged for murder in the state of North Carolina; The Songcatcher, a genealogy in music; and Ghost Riders, an account of the Civil War in the Appalachians.

My newest novel St. Dale, the Canterbury Tales set in NASCAR, was published by Kensington Books of New York in 2005, and is currently a nominee for the Library of Virginia Literary Award in Fiction and a finalist for its People's Choice Award.

Honors include: the 2003 Award for Literature given by the
East Tennessee Historical Society; AWA Outstanding Contribution to
Appalachian Literature Award; Chaffin Award for Achievement in Southern
Literature; Plattner Award for Short Story; and AWA's Best Appalachian
Novel.

I was the first writer-in-residence at King College in Tennessee. In 2001 I
served as fiction writer-in-residence at the WICE Conference in Paris, and
in 2005 I was honored as the writer of the year at the annual literary
celebration at Emory and Henry College. (And I was the first Southern writer to take along a NASCAR driver to that literary seminar. Thank you, Ward Burton!)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll be surprised at this book, February 20, 2005

By 

Amy Leemon (North Fond du Lac, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: St. Dale (Hardcover)

Like some of the other reviewers, I hesitated before reading this book. I'm not particularly interested in racing but I knew enough about it to know that I don't care for Dale Earnhardt. But somehow, I started reading it and let me tell you, it is GOOD!!

The wide variety of characters and we learn about all of them during the trip. From the elderly couple where the wife has Alzheimer's to the young couple who gets married at the race track and spends their honeymoon on the tour. Terence Palmer who is trying to find a link with his dead father. The small child, Matthew, who is very ill. The very opposite 3 sisters and the former racer tour guide. They all come together beautifully as their stories are told.

And along with that - the racing trivia (dare I say trivia in regard to racing?). From how drivers get to the track, how ancient Romans kept score during the chariot races, what do idiots think NASCAR stands for and who the drivers talk to on their headsets. It's all very interesting. And it all fits into the storyline beautifully.

By the end of the book, I felt I knew and really liked these people and I certainly knew more about racing history.

Give it a try - you may be surprised.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for NASCAR fans., July 2, 2005

By 

mojosmom (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: St. Dale (Hardcover)

If it weren't for the name "Sharyn McCrumb", I would not have picked up this book. But I am truly glad I did. Nothing at all like her Ballad series, except in its excellence, this book leaves the mountains and heads off to the NASCAR circuit, of all unexpected things! McCrumb, to the great benefit of her readers, has been stretching herself of late.

The first annual Dale Earnhardt Memorial Pilgrimage has attracted quite a variety of folks, from an Episcopal priest escorting a dying boy, a couple who marry at the first speedway, and a New York stockbroker, to a woman who thinks Dale's ghost fixed her car on a deserted country road. Their guide is a former NASCAR driver looking to get back in the game. As their bus wends it way from Bristol to Daytona, they, like certain more famous pilgrims, tell stories, and find out about each other and themselves.

McCrumb's usual excellent characterizations, as she delves into the question of what makes a secular saint. Why are there Elvis sightings, and not John Lennon sightings? Why did so many people care when Princess Diana died? It was not her intent to write a book about Earnhardt; indeed, she was not a NASCAR fan. But the outpouring of grief at his death, his canonization as a secular saint, made him a good focus for the book had in mind on that subject. I don't know if she intended it or not, but she is also writing about class and regional prejudice in America.

You don't need to be a NASCAR fan to enjoy this book, but it couldn't hurt.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sharyn McCrumb Fan, GET THIS BOOK!, February 5, 2005

By 

Portianay "portianay" (KY, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: St. Dale (Hardcover)

I know, I know, you are thinking, "NASCAR? No way!" So did I. Let me assure you, this is one of her best, or maybe even *the* best, and I never thought anything could beat THE ROSEWOOD CASKET. Her same superb character depictions are there, the same sub-plots subtly woven together; the twist, the thing that is so *new* about this venture, is the allegorical theme. This one, like so many of her others, leaves you thinking about things for days afterwards, and pondering your own heroes and objects of worship. It's *that* good.

What I want to know is, why are her McPherson novels not listed in the front of this one, along with her Appalachian books? They are not cast-off children!