"The Devil's Dream" Blends Women's Turn of Century Views with Folk Music and Southern Charm
Written: Sep 12 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Novel goes for an interesting chronological sense of folk music history and genealogy.
Cons: Introductory opening device, "Shall We Gather..." is a predictable start and boring narrative ploy.
The Bottom Line: "The Devil's Dream" is a book meant for lovers of Southern culture and followers of folk, rural blues and country music.
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| martyfig's Full Review: Lee Smith - The Devil's Dream |
Skip the first short segment entitled, “Shall We Gather…” and go for the first section, “This World is Not My Home.” You won’t be able to put this book down. The novel is told by several different female voices, and each voice is the title of each chapter. Most of the chapters are told in first person.
While this could be monotonous in some pieces, it works in this novel since every one of its narrators are direct descendants of the first tale told by old man Ira Keen. To make it very obvious to all different audiences, Lee Smith draws up a genealogical chart in the beginning of the book, and by the time I had finished the novel, the chart was dog-eared and worn.
His first character is from long ago, perhaps the 1860’s-1880’s, and he tells us of how the couple down the hollow from him used to lead their lives. He recounts to us how he has heard their ghosts laughing and playing the fiddle each night. Of course, he is talking about Moses Bailey and Kate Malone. Without the first person anecdote of this great, great, great grandfather, and more importantly the grandmother, we can never understand how the love of music takes such a strong hold on their descendants.
The ending of this segment results in chapter four. It stuns us, and the tears sting our eyes. We become one with the narrator’s last sad vision wrapped around Nonnie’s subconscious and her permanent loss. This particular tale is told in the third person. Even though it was one of the few third-person-limited viewpoints instead of first person viewpoints, it had to be told as such. If it was told from any other viewpoint, we wouldn’t see the pain of Nonnie’s slow demise.
The most poignant tales consist of struggles over freedom among the family members throughout the past hundred years. They are the ones who have battled with the conflicts of music vs. their family’s values. Their love of music wins most of the time, and the family members evolve by picking up other instruments instead of only singing songs accompanied by the fiddle.
An aura of turn of the century traveling musical shows comes to mind with mouth harps, jugs, washboards and spoons. Then as the genealogy grows and the times change, other instruments make a debut. The electric guitar comes into play as well as speakers, slide guitars and amps. The final most powerful narrator is of our era. However, Rose Annie’s tale takes over the narrative at times, and for awhile we aren’t sure if our allegiances should go to Rose Annie or Kate Cocker’s narrative with her country/folk arrival into the world. The two couldn’t be more different. Rose Annie’s character isn’t as defined as Kate Cocker.
Part of the reason for this lies in the fact that a sharp hard-driven first person narrative like Kate Cocker’s is hard to beat; plus Kate Cocker is a gutsy gal like a modern Melissa E. or a revised version of Patsy Cline. Little Rose Annie with all her frailties is no match for the “tell it like it is” drive of Kate Cocker.
Which leaves the reader wondering if her tale was necessary to tell. After all, once you read Rose Annie’s tale then check the genealogical chart, you can see that Lee Smith left out stories of many other relatives. What about Ralph Handy or Little Virginia or Sean or Shane, the audience wonders? Artistic license of Lee Smith prevails though. It is a fine piece worth reading.
The only other annoying thing that Lee Smith does in this novel is that he either deliberately or for some kind of effect, leaves out any detailing regarding year and decade. For example, at one point we hear of a tale where the floor coverings are described as an "orange shag carpet." This leads the reader to think that the decade is probably the early seventies. But then later, with no apparent reason, we find out that the year was actually 1959. This oversight or artistic license is annoying. But it isn't enough to prevent you from reading.
However, the audience doesn’t have to be made up of scholars or writers to enjoy it. The audience doesn’t even have to like country or folk music. One thing is for sure; the tone of the whole book is purely southern. You can feel the heat of the weather. It makes for a good summer/fall read.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
martyfig
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Location: The High Plains
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 9 members
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