MY OLD TRUE LOVE BY SHEILA KAY ADAMS

Reviewed by Katherine Vande Brake

Three things strike the reader immediately about My Old True Love by Sheila Kay Adams. The first is the distinctively arresting voice of the narrator, Arty Norton Wallin. She starts off with this: "Some people is born at the start of a long hard row to hoe. Well, I am older than God's dog and been in this world a long time and it seems to me that right from the git-go, Larkin Stanton had the longest and hardest row I've ever seen" (1). These words open this first person narrative and let me know immediately that Arty Norton is somebody I want to know better. The author herself recognizes that Arty is not just any narrator and in the book's acknowledgements thanks her editor "for helping me to turn Arty loose to tell this tale" (287). Arty's telling is as important as the story itself.

The second is the character of Larkin Stanton, orphaned when his mother dies in childbirth, raised by his "Amma," Arty herself, done out of the girl he loves by his cousin and best friend Hackley Norton, and scarred by horrific events during the War between the States. The book begins with Larkin's birth in a mountain cabin and ends when he finally finds the redemption he seeks. Descended from an Indian, with a voice that "was a wonderment, pure and clear, hitting them high notes and holding them, holding them" (26), Larkin graces the narrative with both goodness and mystery.

The third is the old songs. Adams herself is a performer, and her knowledge of the songs is evident as she uses them to advance her story, putting them in the mouths of her characters as they move through the years and talk to one another in times of joy and times of sorrow. Arty relates how it is with Larkin, "he just lost himself in them stories. When he was little, he'd put his own self right there, living it, breathing life into it. Listening to him sing never failed to jerk goose-bumps up on my arms. Even Hackley, who went along not noticing much, would sometimes stare at him and say something like, 'Damn boy'" (28).

My Old True Love tells the story of a North Carolina mountain community during the Civil War, and reifies the horrors of that time for Southern mountain folk. However, it also does much more-Arty, Larkin, and Hackley are unforgettable. Their voices, the songs they sing, and their struggles are both real and contemporary. Wrenching grief, paralyzing regret, abandoned passion, and deep satisfaction draw the reader in. Adams' book is a great read. A CD of the songs is also available at the author's website.

Vande Brake is Professor of English and Technical Communication at King College in Bristol, Tennessee. She wrote How They Shine: Melungeon Characters in the Fiction of Appalachia. Her research interests include Melungeons, literacy studies, the intersection of literacy and information technology, and Appalachian fiction.