St. Dale
Aug 13, 2005
By Sharon McCrumb
Kensington Publishing Corp
2005
Sharon McCrumb has written several lyrical tales set in and around the Appalachian Mountains that expertly weave modern-day stories with mountain folklore, including She Walks These Hills and Songcatcher.
St. Dale is a departure from her usual work and it's a pretty good summer read. It begins 18 months after the 2001 death of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, with a mismatched group of 13 'Pilgrims' setting out on the Dale Earnhardt Memorial Tour, starting in Bristol and ending at a Mecca of sorts, the Daytona 500.
As in her other books, here McCrumb is a master of detail and setting. Her sense of place is rich enough that you begin to feel as if you've actually been to the Davey Allison Memorial Garden in Talledega, a stop along the Tour's way.
Characters get somewhat short shrift here, which is a disappointment, since the author paints them so vividly in her other works.
But she captures the present of stock car racing and craftily compares it with its own past, a past that is quickly becoming unrecognizable in today's corporate sponsor-driven incarnation.
I'd call this a 'check it out from the library' book. Save your pennies for a copy of Songcatcher.
