Book Review: Fiddler’s Ghost by Mitch Jayne - Page 2

Fiddler’s Ghost is clever and funny, delving into the archaic speech and customs of the Ozarks folks. Clark’s scholars are polite and shy, eager to learn anything he can teach them, while the young schoolmaster soon realizes that he has much to learn himself. The novel is a suspenseful page-turner as well, as the Clarks attempt to protect their “Uncle Hiram’s” true identity from some superstitious and small-minded townfolk.

Ultimately, however, Fiddler’s Ghost is a love story – love of family, love of place, love of music. The author knows the Missourian Ozarks and its denizens well, his affection clear in his warm portrayal of the book’s characters. Mitch Jayne is also a lifelong musician, a founding member of the bluegrass group The Dillards, and his novel swirls with happy notes. Reading Fiddler’s Ghost transports the reader to a joyful, simpler place, much like whiling a summer afternoon away on a shady porch with a tuneful fiddle for company.

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Friend Mouse lives the way she should be in Maine, reading, skiing, drinking good beer, fishing, going to matinees solo and madly working her way through a huge movie queue. She is relatively new to the blogosphere and is trying to make up for lost …

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