KING'S MOUNTAIN BOOK DISCUSSION

With this month's book we returned to a recurring theme in the Spirit's selection - a book with a local setting. The locations in King's Mountain spanned from Sycamore Shoals in Elizabethton, Tennessee to Abingdon, Virginia to the northwestern part of South Carolina. It really adds another layer of interest to the book to know the area the author is describing. And in this instance, we all got a little bit of a local history lesson. I have been amazed by how many local events surrounding the "overmountain men" and the march to the Battle of King's Mountain I have noticed since we read the book.

JB, who chose King's Mountain, noted that the battleground site at King's Mountain was worth a visit. He visited the site recently with his mom and sister, who has been doing some family history research. JB chose this book and author because of the in depth research of local history and lore the author conducts for each of her books. He highly recommended some of her other books, which are also set in the local area.

One of the things we liked best about the book was its nuanced presentation of characters. Particularly in "war" books, authors have a tendency to present characters on one side of the conflict as good and noble while presenting characters on the other as evil. Real life just isn't like that. I believe Deuce made the observation that it was easy to sympathize with characters in the book, like Virginia Sal, who were just trying to do what they could do survive the war, or others who felt loyalty to the crown. The characters were all believable and relatable characters. There were "rascals" and "heroes" on both sides.

A discussion ensued comparing the Battle of King's Mountain to Pickett's charge. I'm sure many good and thoughtful points were made, but somehow they didn't make it into my notes. Relatedly, we sorely missed Diesel's presence at the August meeting. What can I say, Spirits, battle strategy is not my jam.

One character that had many of the Spirits scratching their heads was Virginia Paul. I think she was a vehicle for tying in some of the local lore about banshees, but it was a little vague. Was she a banshee? Was she the same girl that young Ferguson met in the graveyard at the beginning of the book? I guess it is up to us to reach our own conclusions. Another somewhat supernatural element was the foreshadowing of the fates of Sevier and Ferguson.

We also contemplated whether the war would have turned out differently if Ferguson had taken the opportunity to shoot George Washington in the woods. The consensus was that it probably would have, simply because he was a unique person in a unique time.

There was also consensus that the hangings after the battle were completely arbitrary and offensive to the notion of justice. I will stop myself here or your eyes will glaze over as I launch into a legal diatribe. I will save it for the legal brief that I'll be working on all day tomorrow. :)

I think this may have been our highest rated book since Huck Finn! The lowest rating anyone gave it was 4 stars and it even garnered the ever allusive 5 star rating from Indy! And we know that Spirits don't dole out 5's willy nilly.

I am still working on All the Light We Cannnot See (so no spoilers!), but I can tell it will be a "spirited" discussion.  Get it?? "Spirited"??  HAHAHAHAHAH, I crack myself up. On that corny note, I will bid you a fond adieu. See you soon!!