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4.0étoiles sur 5
Mixed bag, Mai 29 2004
Par Un client
I completely enjoyed the Frankie Silver part of the story, and was inspired to do some web and library searching of my own on the topic. McCrumb did an excellent job of relating the history and making it come alive. I had more trouble, however, with the fictional side of the story. (major spoilers ahead!) Some reviewers, and McCrumb herself, have classified this novel as being "about class and justice." I'd say it's more about truth and justice. In both cases, the historical and the fictional, the defendant withheld information that would have changed the outcome of the case. Yes, Frankie's hill-born ignorance of the law might have kept her from making her confession before the trial, when the self-defense plea would have helped. But her hanging was based not so much on the killing as the mutilation of her husband's body, and she kept her lips eternally sealed about that with full knowledge of what the information would mean to those it involved. That decision wasn't born out of poverty or ignorance, and it sealed her fate. While the second case was put in to prove "the rich don't hang," it also showed that stubborn pride and misplaced loyalty to brethren isn't just a hill trait. The supposed parallel on the fictional side doesn't work very well for me. Frankie was protecting those who'd tried to protect her. Fate's "sacrifice" was a crime in itself, given the violence of the trail murders. Also, it's hard to believe that even in the dark ages of the '70's, law enforcement would content itself with prosecuting the youngest, never previously indicted brother of a troublemaking clan, never even looking sideways at the two eldest who already have felony convictions. You can look at recent legal cases in the news and know that Ms. McCrumb is right in thinking that justice isn't exactly blind, and it is possible to buy a verdict with the right connections. But the defendants themselves, not their social class, were the turning points in the main cases in this book. (although you could argue they wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place except for their social class.) it's definitely a thought-provoking book, and has made me want to take a drive through Kona.
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