The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash

Before I get into the synopsis of The Last Ballad, I have to tell you the coolest thing about reading this book. I read Wiley Cash's last book, This Dark Road to Mercy, and was impressed. So I drove up to Oxford, Mississippi to see Wiley speak at Square Books when he came through on his book tour. At the time, Wiley had recently read about the events that The Last Ballad is based upon and was already beginning to plot his next novel. He talked about the historical background a bit and said he was excited about his next project. It's been several years so it was a thrill to finally get to read the book that was, at that time, still mostly an idea in his head. Incidentally, if you ever get a chance to see Wiley speak, you must. He's an excellent speaker.

The Last Ballad is the story of the early labor movement, with focus on a woman who was murdered in the 1920s. Ella May Wiggins is a single mother with four young children. Her husband, John, has run off, leaving her to support them on her job at the local mill, where she earns nine dollars a week. Most of the time, the children are left at home alone during her night shift but, as the book opens, Ella May is being called in to talk to the boss because she missed a shift to take care of a sick child. She has already lost one child to illness and her unwillingness to risk the life of another has threatened her job.

Shortly after she's chastised for missing work, Ella May hears about the fancy New Yorkers who have come to town to help create a labor union. Ella May's children wear tattered clothing and the entire family is skinny and starving, most of the time. She's encouraged by the idea of a union improving their lives and goes to a meeting to see what it's all about. And, then another. In spite of the violent attempts to stop the union, Ella May is undeterred. She writes her own lyrics about the hardship of a mill worker and is persuaded to sing at a gathering. From then on, she's well-known and it's only through finagling a job working for the union organizers that she's able to continue getting an income.
But, being involved is dangerous work.

Highly recommended - Gorgeous prose, a story that really gets into the depths to which employers will go to increase the bottom line at the expense of their employees and makes you practically feel the hunger of Ella May and her family. Sad, moving, and meaningful. Just a fantastic story that will leave you in awe of the main character's courage and tenacity. There were times I felt a tiny bit bored and wondered if The Last Ballad couldn't have been edited down a bit, yet the writing is so beautiful that it would be awful to remove a word from it. I'm so impressed with Wiley Cash's writing.

I still have Wiley's first book, unread. Now I'm doubly looking forward to it.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash - a very casual review and photos of Wiley's reading at Square Books

First things first . . . it's been almost a month since I read This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash. That can be a very, very bad thing but today I was hanging with my best friend and told her about how much I loved This Dark Road to Mercy -- so much that when I found out Wiley Cash was going to stop at Square Books in Oxford (2 1/2 hours north of us) and I didn't see Lemuria (20 minutes away) on his tour list, I planned a jaunt north.  That's unusual, in case you're wondering.  

So, naturally, Best Buddy asked me what the book is about.  I told her it's about 2 girls who are sent to a home when their mother dies. Their daddy, who signed away all rights to them, wants them back but the law is against him so he kidnaps them. But, daddy Wade has done something exceptionally stupid. He's stolen some money and a Very Bad Man is after him. I told her the pages flew because of the tension.  Will the Bad Man get them or will they survive? Will Easter and Ruby end up with their father or back in foster care?  I didn't tell her about the baseball setting, nor did I mention what I loved most about the book -- the way the author brought back an element from the first of the book near the end, lending the story an unusual symmetry that made me actually suck in my breath -- but apparently none of that mattered.

Best Buddy said, "I will have to read that." I think she'll like it and I was pleased that I still remembered it well enough to spit out a capsule description.  At any rate, I had a great time on the dash up to Oxford and I highly recommend This Dark Road to Mercy, which is well-written, suspenseful and touching.

As to the reading, t took quite a while for people to start trickling in but in the long run there was quite a nice crowd and I thought Wiley was an excellent speaker.  Here he is, reading from This Dark Road to Mercy:

Authors Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly live in Oxford and they came out to show their support, which was fortuitous for me because I've read and enjoyed their co-written release, The Tilted World. I asked if there were copies of The Tilted World in the store  as readings take place in Off-Square Books rather than the flagship store. There were none but someone dashed off to fetch a few copies from the main store.  They were already signed but the authors very kindly inscribed one for me.  Here are all three authors (left to right, Tom Franklin, Wiley Cash, Beth Ann Fennelly): 

After the reading, I met  up with husband and Kiddo and we went to eat Indian food with the professor my husband was in town to meet (skipped that story but Huzzybuns needed to meet up with someone and managed to arrange the meeting to coincide with the signing -- coolness).  Supper was yet another delight as the professor just happens to be a fantastic storyteller and the food was fabulous.

Side note: I have a copy of Wiley's first book, A Land More Kind Than Home, but have not yet read it and had a sneaking suspicion I would not likely find it for a while because of the chaos that has been our last year, between moving and trying to get our old house ready to go on the market.  I was wrong! Woot!  Whilst loading shelves with books in our library on Tuesday, I glanced down at a stack (they're everywhere . . . cannot wait till I no longer have books on the floor) and noticed that my hardback copy of A Land More Kind Than Home was sticking out of the bottom shelf.  Looks like a kitty helpfully pulled it partway off the shelf.  So, now I know where to look when I'm ready to read it. Second woot!

I plunked my recommendation in the middle of this sort-of review so I'm just going to reiterate that I highly recommend This Dark Road to Mercy.  There are some intense scenes of violence, so I've added a family warning for violence to my labels.  I survived, though, and you know I'm prone to nightmares, right?  Also, I highly recommend going to see Wiley if he's ever in your area.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.