Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night

I was really enjoying this book until about the last 25 pages. The ending was happily wrapped in ribbons and bows, which I found unbelievable. Though a work of fiction, my imagination could not stretch that far. The book was also heavy on church and religion, which was appropriate for the time and place, and it fit well with the story. There were just a few too many “miracles” at the end for my taste. Early in the novel, I was reminded of books by Wiley Cash for the setting, characters, and plot. Not the writing though. No offense Ms. Taylor, but Mr. Cash (IMHO) can write circles around most authors.Set in Scranton Pennsylvania in 1913 and moving back in time, this book is about 8 year old Violet. She is accused of killing her 9 year old sister Daisy when they were playing with fireworks. Even her mother blames her. Violet starts to question herself, wondering if she killed her sister on purpose due to jealousy. Daisy was the favored child. She suffered serious burns from a sparkler and lingered for three days. She sang hymns while she was dying, which only further endeared her to the town. After Daisy’s death, the family falls apart. Grace, their mother, withdraws into herself and is visited by Grief. Grief is an interesting character, ghostly, jealous, erotic, and generally up to no good. Violet’s father Owen works in the coal mines and turns to alcohol after Daisy’s death. So, the family is torn apart and Violet is left to her own devices. She is befriended by an unpopular Polish boy and a town widow who takes them both in. The two kids struggle to survive without love from family. The story progresses through devastating mine accidents and deaths, Grace’s out of control spiral into depression, and a much anticipated 7 week visit by evangelist Billy Sunday. I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that people find their way back to God and that Violet’s family is reunited with hope for the future.The author states that the idea for this story is based on her own family history with a great aunt who died from burns caused by fireworks. There are historically accurate parts, including Billy Sunday. The author includes some great photos from that era in Scranton. There are some really brilliant pieces in this book. One is a personified Grief who plans to destroy the family. The other bit of brilliance is the opening to each section of the book. The section starts with a paragraph of housekeeping advice from the 1909 edition of Mrs. Joe’s Housekeeping Guide. Better yet, this is followed by a Greek chorus of the Scranton church ladies who provide biting and judgmental commentary on town events. You can easily visualize them gossiping away. Good stuff! There are also some interesting secondary characters. I thought that the Violet character was well done and empathetic. I was really enjoying this story and the characters and fully anticipated a 5 star rating. The ending just ruined it for me. I don’t want to spoil too much, but there is a childbirth scene in chapter 34 that just defies logic and imagination. That is where Ms. Taylor lost me. At least most of the ride was very good.

Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night is a really interesting book which I didn’t love reading, but I couldn’t put it down. There was so much depth to almost every aspect of the story, and a good amount of detail when important. It follows a family living in Scranton during the early 1900s, and it was written by Barbara J. Taylor, who is an English teacher in the Pocono Mountain School District. I believe that the book was actually based off of stories she was told about her family. This was maybe made more interesting for me because I used to live in Scranton, and I still live quite close, and it was interesting to see the cultural differences between now and back then. For example, the people in the town made a really big deal out of dancing, because it was apparently a sin. There was also just a lot more religious sentiment in general. For example, at one point Billy Sunday, a former baseball player and now somewhat of a missionary, was coming to town, and everyone was gathering and getting excited for it. It was interesting to see this baseball player come into Scranton and say, “I'm here to make a home run for God" and he’s the biggest celebrity in the city. However, some of the more interesting writing aspects of the story came in with the personification of Grief, and the character Violet (youngest daughter). A lot of the story revolves around the death of Daisy (older daughter), which happened before the book started, and is talked about through the whole story. You get a lot of Grace’s (the mother’s) perspective through the character Grief, who is a personification of the emotion grief, but is also a very real person in Grace’s mind. The description of grief as an emotion and as a character, is just incredible because it adds a whole new level of meaning to the story. Also, the whole story following Violet is extremely interesting because she is blamed for the death of her sister by almost everyone, even if they don’t say it directly. It’s interesting to see how she’s affected by all the people around her, since she’s just a kid and she’s honest and she just listens to the adults. When you’re that young, whatever adults say is fact. Then, at the end of the story we get her version of the story of Daisy’s death as the reader’s heart shatters into a million pieces and you don’t know what to feel. It’s a story with almost no bad guys because you get the perspective of everyone, and everyone’s actions are justified in their own way. Overall, Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night is a really good story on its own, but it gets even better with extra thought.-S.T.

Excellent read.

Moving eloquent story of loss. Highly recommended

Barbara J. Taylor, you rock! - This was so well written, totally believable - I loved the story and couldn't put it down. It was so easy to picture the life, the people of Scranton, the mines and Billy Sunday's impact on the town. I loved all the characters, their personalities and their association with each other. I felt like I knew those people. It was thought-provoking, sad, funny, just a wonderful read. It left me wanting more. I wasn't ready for it to end.

A beautiful story, it will touch your heart, deeply! The characters were simply endearing.The character of Grief was such a smart creation.

Not for me