DATE: Wednesday, October 15, 1997           TAG: 9710150034

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Book Review

SOURCE: BY PEGGY DEANS EARLE 

                                            LENGTH:   66 lines

MCCRUMB'S TALES ARE POIGNANT, WICKED

IN HER INTRODUCTION to ``Foggy Mountain Breakdown,'' Virginia author Sharyn McCrumb notes that it consists of ``almost all the short stories I have ever written.'' The wide variety of themes, styles and success of the 24 offerings attests to that statement, presenting an overview of the award-winning writer's work.

Best known for her evocative mountain folk mysteries (``The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter''), McCrumb has also published comic science fiction (``Bimbos of the Death Sun'') and an ongoing series about Elizabeth MacPherson, forensic anthropologist (``Highland Laddie Gone'').

A recurring theme in this collection, and one McCrumb warms up to most poetically, is a yearning for life in the mountains. Her country roots show in the characters' love of simple things, like the beauty of the changing seasons, and their persistent belief in ghosts and magic.

In the poignant ``Telling the Bees,'' a San Francisco engineer brings his new, much younger bride to his family home in Cabe's Hollow, Tenn. While she dreams of a honeymoon in Aspen, Colo., he vainly tries to interest her in his history and to share his wistful love of the Appalachian ``stubby weathered hills, silver with birches.''

McCrumb also has a wicked streak. Many of her stories are about revenge, including ``A Snare as Old as Solomon,'' ``The Luncheon,'' and the title story. Her sense of glee is palpable (and contagious) when her wronged characters get justifiably even.

Another revenge tale, ``Gentle Reader,'' takes the form of a correspondence between a famous mystery writer and her fan. The perceptive reader sees similarities in all of the novels' villains. When the writer explains she's modeled the characters on her rotten, estranged husband, the fan takes a deep interest. Conveniently, he seems to have more than a passing knowledge of how to commit the perfect murder.

Another epistolary story, meant to be humorous, has an unfortunate creepy timeliness. ``The Monster of Glamis'' consists of a letter from Diana, Princess of Wales, to her son, William. It's meant to be seen by him in the future, after his coronation, and concerns some volatile skeletons in the Windsor closet, discovered accidentally by Aunt Fergie.

McCrumb has fun with stories like ``Happiness is a Dead Poet,'' featuring a cowboy ``poet lariat,'' and ``Nine Lives to Live'' in which a murdered man, reincarnated as a cat, plans an elaborate revenge (!) on the business partner who offed him.

One of the best yarns in the book, ``Typewriter Man,'' was actually a collaboration. McCrumb's two youngest children, ages 6 and 7, provided ideas and critical advice, resulting in a perfectly delightful ghost story.

``John Knox in Paradise'' and ``Gerda's Sense of Snow'' seem out of place in the collection and were perhaps conceived as experiments. The former, about a Scotsman's nebulous affair with an American woman, never quite gets to the point. The latter, a drawn-out odyssey ``inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen,'' is such a jumble of fantasy, confusing symbols and unfathomable characters, it brought on a headache.

The above exceptions notwithstanding, readers can look forward to an entertaining grab bag in ``Foggy Mountain Breakdown.'' MEMO: Peggy Deans Earle is an artist and staff librarian. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

BOOK REVIEW

``Foggy Mountain Breakdown''

Author: Sharyn McCrumb

Publisher: Ballantine. 326 pp.

Price: $22.50

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