Tom P's Fiddle: A Review

"Dusk deepened to raspberry darkness on the Texas landscape as Tom P headed west from his sister's homestead...."

-from Tom P's Fiddle, by Sherri Knight

Tom P’s Fiddle, Texas native Sherri Knight’s first book, is a narrative non-fiction primarily about the events surrounding the Varnell/Land murder trial of the late 1800s. More than that, though, Knight effortlessly pulls readers into a world of determined ladies and gentlemen rogues, honorable standoffs and hidden ambushes, wide open ranges and claustrophobic prison cells, and shows us that, while laws and landscapes might change, people and their tendancies stay the same.

Knight’s writing style is punchy and well-paced from the first sentence all the way to the work’s haunting final page. Within the first paragraph she not only sets the scene but manages to immediately convey to the reader the scope of time and depth Tom P’s troubles encompass with the following: “A drooping mustache neatly outlined his mouth, hiding the slight downward turn that appeared when he was contemplative, the residue of the hard years he had spent in prison.” While his prison time won’t come until several chapters later (much of the book is told as a reflection on times prior to the story‘s exposition), she effectively introduces her protagonist and his situation without a strenuous ploughing through dreary mounds of character study.

The story unfolds with a plot based on the numerous newspaper articles, court documents, and other extensive sources related to the incident. These are blended by Knight’s skill as a storyteller into an interesting account that is never pendantic, that--to this cowgirl--instead reads like one is hearing the morning news swapped over coffee at the local feed store. At no time in the telling does her respect for the facts appear compromised by this approach; readers and researchers alike will appreciate this book.

The portrayal of Tom P is one which might at first be difficult to readers familiar with the story to embrace. A lady’s man wanted for murder and on the run--that is the verdict placed on Knight’s main character by common view, and not without reason. Although Knight is faithful to the historical facts, her sympathies toward Tom P readily come through. This initially may make for a more cynical read by some, but as the story develops those readers may be surprised to find their condemnation of Tom P tempered--not by Knight’s presentation, but by the facts therin.

Ultimately, the Varnell/Land tragedy is just that for all concerned parties, and Knight’s book fully brings that home. The tone is never maudlin, though, and instead fully pays homage to the spirit of the day. It lopes through the early life of a young Texas man, sips Arbuckle’s coffee at a timeless kitchen table, and gallops through arrests, jailbreaks, gunfights, and reckonings, all to the sound of a skillfully played fiddle. At times, toe-tapping, plaintive at others, Knight’s composition is always on-key and highly worthy of a listen.

-S. J. Cannady

(This book will be available for purchase April 5, 2008. Stop by the Literary Lion to reserve your copy now.)