The Coffin Quilt: The Feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys

A well-crafted fictional account of the family feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys in late nineteenth century America, told from the perspective of the youngest McCoy daughter Fanny.

I really took to Fanny's narrative, which reminded me a lot of Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird ('I stood around the edges and watched and they paid me no nevermind'), and Ann Rinaldi's evocative storytelling shapes the historical names and events into believable characters and personal tragedy. I also love the colloquial phrases she employs, like 'You look like the hind wheels of bad luck' and 'nervous as an ugly girl at a box-supper auction', which add local flavour and humour to an otherwise dark tale.

Fanny's sister Roseanna, who is said to have show more kicked off the feud by eloping with a Hatfield, takes to crafting the 'coffin quilt' of the title, with all the family names stitched onto coffins around the border, to be moved into the centre when somebody dies. A suitably morbid symbol for a beleaguered family. show less

Fanny McCoy, the youngest of the McCoy clan, tells the story of the infamous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. The two families have hated each other for ages, ever since the Civil War when the killing began. Fanny is the pet of her older sister Roseanna, who sparks a new wave of hostilities when she runs off with Johnse Hatfield in 1882. Heartbreak and hatred follow as the men of both families fight and raid one another's lands. The killing grows ever worse until it culminates in one nighttime raid on New Year's Eve that leaves even the womenfolk dead or battered within an inch of their lives. Fanny is the sole voice of reason in her family filled with hatred, bloodlust, and an overdose of religion.

This has always been a show more powerful story. The senseless violence between the Hatfields and the McCoys spawned the feuding families in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Here the story is told through the eyes of a child who has grown up with the hatred and cannot seem to grasp the reasons behind it all as she grows up. In some ways I think the story would have benefitted from being told from Roseanna's point of view - but the insider/outsider perspective of the youngest daughter - part of the family, but not part of the decisions or the fighting - allows a certain distance in closeness that magnifies how pointless the feud really was.

At times, however, I felt like the narrator was simply too detached from the action. She doesn't really react to the killings as emotionally as I would have expected. She seemed very cut off from the rest of her family and their hatred - which baffles me, especially when the Hatfields kill her favorite brother. The book is very much a family drama - Fanny trying to decide how to cope with her zealously religious mother, her overbearing sister, her bloodthirsty brothers, and her implacable father and grow up. I simply didn't see as much fallout from the feud and how devastating it must have been as I wanted. The feud seemed more of a backdrop than the point of the story.

Good, but not what I was expecting show less

The book's protagonist is Fanny McCoy, whose sister Alifair was murdered by Ellison Mounts, one of the hated Hatfields. Throughout the story, Fanny holds within her the terrible secret that Mounts, who was hanged for Alifair's murder, was not actually the perpetrator. To prevent still more bloodshed between the Hatfields and McCoys, Fanny holds onto the story and instead tries to be a peacemaker between the two families. The feud was a complicated affair, but Rinaldi does a fine job helping young adults to make sense of it. The Coffin Quilt can be used in a language arts class to give middle-schoolers some insight into what "local color" literature looks like (if that sort of thing is still taught).

Ann Rinaldi is one of my favorite young adult/older elementary school writers for historical fiction. This story I read years ago and I loved how the character was stuck in between the Hatfield and McCoy feud. Fanny sees how hate can and feuding only beget more blood being shed.

Unlike some historical fiction, these characters are never distant and the plot is never dry. Narrator Fanny McCoy wasn't born when the Hatfields and McCoys began their long-standing feud, but she sees it erupt when her beautiful older sister Roseanne is impregnated by Johnse Hatfield. While the men of both families conduct midnight raids and "battles of honor," Fanny struggles to rise above the violence without disowning her family. This retelling of the famous feud is fast paced but emotionally challenging to the reader. Recommended for ages 10-14.

Awards:
ABA's Pick of the Lists
New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
TAYSHAS High School Reading List [Texas]

I couldn't get into this book. Being a big fan of Ann Rinaldi, I tried numerous times to read it and I was never able to finish. Being thee feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys I expected more action and suspense. This novel was more centered on relationships and emotional and daily struggles. While it was good at showing the time period and mindset of these people it was not one of Ann Rinaldi's best books.

The title made me pick this book up. I really enjoyed it.