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Tom Roberts asked this question about Where the Crawdads Sing:
Was anyone perplexed by the author’s placement of Asheville, far to the west of NC, within shopping distance of the coast? One family drives to Asheville to buy a bicycle and one man buys his colorful ties there. Yet, the drive to Asheville tales from 5 to 6 hours. This doesn’t detract from the story, but it is quite odd.
Walter Hall Speaking as someone who has lived in NC for 40 years, 30+ of those in Greenville, I can only say that the Asheville situation is a problem, but it is …moreSpeaking as someone who has lived in NC for 40 years, 30+ of those in Greenville, I can only say that the Asheville situation is a problem, but it is only one of the huge number of geographic problems in this book. Beyond the fact that there a large number of big cities closer to the costal of NC than Asheville (include Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; and even Philadelphia, as well as Charlotte, Raleigh, and Wilmington in NC itself), is the fact that in the book on the trip to Asheville, the four lane highway only begins when they get to Asheville.

When they arrive in Asheville: "The road became a four-lane highway, and Kya held on tight as Chase's truck sped within feet of other fast-moving vehicles. He turned onto a curving roadway that rose magically into the air and led them toward the town. 'A cloverleaf exit,' he said proudly." I know that NC in the 60s wasn't as developed, but I assure you that there were four lane highways before Asheville on that trip.

Plus, on that trip is this howler: "Hours later, out on the flatlands of the Piedmont..." The Piedmont region of NC is not flat. Piedmont literally means "foothills", and is hilly.

But the parts of about Greenville are especially hilarious. Greenville is currently a growing small city of about 100,000 (in the city limits). But it (and all of Eastern NC) was very different 50 years ago. According to the 1970 census, there were 30,000 people in Greenville. So reading that this tiny farming town would 1) host a literary conference that people would fly down from Boston to attend and 2) have a four star hotel downtown made me laugh and laugh. As well as the idea that there would be some kind of 24 hour bus service from Greenville to Barkley Cove.

Even the location of Barkley Cove makes no sense. The town is described as being on the Atlantic Ocean, which would make it actually on the Outer Banks, but in NC towns like this would be on the Intracoastal Waterways. If they lived on one of the islands, then they would have talked about it in those terms. But they are never mentioned.(less)
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Where the Crawdads Sing
by Delia Owens (Goodreads Author)
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