The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 5 March 1998
by Lee Smith
There is a certain magic an humor in this book, relating the strange and quite realistic tale of the sesquicentennial celebration in Speed, Alabama. Lee Smith tells stories about various characters in this town, drawing from her own experiences in Tuscaloosa. There are many striking people, and the story twists in unexpected ways, as predictable characters begin to act in unpredictable manners. It is a fun book to read, and occasionally touching and poignant. Smith develops her female characters with somewhat more completeness than the male characters, though. A few seem flat, but those in the foreground are well-shaped and familiar. Throughout, a vast foreboding of disaster grows, but the celebration may not come off as the reader expects. It is an idiosyncratic story. Very different from her superior novel, Oral History.
Also by Lee Smith: [Family Linen]