The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 2 December 2001
by Lee Smith
You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family seems to be the theme of this busy novel. Sybill, a somewhat uptight woman in her forties, has three sisters and a brother. They have a mother, a couple of aunts, some cousins, numerous children and various lovers. They all make an appearance in this book, and several of them serve as narrators at different times. Sybill opens the book with a visit to a hypnotist, hopefully as a cheap way to treat her recent plague of migraine headaches. What she recalls in her dreamlike trance is a vivid and perhaps explosive memory from her early childhood. Sybill sets out to find the truth, but events thwart her progress. What ensues is a chaotic family reunion in Booker Creek, a small town near Marion, VA. Through conversations and remembrances, a complex story of the family unfolds. Smith shifts points of view and narrative voice several times, but rather than confuse, the technique clarifies and enlivens the story. Sybill's siblings are all different individuals with various grudges between them. They are their parents' children, as we see when mother Elizabeth's and her sisters' stories unfold, and the linen is aired. Are there, literally, skeletons in the closet? The book is fast paced and is a lively depiction of Southern life. Lee Smith has been compared to Faulkner, and there certainly are some similarities here to some of his works. She has a similar gift for the tones of Southern speech. There are rough edges, but this is a good book.
Also by Lee Smith: [Fancy Strut]