Scan barcode
jgintrovertedreader's review against another edition
3.0
It all starts when Moses Bailey marries young, beautiful Kate Malone. The Baileys are known to be a strict, religious family and the Malones are known to be a fun-loving, party family. This dichotomy continues throughout Moses and Kate's family tree. Some of their descendants are fiddle-playing musicians and some are devout church-going folks who frown on their more-popular relatives. The book mainly follows the lives of five different family members. Each one has something to contribute to the church vs fiddle feud, whether it's "I used to be a good-time man, but God showed me the error of my ways late one night" or "My mama was a real religious woman and I just couldn't wait to get out from under her roof and off to Nashville."
This was just okay. Now that I think about it, the book read more like a series of long short stories, if you know what I'm trying to say. I enjoy short stories, but Lee Smith tends to write very complicated, nuanced characters. Each main character's story ended before I really felt ready for it to end, so I was always left wanting more. If she ever used this book for a jumping-off place for five different novels, I would probably enjoy those. This book just left me a little frustrated.
But, as alway, Smith got the culture and the language of the Southern Appalachians exactly right. And to an extent, this church-or-music-heaven-or-hell-there's-no-meeting-of-the-two kind of culture is still out there. It's not so widespread, but it's still definitely around. So she knows what she's talking about. The book was, as always, very readable, and the fact that I wanted more about each character should tell you something about characterization. All the characters could get confusing at times, but my copy had a family tree at the front and the back. Expect to refer to that pretty frequently.
I would recommend this to those who are already fans of Lee Smith, but for someone who's never read one of her wonderful books, I would recommend one of her more traditional novels.
This was just okay. Now that I think about it, the book read more like a series of long short stories, if you know what I'm trying to say. I enjoy short stories, but Lee Smith tends to write very complicated, nuanced characters. Each main character's story ended before I really felt ready for it to end, so I was always left wanting more. If she ever used this book for a jumping-off place for five different novels, I would probably enjoy those. This book just left me a little frustrated.
But, as alway, Smith got the culture and the language of the Southern Appalachians exactly right. And to an extent, this church-or-music-heaven-or-hell-there's-no-meeting-of-the-two kind of culture is still out there. It's not so widespread, but it's still definitely around. So she knows what she's talking about. The book was, as always, very readable, and the fact that I wanted more about each character should tell you something about characterization. All the characters could get confusing at times, but my copy had a family tree at the front and the back. Expect to refer to that pretty frequently.
I would recommend this to those who are already fans of Lee Smith, but for someone who's never read one of her wonderful books, I would recommend one of her more traditional novels.
girlonthecsaw's review
3.0
I'm a Lee Smith fan and I think that's why I'm only willing to give this book three stars. She is such an amazing storyteller and her characters are always engaging but this book didn't seem to give any of them justice. As soon as I became invested in one character their story ended. I think the multiple narrators would have worked better the sections had been dated or if corresponding time periods were grouped together. It was just too disjointed. I felt cheated by the time I finished the book. Still, mediocre Lee Smith is better than many other books I've read.
snowstar280's review
3.0
Overall, this book was moderately interesting. Nothing too wonderful, but an interesting story to say the least. I found it a little frustrating trying to figure out who the person speaking was, due to the fact that it changed with every chapter. It was interesting to see the progression of the family as each generation went a little further with their talent.
lgmelcher's review
4.0
It was slow to get into, but I enjoyed the second half immensely. A well-crafted story about an often-forgotten region and era: bluegrass and country western music in Appalachia, Family Von Trapp-style. Mostly tragic with unusually deep characters that are entirely unaware of their own complexity.
More...