From Goodreads:
For the inimitable Lee Smith, place is paramount. For forty-five years, her fiction has lived and breathed with the rhythms and people of the Appalachian South. But never before has she written her own story.
Set deep in the mountains of Virginia, the Grundy of Lee Smith’s youth was a place of coal miners, tent revivals, mountain music, drive-in theaters, and her daddy’s dimestore. It was in that dimestore--listening to customers and inventing adventures for the store’s dolls--that she became a storyteller. Even when she was sent off to college to earn some “culture,” she understood that perhaps the richest culture she might ever know was the one she was driving away from--and it’s a place that she never left behind .Dimestore’s fifteen essays are crushingly honest, wise and perceptive, and superbly entertaining. Smith has created both a moving personal portrait and a testament to embracing one’s heritage. It’s also an inspiring story of the birth of a writer and a poignant look at a way of life that has all but vanished.
Set deep in the mountains of Virginia, the Grundy of Lee Smith’s youth was a place of coal miners, tent revivals, mountain music, drive-in theaters, and her daddy’s dimestore. It was in that dimestore--listening to customers and inventing adventures for the store’s dolls--that she became a storyteller. Even when she was sent off to college to earn some “culture,” she understood that perhaps the richest culture she might ever know was the one she was driving away from--and it’s a place that she never left behind .Dimestore’s fifteen essays are crushingly honest, wise and perceptive, and superbly entertaining. Smith has created both a moving personal portrait and a testament to embracing one’s heritage. It’s also an inspiring story of the birth of a writer and a poignant look at a way of life that has all but vanished.
From Me:
So many great quotes!
Memoirs always resonate with me. I always feel that I have lived that life too. Is that a sign of a good writer or that I'm just nostalgic? I mean every memoir I've ever written can't be great, can it? But they pull me in.
I write letters. Old fashioned letters that you put a stamp on and stick in a box at the post office and then a few days later they arrive in another box in front of someone's house clear across the United States, which is a form of memoir kind of. Maybe that's why I love them so much---I like people's stories.
I got totally off track---so many great quotes in this book! I thought I'd share a few and went to get my book, which I thought I had bookmarked, but wait! There is NOTHING marked.
No little pieces of paper sticking out, no paper clip in a certain spot, no gum wrapper marking something important.
Hmmmm. I'm going to blame it on my grandchildren.
I've never read a novel by Lee Smith, but I love her life story.
It's moving and deep---it says so on the cover! And I know this to be true, because I read the book.
To conclude:
Great memoir about a southern childhood and a town and place she loved, which is no longer.
If you like memoirs, I think you'll liken this.
2 comments:
I can see why you liked this one, Debbie. It sounds good. I don't read memoirs very often--just now and then.
I haven't heard of this author but this one sounds great! I love short stories in general but especially ones that really focus on a character or particular scene.
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