I encountered Lee Smith's Dimestore on Bookbub and from the description understood it was a memoir of growing up in the hills of Appalachia. As such, I was expecting something of a cross between The Truth According to Us (fiction set in Appalachia) and A Girl Named Zippy (memoir of growing up in small town America mid-twentieth century). Initially, my expectations seemed in line with what I was reading: the early chapters of Dimestore are, in fact, devoted to Smith's formative years in Grundy, Virginia.
By degrees, though, Smith turns away from these early years - perhaps she felt she had already mined them extensively for her other works, primarily fiction - and the chapters become essays and the story becomes disparate episodes in Smith's adult life. I was far less drawn to these later essays, particularly the ones dealing with Smith's divorce, her subsequent remarriage, and the mental health battles of her grown son, than I was the chapters devoted to her girlhood.
I use the words "chapters" and "essays" purposefully here, for the first half of Dimestore reads like a story, and a very good one, while the latter half is disjointed and less engaging. For that reason, I came away with only a lukewarm liking of the book. I wasn't familiar with Smith's work prior to reading Dimestore, and having finished it, I'm not likely to seek out her other works intentionally, though I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd avoid her, either.
Devotees of Americana and Appalachian would likely delight in the early chapters in which the reader meets the spirited Lee with her "kindly nervous" parents and unique perspective on life in the mountains. The images of small town gossip, the general store, and the mountain stream running black with coal are acutely done, and early on wrote a check that the rest of the book just couldn't cash.
Two stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment