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Saving Grace | 
 enlarge | Author: Lee Smith
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $13.94 (100%)
New (31) Collectible (1) from $4.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 197821
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0345403339
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345403339
ASIN: 0345403339
Publication Date: April 23, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"LUCID IN EXECUTION, BREATHTAKING IN SCOPE AND HEART-RENDING IN EFFECT--A REDEMPTIVE WORK OF ART. . . . Lee Smith has done more than write another novel about the South. She has broken through the grotesque surface to the underground spring, the music of Scrabble Creek, and the effect is stunning--a beguiling, gentle prose formed by an honesty so severe we are brought to our knees. . . . This novel has a grand and singular purpose, to clothe the spirit with flesh. In this, Lee Smith succeeds."
--The Washington Post Book World
"A compelling journey into all matters southern and spiritual . . . . Set in North Carolina and Tennessee, we follow young Grace Shepherd from a cabin in the bucolic poverty of Scrabble Creek to independence as a single woman. Stops along the way include seduction by a half-brother, a failed marriage, motherhood, the loss of her son, residence in the aptly-named Creekside apartments in Knoxville and a job waitressing. . . . While Grace's path may be a journey many of us would not choose to undertake, we have to raise a small fist of jubilance to Grace for having survived."
--The Boston Sunday Globe
"Ms. Smith possesses a fine talent for creating narrative voices, whether the ungrammatical eloquence of a hill-country healer or the educated affectations of a Richmond gentleman."
--The New York Times Book Review
"Lee Smith patiently woos us into double vision. . . . As her fans know, [she] has one of the truest ears for the speech in her part of the world."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
Captures the Southern Voice May 15, 2008
This was the first book I've read by Lee Smith, but it will surely not be the last. Haunting, riveting, and exact prose coupled with a strong narrative voice, interesting plot elements (yes, these do include the handling of poisonous snakes as a sign of favor from the Almighty), and well-drawn characters make Saving Grace a worth while read.
Great read March 18, 2008
She is a great writer. Her stories can be very disturbing at times. They are very authentic. You feel as though you are there in the back country and hollers.
 Finding independent identity June 8, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book was a good light read, but I must say that I was disappointed that the protagonist never did seem to find an independent identity. She moved from life in reference to father immediately to life in reference to husband to life in reference to male companion. The ending, if meant to be a break from that succession was not convincing, or well developed enough. Poor Florida Grace did not seem to find her saving grace.
 Riviting tale about a bizarre Southern subculture. June 12, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Saving Grace by Lee Smith is the tale of Grace Shepherd, a woman whose life is largely defined by two Southern primitive Christian ministers--Virgil Shepherd, her egomaniacal, sociopath philandering father and Travis Word, her pious, inflexible, straight-laced, repressed husband.
Brought up in abject poverty by her neglectful father Grace has no life outside her immediate family and the charismatic, serpent handling congregation of her fathers in rural North Carolina. Her life is her father and his religion--though Grace does not truly or successfully fit into either world. As her life's journey her fathers abuse and negligence will cause most of her siblings to abandon the family and her beloved mother to commit suicide. Eventually her father will totally abandon her and she will turn to--and marry--her rescuer, Travis Word. A noble man in many ways, Travi's considerable advantage in years and near total sexual repression will lead Grace to stray--to disastrous effect.
In spite of all this, Grace manages to find some bearings, raise two successful daughters and develop enough courage to go back "home" and confront her roots and personal demons.
This is a riveting book in many ways. Grace's personal story is as captivating as it is unsettling. The insights into the strange Southern primitive Christian world are mesmerizing. The cast of characters--and it is quite a cast of characters--that populate the novel are enormously engaging. The writing is exquisite.
Some of the other reviews alluded to this being among Lee's less successful novels. If this is here bad stuff--an assessment I find ludicrous--I can hardly wait to get to the good stuff.
A really great novel on many levels.
Brilliant and well-researched January 7, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A brilliant and refreshingly unusual read... Much darker than her other works with characters that are well-developed and believable. Some sections so accurately described (the Randy years) that you would swear Ms. Smith has lived another life. Very accurate with regard to fundmentalist Christianity in the 40's and 50's. Great read for a long weekend!
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