Product Description

"Brilliant, haunting, dark, joyous, remarkably compelling...immensely difficult to put down...a master storyteller."

THE VILLAGE VOICE

A childhood memory re-experienced, a funeral that brings about a family reunion, and the excavation of a swimming pool on the site of an old well, uncover family secrets and air the dirty linen in this behind-the-scenes look at life and family, memory and forgetfulness, anger and forgiveness in a small Southern town.

"Falls in line with the best of classical Southern fiction...but Ms. Smith's vision is her own and places her among the best of contemporary Southern writers."

THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION


From the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1267815 in Books
• Published on: 1996-08-27
• Released on: 1996-08-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Weak effort.
Though "Family Linen" was at first an interesting book, it soon became annoying. It began with an interesting premise, but it seemed to lose track of its original point. The different characters' voices were not as distinct as they are in some of Lee Smith's other books, and while their personalities were certainly different, the transitions between characters were not clear enough for the reader to be sure of who was talking. Also, this book really featured none of the same dark humor as is commonplace in Lee Smith novels, and I found none of the characters to be particularly likeable, so while I don't ask for a character I can "root for," I DO want a reason to turn the page. I guess I was just expecting more from an author I have enjoyed so much.

It all comes out in the wash
Nobody is better than Lee Smith when it comes to creating marvelous characters and Family Linen is filled with them. No cardboard creatures these, but full bodied human beings most of whom are somewhere in our own lives. My only quarrel with Smith is that she sometimes gets so deeply involved with these characters, she forgets to tell us where they are going. Family Linen does have more of a plot and a mystery that will keep the reader turning the pages until it is solved. And even when we know, the characters are still the strongest force in the book.Read it and see which one of your neighbors or relatives are right there to be discovered.

Ultimately very disappointing
I am a big fan of Lee Smith. No author today is capable of bringing the southern family to life the way she does and she does it again in Family Linen. The only problem is that she hangs them out to dry too long. There are all these wonderful characters, each with their own distinct voice and unique story to tell but then nothing really happens. She tries to cover it up by saying small town gossip gets forgotten as soon as there's something new to talk about but it shouldn't work that way in a book. When you've invested a couple of hundred pages in something there should be some kind of payoff. Definitely not her best effort.