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32nd out of 141 books
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Saving Grace
by
Lee Smith
"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 o...more
Paperback, 273 pages
Published
April 23rd 1996
by Ballantine Books
(first published 1995)
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Another Lee Smith. I find myself missing her voice when I'm not reading one of her books. Smith follows a family of snake handlers this time. For those of you who aren't from these hills, I'll tell you: snake handlers are holy rollers, people on the fringe of a Christianity that has no room for ambiguities. An interview in the back of this book shows us what Smith was thinking; she says this book really explores the vulnerability of children and how they have absolutely no control over what happ...more
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I read this on the bus to the Quilt Show in Paducah. As I add it to my list (it is now July) I actually remember very little about it. I re-read the reader's guide and remember it is about Florida Grace Shepherd and the southern dysfunction of her family sired by a serpent-handling preacher.
From reviews: 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 bro...more
From reviews: 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 bro...more
I try to read books from a lot of different genres, but it seems that I am consistently drawn back to books that are based in Appalachia. Saving Grace is the story of Florida Grace whose father is a snake handling, Pentecostal preacher. It’s a hard life she lives; always poor and always wanting. It seems like everyone is caught up with the enthusiasm her charismatic father exudes but Grace never really feels the presence of God in her life. When she becomes a teenager things begin to change in t...more
Good fiction. In talking about children's reading habits, I frequently hear that "it doesn't matter what they read as long as they read." I have always disagreed with that sentiment, because I believe it does matter - on many different levels -- what children and young adults read.
What we read eventually affects our value-systems, our vocabularies,our thought patterns, and even to some degree our approach to problem-solving. Observing a book character (a realistic human...more
What we read eventually affects our value-systems, our vocabularies,our thought patterns, and even to some degree our approach to problem-solving. Observing a book character (a realistic human...more
I really enjoyed this story. Grace is the daughter of a fanatical preacher (the kind that handles snakes and drinks poison) and often feels like she's on the outside of "normal" life, looking in -- especially since she grows up in poverty, even by the modest standards of Scrabble Creek, North Carolina. Her own relationship with God is strained at best -- she often feels that there's something bad inside her, and that badness reveals itself at different points throughout her life. It's ...more
If you are unable to tolerate reading about snakes skip this book. This is the story of the daughter of a man possessed with God and the "old time religion". Tragic and fascinating.
This was the first book by Lee Smith I have ever read and immediately become hooked. She has such an amazing style of writing that caputres your heart.
Because I love fiction set in clear regional settings, I loved this book for that reason alone. It's set in Appalachia, and tells the story of Grace through childhood and middle adulthood. There is a profound focus on the effects of zealous religious practices such as snake-handling on family members, the community, and Grace herself, and how those effects meshed (and didn't mesh) with the evolving societal characteristics right around them. The prose was magnificent--very "real"-- and...more
As a native southerner with roots in East Tennessee, the birthplace of the serpent handlers, this book struck a chord with me. I fell into the world Lee created in this novel and didn't want to come out. I met Lee in North Carolina at an autographing for this book and we had the most wonderful conversation. She is an amazing person and author, and this is an amazing book.
I'm not sure why I seem to identify with this girl, but I could not stop reading. Read it in 8 straight hours. It's a story about the Appalachian area in the 50s and 60s. Her father is a traveling preacher, who handles snakes in his revivals. Her journey from adolescence to adulthood, and through the trials and mistakes, is a very good read.
I really enjoyed this book. There is almost nothing I like more than a snappy narrator and Florida Grace is a hoot. Also, I liked the interesting subject matter - pentacostal-like religious up-bringing. The ending was rather ambiguous, but I like a book that makes me think. I definitely recommend this book.
An Applachian novel, about the evolution of a young woman out of her Pentecostal past, this is one that brought me to my knees.
Her simple use of language, her ability to make it seem so easy and natural, is amazing.
And the storytelling--as I said, it brought me to my knees.
Enough said.
Her simple use of language, her ability to make it seem so easy and natural, is amazing.
And the storytelling--as I said, it brought me to my knees.
Enough said.
A well-written story about Grace's crazy life in Eastern Tennessee that kept me wanting to sit down and finish it quickly. I fell in love with Grace and could relate to her struggles with God as she viewed Him through her own experiences versus others' experience in Church and with life.
If you have not yet discovered Lee Smith, you must begin reading her works immediately. Fair and Tender Ladies is still my favorite book by her, but this one comes a close second. On the surface, the novel tells the life story of Florida Grace, a young woman whose father travels across the mountains of North Carolina and Georgia living plainly and preaching snake handling and poison drinking to the hill folk. Beneath that surface is the true story of a woman trying to find some sense of who she ...more
This book was a bit on the dark side. I had a hard time dealing with the parade of human wreckage left in the wake of the main characters; especially the children. For me, its always about the children and I find it difficult to divorce myself from the pain they suffer.
My bookclub read this one. It is a bit of a strange book. I didn't really like it but it was interesting, about a sub-culture I know nothing about. (Churches that do snake "charming" etc.) I guess in the end I found the main character kind of annoying.
The first half, it totally had me captive--well-written, vivid characterization and good story. The second half, it went off the deep end a bit, and I was a little disappointed. But it was truthful. I recommend Gods in Alabama if you liked this book. :)
I finished this one in less than a weekend. It wasn't a book that I expected to like as much as I did and I had never read anything by Lee Smith, but I love stories set in the South and Appalachia. This was a very unique and strangely uplifting story.
If I could give this 1.5 stars I would. I loved the way the book began and the Southern setting, but I hated the left turn in the plot and the way the book ended. It is the story of Florida Grace Shepherd who is the daughter of a serpent-handling minister. As Grace comes of age, she realizes that her father is more of a womanizer than a preacher and that he excuses himself by claiming that God forgives him whenever he backslides. His behavior eventually drives Grace's mother to suicide and Grace...more
I really wanted to like this book! I liked Grace but everyone else in the book seemed distant. Rich characters but it was hard to like or empathise with any of them because their flaws were so raw.
Another different view of someone's life. Not too intense, very interesting and I really enjoyed it. It was a random pick up from the library. I would like to read more by this author.
A wonderful character and disturbing story. Such vivid fiction you feel like you're in the middle of a documentary about Appalachia, snake handlers, and fundamentalists.
I was liking this book through the first 3/4. The last chapters were so depressing somehow....pitiful lives, pitiful people, caught in the vacuum of dysfunction.
This book is wonderful. The story comes full circle; each section is distinctly different and unpredictable (except for the parts that the narrator wants us to know); and the end leaves you wondering and wanting more. A++++
My good friend passed this on to me. A fascinating book about believers in "signs" like snake handling in Appalachia. Lee Smith makes her characters so believable.
Love this writer. Even though I don't normally read this type of book, she brings a poignancy to her stories that make it hard to put down.
This is probably my favorite of Smith's novels, and not just because I love snake-handling, although I really do.
Interesting story of the about fundamentalist belief. Humility and humanity are present everywhere in this novel.
Betty Cole
added it
Story of girl raised in south in 50's; father was a snake handling traveling preacher. Culturally intriguing.
Great book! The text flows easy and freely. The characters are realistic as well.
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Growing up in the Appalachian mountains of southwestern Virginia, nine-year-old Lee Smith was already writing--and selling, for a nickel apiece--stories about her neighbors in the coal boomtown of Grundy and the nearby isolated "hollers." Since 1968, she has published eleven novels, as well as three collections of short stories, and has received many writing awards.
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