What a beautiful intergenerational tale of music, family, religion, the Appalachian south and all the complications thereof! I've been reading some of Smith's earlier works lately, where she's starting to find her groove, and in this novel, she totally found it!

The timing is perfect, as she seems to pace each generation's story in just the right way, and I felt drawn to every character in the book.

This is definitely one of those novels where the family tree on the inside cover is a must. At first, I kept flipping back and forth to try to keep all the family members straight, but I realized pretty quickly that it is almost better that you can't keep every detail of every character in your mind. Instead, what ends up happening is that Smith incorporates details from generations past -- someone is drawn to vodka, someone finds themselves overcome by religion, etc. -- and you think, oh wow, this is something that was buried in the family history/mythology and is cropping up again. I LOVED this because I totally believe that we carry aspects of our ancestors within us, and we do this subconsciously most of the time.

Smith absorbed me in these stories to the very last page. I'm sad to have to let these characters go.