false 199636 1565124529 9781565124523 544 139 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172623642m/199636.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199636.On_Agate_Hill_A_Novel 72932 Lee Smith 4553 623 4 0 false Thu Jun 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 20 09:57:29 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 20 10:38:39 -0700 2008
The book includes many reminders of how hard life was-babies and children dying, women dying in child birth, terrible, disfiguring accidents; and the stigma of out-of-wedlock births. And a reminder that the 1950's and 60's idea of a nuclear family is actually unusual. In this story there are children that are or have been raised by grandparents, cousins, uncles, step-parents, etc. (parents have died or "disappeared")

My favorite quote from the book: "...love lives not in places nor even bodies but in the spaces between them, the long and lovely sweep of air and sky, and in the living heart and memory until that is gone too, and we are all of us wanderers, as we have always been, upon the earth. I was free to go."]]>