David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "zelda-fitzgerald"

Guests on Earth: A Novel by Lee Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Asheville, North Carolina, was the setting for Thomas Wolfe’s LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL; It is also the home of George Vanderbilt’s huge estate, Biltmore. What I didn’t know was that this was where Highland Hospital, where Zelda Fitzgerald was institutionalized, was located.

Highland hospital was atypical as a sanitarium in that Dr. Robert S. Carroll, its director, emphasized exercise, diet, gardening and theater as well as electric and insulin shock therapy.

But this novel is not about Zelda Fitzgerald. The main character is Evalina Touissant, a budding musician and accompanist, who becomes unhinged when her mother commits suicide. She doesn’t quite ring true as her catatonic or schizophrenic problems happen off stage. Everybody loves Evalina, including the cook’s daughter, Ella Jean, who can sing and play the banjo like nobody’s business. Her family will remind you of the Carters. One of the problems I had with the book is that there are too many characters that author Lee Smith expects us to remember. Two of them, buddies of Evalina, Jinx and Dixie, seem like the same person. Dixie is a beautiful Southern belle with a connection to the movie “Gone With the Wind”; she seems to suffer from clinical depression, but we never find out exactly what led her to Highland. Jinx is a bubbly redhead who is always the life of the party, but keeps returning to Highland; Smith also hints at a homicidal side to her.

Zelda keeps popping in and out of the book. She likes to paint in prime colors, really weird pictures that wound up at the Corcoran Museum in Washington D.C. Zelda was still dancing while at Highland hospital and Evalina, whom Zelda called “Patricia Pieface” was her accompanist.

Evalina had two lovers while at Highland, Freddie, a doctor who wanted to marry her and a wild man nicknamed “Pan” who helped out at the greenhouse. Pan had a terrible childhood, but somehow overcame it, embracing nature.

The thread of the story moves toward the eventual fire that took the life of Zelda, and several other patients in the Central Building at Highland. There‘s a disappointing epilogue that doesn‘t answer enough questions, but I like midlist writers, and this one definitely qualifies.



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