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News of the Spirit
New York Times bestselling author Lee Smith offers her signature mix of wit and heartbreak, as well as her “unerring ear for the lyrical and the down and dirty,” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) in this superb collection of stories.
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
17 people are currently reading
321 people want to read
About the author
Lee Smith
43 books994 followersGrowing 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.
The sense of place infusing her novels reveals her insight into and empathy for the people and culture of Appalachia. Lee Smith was born in 1944 in Grundy, Virginia, a small coal-mining town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, not 10 miles from the Kentucky border. The Smith home sat on Main Street, and the Levisa River ran just behind it. Her mother, Virginia, was a college graduate who had come to Grundy to teach school.
Her father, Ernest, a native of the area, operated a dime store. And it was in that store that Smith's training as a writer began. Through a peephole in the ceiling of the store, Smith would watch and listen to the shoppers, paying close attention to the details of how they talked and dressed and what they said.
"I didn't know any writers," Smith says, "[but] I grew up in the midst of people just talking and talking and talking and telling these stories. My Uncle Vern, who was in the legislature, was a famous storyteller, as were others, including my dad. It was very local. I mean, my mother could make a story out of anything; she'd go to the grocery store and come home with a story."
Smith describes herself as a "deeply weird" child. She was an insatiable reader. When she was 9 or 10, she wrote her first story, about Adlai Stevenson and Jane Russell heading out west together to become Mormons--and embodying the very same themes, Smith says, that concern her even today. "You know, religion and flight, staying in one place or not staying, containment or flight--and religion." From Lee Smith's official website.
The sense of place infusing her novels reveals her insight into and empathy for the people and culture of Appalachia. Lee Smith was born in 1944 in Grundy, Virginia, a small coal-mining town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, not 10 miles from the Kentucky border. The Smith home sat on Main Street, and the Levisa River ran just behind it. Her mother, Virginia, was a college graduate who had come to Grundy to teach school.
Her father, Ernest, a native of the area, operated a dime store. And it was in that store that Smith's training as a writer began. Through a peephole in the ceiling of the store, Smith would watch and listen to the shoppers, paying close attention to the details of how they talked and dressed and what they said.
"I didn't know any writers," Smith says, "[but] I grew up in the midst of people just talking and talking and talking and telling these stories. My Uncle Vern, who was in the legislature, was a famous storyteller, as were others, including my dad. It was very local. I mean, my mother could make a story out of anything; she'd go to the grocery store and come home with a story."
Smith describes herself as a "deeply weird" child. She was an insatiable reader. When she was 9 or 10, she wrote her first story, about Adlai Stevenson and Jane Russell heading out west together to become Mormons--and embodying the very same themes, Smith says, that concern her even today. "You know, religion and flight, staying in one place or not staying, containment or flight--and religion." From Lee Smith's official website.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
May 22, 2018
I found the same satisfaction in this collection of short stories as I always find in the novels of Lee Smith. She is an outstanding writer who so clearly captures the various voices of the South.
October 27, 2011
Lee Smith is a wonderful Southern writer who really gets into the heart of character. She brings the characters to life for a brief time and we get a glimpse into their lives. Family and how people find their place in the world, seem to be themes of these stories. There are so many good stories in this book, that it would be hard for me to pick just one, but I especially loved The Happy Memories Club, about a spunky little old woman in a retirement home who is determined to live out her life doing what she wants. This is a great book for picking up between novels and getting a fulfilling story.
September 25, 2019
What can you say about Lee Smith except that she's absolutely the best. I hadn't read her in years, so News of the Spirit came as a breath of fresh air. Her ability to capture and convey the language, mannerisms, experiences, and even thinking of such a variety of types of people is simply amazing. In each short story, you drop in to the mind of the protagonist telling her story and have an instant insider view into one of an infinite variety of lifestyles and communities. Each protagonist is striving for more: for exciting, for different, for not just accepting life as it is and muddling along.
January 17, 2020
I loved these stories! My favorite was Live Bottomless. My least favorite was the title story which I couldn't seem to relate to. All the stories, except for News of the Spirit and Blue Wedding, were told in first person which made them so personal and immediate that I could relate to the main character no matter how young, old, or strange. There is humor and there is just enough of a hint of darkness to keep these real and a little edgy.
Delightful.
Delightful.
July 17, 2023
Lee Smith brings depth and pathos to what could easily be stock, 2D characters. Her Southern women always exhibit at least some elements of self deprecation and wry humor but she also gives us glimpses into the melancholy and yearning underneath. Some of these stories haven't aged so well but this collection remains classic Smith.
August 24, 2023
Six excellent stories in this book, although I still love a novel!
From Live Bottomless:
He looked at me sadly, solemnly, like a tragic hero. Daddy had dark circles beneath his eyes now, and his hands shook. He was supposedly living for love, but it seemed to me more like he was dying of it. I hated him. I hated him for being so weak, for loving her more than he loved us.
From Live Bottomless:
He looked at me sadly, solemnly, like a tragic hero. Daddy had dark circles beneath his eyes now, and his hands shook. He was supposedly living for love, but it seemed to me more like he was dying of it. I hated him. I hated him for being so weak, for loving her more than he loved us.
September 25, 2021
3.5 (why do I think 3 stars if never enough but 4 stars is too much?) Short stories by a “new for me” author. Southern and gritty, just the way I like it. Will be reading more of her writing as I have three more books of hers on my shelf.
January 21, 2019
Love her voice!
December 2, 2019
Stories with voices which are familiar.
June 29, 2020
Love Lee Smith's short stories. Did not disappoint.
September 8, 2020
Cute little book with short stories.
March 29, 2022
Collection of short stories, all of which occur in the South. I enjoyed them all, enough to look for other books by this author.
January 23, 2023
A solid collection of short stories - excellent sense of place.
January 17, 2021
Lee Smith is becoming one of my favorite writers. This is an enjoyable book of short stories featuring mostly female characters.
January 1, 2023
Granted, I am a huge fan of Lee Smith and for the very reason of this book; Smith has a gift for bringing to life stories we can relate to or, sometimes more excitingly, cannot relate to at all and wonder what is going on in the character's mind and past.
Another great read.
Another great read.
April 13, 2018
Argh, I hate rating short story collections. Just by virtue of them being a collection, it's almost a given that there will be some stories that appeal more than others, and which ones appeal at any given time can depend on something as fickle as the reader's mood. Also, I have this outdated idea that a short story should have the same arc as longer works: conflict, climax, resolution. So many of them feel more like random scenes or character sketches.
In any event, I do like Lee Smith's writing style and how well she draws her characters. For those things, I would give this book a four. Unfortunately, nothing actually happens in most of the stories (to my satisfaction, anyway). They just sort of meander through some exposition, then drop off into a vague sense of continuity elsewhere. So my "enjoyment rating" of the stories themselves as whole units, I'm going to have to go with a 2.5 or so. Still, it's worth reading for the adept way Smith captures the south. I'm picky about that, especially if the writer is describing an area where I have lived. Lee Smith's depiction of North Carolina is almost always spot-on to how I remember it.
In any event, I do like Lee Smith's writing style and how well she draws her characters. For those things, I would give this book a four. Unfortunately, nothing actually happens in most of the stories (to my satisfaction, anyway). They just sort of meander through some exposition, then drop off into a vague sense of continuity elsewhere. So my "enjoyment rating" of the stories themselves as whole units, I'm going to have to go with a 2.5 or so. Still, it's worth reading for the adept way Smith captures the south. I'm picky about that, especially if the writer is describing an area where I have lived. Lee Smith's depiction of North Carolina is almost always spot-on to how I remember it.
February 14, 2014
Lee Smith is the quintessential teller of short stories. She is able to paint stories of characters during turning points in their lives that seem to touch at the inner soul of its reader. In this collection of six stories we travel through such lives as love touches them in all of it queer dimensions. Is it that we may see a small part of ourselves, rather good or bad that seem to keep us turning each page? Maybe, but no matter what part of my inner being Lee Smith touches with her stories I am unable to turn away.
August 20, 2008
Pieces of this book had such potential but each short story seemed to just end without really developing the entire story. Another Good Reads friend said that maybe they just didn't like short stories... I think the biggest problem here was that the stories and the characters in them didn't differentiate enough from one to the next so I found myself getting mixed up between stories. Why didn't she just make a composite character and write one story?
February 12, 2018
Lee Smith is one of my favorite authors, and this short story book really showcases the reasons why. She takes deceptively simple things and makes them profound, in my opinion. Although her settings are in the south, and her characters are primarily women in small towns, she never falls into the annoyingly cliched southern chick lit genre. This is literary fiction, and it will make an impression, if it's your kind of thing.
August 21, 2016
I found this while trying to whittle down my huge pile of unread books. I'm not big on short stories, so I was curious as to why I bought it, but thought I would give it a perfunctory glance before it went on the donate stack. And I kept reading. I liked some stories better than others, of course, "The Bubba Stories" and "Live Bottomless" being my favorites. "Quirky Southern" is a genre that can get very ridiculous very fast, but these stories don't cross that line. So...not bad.
January 25, 2011
Some of the stories were great, I particularly liked "Live Bottomless". My only complaint is that it seemed that a lot of the same type of character showed up in several stories - the distant or mentally unstable but beautiful mother and the spunky daughter among them. But they were all quick, fairly engaging reads that I enjoyed.
February 3, 2008
Another of my fav southern authors. Some of these stories are like little movies in your mind when you read them. A great diversion from my studies during school, when I couldn't commit to a full book read.
July 29, 2008
Maybe I just don't like short stories, but I thought these were not very interesting. I liked the other book I've read by Lee Smith, Saving Grace, much more.
April 25, 2010
I love Lee Smith's characters, for all their faults, and the way she can worm them into my heart. I don't normally enjoy short stories, because I never feel like I'm given enough, but Ms. Smith was able to write each story perfectly.
March 14, 2010
I can't wait to read Lee Smith's new book of short stories. She is coming to Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh late March.
January 10, 2009
Read these stories for my writing class. Some I adored and some left me underwhelmed. But as a whole, a good collection.
May 28, 2009
I know. an adult book. crazy!! I forgot how much I loved a) short stories and b) Lee Smith. This book completely sucked me in and each story was magical in its own way. She's also HILARIOUS.
November 21, 2009
Just lovely
September 30, 2010
Some of these short stories were better than others, of course; but all of them were interesting in their own ways.
March 10, 2011
This was one of the 1998 RUSA Notable Books winners. For the complete list, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rus...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews