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Lamott's thoughts and stories and unconventional comparisons are good to read. And her writing is very enjoyable -- with just enough details and images to slip easily into place. The overture (prolog of sorts) sets up what is to follow, with Lamott saying that her faith journey has been rather haphazard and unorderly, but looking back there is a clarity in the ways God has moved. This looking back and seeing God at work is true in my own life, so hearing His presence reflected in the life of another is quite enjoyable.

One of my favorite things about Lamott is her blunt honesty. The chapter titled "Forgiveness" begins with "I went around saying for a long time that I am not one of those Christians heavily into forgiveness -- that I am one of the other kind." (p128) After living a life without forgiving, suddenly deciding to forgive others is a big struggle (even when one has practice forgiving others, it can still be a challenge!). She shares a story about a certain woman who she was able to learn to forgive. Not perfectly, and not so that they suddenly became best friends - but so that they could live at peace together. It seems like too often we hear stories about people who decided to be good or to stop a certain sin and suddenly everything was perfect. That does happen sometimes. But humans are works in progress. The amazing thing is that God loves us anyway. In spite of the fact that we can only learn grain by grain instead of spoonful by spoonful, usually. Lamott graciously invites the reader to enjoy and be encouraged both by her own humanity, and the God who loves her in the midst of it.

Title:	Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Author:	Anne Lamott
Date published:	1999
Genre:	Autobiography, Spiritual
Number of pages:	272
Notes:	Repeat reading

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A story set in the future where they have the power to send people back to various points in history, using 'the net'. The net won't allow irregularities, so someone who was sick with a disease that the 'contemporaries' (aka those who lived in the past) wouldn't be able to travel to the past. And viruses etc. cannot come through the net either. Kivrin, a young college student, wants to return through the net as an historian to the middle ages (1320 or so). She takes the initiative and learns various languages so she should be able to communicate, grows long hair, learns practical skills like riding a horse and milking a cow, and does research so she'll be able to fit in (at least mostly!) with the contemps. She is sent back, and even as she is leaving things are going wrong in the present -- and within a few days a full-blown epidemic is happening. The two stories (past and present) mirror each other and reflect each other in beautiful ways.

Mr. Dunworthy is Kivrin's closest tutor. Others helped her to learn language or various skills, but Mr. Dunworthy is the one who made sure she knew what to learn, encouraged her to be wise in how she went about things, and became almost a father to her. Kivrin has a recorder imbedded in her wrists, so she can hold her hands like she is praying and record observations and thoughts without raising suspicion, and most of her words are directed to Mr. Dunworthy. When she is scared that things have gone dreadfully wrong and she may not be able to get back home it is Mr. Dunworthy that she hopes for - it is him that she trusts to keep the net open so she can return and to find her. At the same time, Mr. Dunworthy is doing everything he can to get the net open, to find out where and when she is exactly, to save her - but this is incredibly difficult with all the restrictions that have been put in place because of the epidemic. This also happens to be taking place around Christmas, so there are a couple different reflections from Mr. Dunworthy about God sending His Son to save humanity and parallels between Mr. Dunworthy and Kivrin. Without being heretical, Willis raises interesting questions.

Kivrin is sent back to 1320 but due to a variety of factors ends up in the wrong time. In 1348, when the black death hits the specific part of England where she is. Before she went she was immunized so isn't in danger of becoming infected, but everyone around her is in danger. She knows what it is and how it is transferred from person to person, so she frantically tries to care for those she has come to know and love in her short time with them -- but without medicine and knowledge that isn't available yet in the past she can only do so much. So she and father Roche (priest for the village) care for those who are sick and dying. Watch them die. Not what Kivrin signed up for -- but she cannot leave them (both because she doesn't know where the net is and because she cares for them too much), so she stays and helps bring hope to the village and family who took her in when she was sick (same virus that becomes an epidemic in her own time). Being present, since there isn't much else to do.

Colin is the great nephew of Mr. Dunworthy's good friend, Dr. Ahrens. Colin is coming up to spend the Christmas season with her, but because of the epidemic and the desire to keep it contained his train is sent back. As an adventurous and bright twelve-year old, he finds a way around it and comes searching for his great aunt. His energy and youth help bring hope into this story so full of sickness and suffering and death. He helps with anything that needs to be done (as long as it is somewhat fun) and keeps pushing Mr. Dunworthy and others to hope, to do what needs to be done even if it seems impossible. With so many serious topics and ideas in the book, it's important to be reminded of youth and possibility and adventure. That there is beauty and hope and things worth fighting for in life. Strength for today.

Title:	Doomsday Book
Author:	Connie Willis
Date published:	1992
Genre:	Historical Fiction
Number of pages:	578
Notes:	Read in less than a week

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A beautiful, mesmerizing, and deeply sad book. This is my second reading, and I was astounded at how moving it was (even more than on my first reading, somehow, because I knew where it was heading), and how deeply interconnected all the themes and stories and characters are. The book is told from the perspective of Jeff Johnston,a historian who does research for a Civil War novelist, Broun. Through his old college roommate Richard, now a psychologist working at a sleep institute, Jeff meets Annie, a young woman dreaming things about the Civil War with incredible detail that she couldn't possibly know-- Lee's cat, Tom Tita, that was left at Arlington; Lee's bandaged hands; Hill's horse's legs getting shot out from under him... As they delve more into her dreams, they quickly discover that Annie is dreaming Robert E. Lee's dreams, but it takes them longer to find out the meaning and the reason for her dreams.

Jeff is immediately taken with Annie, and wants to do anything he can to help her, so he takes her with him to Fredericksburg to get her away from Richard (who has been giving her drugs without her knowledge, and has taken advantage of her, in Jeff's opinion). While there, he's doing some research for Broun's new book-- on Lincoln and his dreams before his death-- and also working on the galleys for Broun's recently completed book, The Duty Bound. There are all kinds of parallels with the characters in the book, their sense of duty, and the crazy, illogical things people do in war-time, and the present-day characters. Annie believes she is helping Lee by sharing his grief and his guilt through the dreams, and there is all kinds of language about battles and retreats, Annie's insistence on not deserting Lee (the beloved commander), and former friends (Richard & Jeff) now being on enemy sides.

The representation of Annie's dreams is masterful and makes them so believable as dreams-- they are made up of people and places that are familiar to her, yet she somehow knows they are something else at the same time. Her childhood home stands in for Lee's home at Arlington, the red-headed waitress shows up as Katie, Annie Lee's beloved friend. Richard, who had betrayed her, shows up as Longstreet, the commander who failed Lee and turned Pickett's charge into a disaster. This seems so believable to me because it seems like the way dreams work, the way we experience them-- places and people melt seemlessly into other places and people, things are familiar and strange all at once...

Eventually, Jeff figures out that the dreams are a symptom of Annie being sick, and her weak heart. Jeff later decides that the dreams were some kind of message (and there are many instances of lost messages, unreadable notes, and the like in the dreams-- which reminds me some of Willis' book Passage), to warn Annie, to save her. Annie's dreams connect back to Lincoln and the research Jeff was doing for Broun, because Broun comes to believe that Lincoln's prophetic dream of his own death was caused by his acromegaly. But because Jeff had promised not to try to stop the dreams (as Richard had done), he lets her go. At the end, Jeff reveals his understanding of what part he played in all of this (although, on the second reading, I saw a lot more hints of this revelation), and for some reason it is heart-breaking (because it so perfectly emblematic of his love for Annie, his inability to save her from death and grief); he was Annie's Traveller: the beloved, intelligent steed who was perfectly suited to Lee, who served faithfully throughout the war-- and who died of lockjaw only two years after Lee died.

Title:	Lincoln's Dreams
Author:	Connie Willis
Date published:	1987
Genre:	Science Fiction ?
Number of pages:	228
Notes:	Second reading; read in a single Saturday.

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What I like so much about Barbara Pym’s writing is that she manages to take the lives of ordinary, rather dowdy characters, and make them compelling and interesting. Nothing much seems to happen in her novels, but always the characters stand out distinctly as sentient individuals, unique in their circumstances, tendencies, and feelings. Even though the characters show their selfishness or cowardice, they are never repulsive. Pym’s gentle hand leads the reader toward tolerance and empathy rather than censure. As in Excellent Women and Jane and Prudence, the prose is fresh and forthright, unaffected and delightfully ironic.

This book is a cross-sectional view of the lives of Letty, Marcia, Norman, and Edwin, four older people who work together. Their jobs are not very important or interesting, and they have developed fairly typical office relationships, marked by routine and reserve. When Letty and Marcia retire at the same time, the office relationships are fractured in an uncomfortable way. While each feels a sense of interest in the well-being of the others, no one knows how to easily continue their acquaintances without awkwardness. Marcia’s dubious grip on health and sanity begins to wane; she begins acting as if she didn’t know the other three. Letty, a spinster with no family, is disappointed to find that her plans to retire quietly in the country have been disrupted, and she is left in the lurch with no permanent place to live and no real friends.

There is a good deal of hopelessness that wafts across the pages of the book, but the book overall is not hopeless. All of these people are solitary creatures who often fail to make meaningful connections with those around them. Letty’s life in particular is often tinged with sadness. Yet she does not wallow in her isolation or become depressed, rather, she is firm in her practical approach to each new event. Her renewed, tentative friendship with Edwin and Norman at the end of the book is simultaneously tender and unsentimental.

Title:	Quartet in Autumn
Author:	Barbara Pym
Date published:	1977
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	218

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This fourth book in the Earthsea trilogy returns to the character of Tenar, formerly a priestess among The Tombs of Atuan, now much older and known to the villagers of Gont as Flint's widow, Goha. Tenar and an older, power-drained Ged finally get to be together, but the book is much more about gender issues and how we treat those who are different than us-- most particularly in the character of Therru, a child who has been abused and who bears the evidence of that abuse visibly in the burn scars that disfigure her face and cripple one of her hands, living in a society that figures she must be cursed or evil or in some sense deserve this terrible thing.

A fair bit of the book is about the differences between male and female power. Tenar gets to know one of the village witches, and learns from her some sense of how they are different-- the witch claims that her power is connected to the earth, and describes men as shells that contain great power. When Ged returns, completely drained of all his power (I vaguely remember that he used all his reserves of magic to save Earthsea in the last book), he does seem empty. He has to learn all over how to live, how to be-- as if he were a child again. Tenar also learns why she and Ged never consummated their love before (even though they were close)-- a mage is in some sense like a priest, devoted to the source of his power and unwilling to dilute or waste it on other ventures.

Another part of the gender roles in the book-- since Ged has lost his power he is no longer Archmage, and the other mages are trying to figure out who should be the next Archmage. They can't come up with a name, and the Patterner only comes up with "a woman on Gont." One of the mages talks to Tenar, and she realizes he can't even hear what she has to say-- he's so convinced that the woman on Gont is meant to lead them to a man, he can't see or hear the woman herself. Similar things happen at other times in the book: Tenar is the one present when the mage Ogion dies (he waited until she came), and he tells her his true name. The other mages who come later to bury him can scarcely believe that he would tell her, a woman, his name.

Therru is a very interesting character. Other people are afraid of her, and sometimes even Tenar wonders if she did right to save the child (since her life is such a misery, at least in the eyes of others). More than once, Tenar feels heat radiating from the child, and I think it's implied that it is some kind of effect of the burns-- but I suspected early on that there was something more to it. That, tied with Therru's love of the story about how dragons and humans were once the same people, and Ogion's sense of her power, made me somewhat less than surprised when it was revealed she was somehow a child of the great dragon.

Years ago I read one of LeGuin's essays on female archetypes, and she described the "space crone" as a strong female figure-- Tenar reminded me of this idea. Even though she's not a space crone exactly, I think she falls in that category. She's a mother and a grandmother, and no longer cares so much about what men think of her.

An interesting book, although more political and pointed in its views than I remember the other Earthsea books being (closer to the strong political nature of The Dispossessed). I think there are more Earthsea books now (in what was for a long time a trilogy); I'm not clamoring for more, but I am curious to see what LeGuin will do with the strange Therru.

Title:	Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea
Author:	Ursula K. LeGuin
Date published:	1990
Genre:	Fantasy
Series:	The Earthsea Cycle
Number of pages:	226

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An interesting story with all kinds of fairy tale characters. The premise is that years ago their homeland was invaded by an emperor who was taking over all the magical kingdoms, and those who survived escaped into our world-- and now they live in New York with their own secret "Fabletown," which they keep hidden from the regular people ("mundys", as they call them, for mundane). Rose Red is missing, with blood spattered all over the walls of her apartment, so the Fabletown policeman -- Bigby Wolf (known as the Big Bad Wolf to you and me)-- investigates the case, along with Rose's estranged sister, Snow White.

It's an interesting twist on the fairy tale idea, and it's fun to see all kinds of different characters consorting together-- Old King Cole is the unofficial mayor-for-life of Fabletown, Jack (of beanstalk fame) is Rose Red's boyfriend, Bluebeard gives fencing lessons to Cinderella, and one of the three pigs stays at the Big Bad Wolf's house when he escapes from the Fable farm to come to the city. In some cases, the way they "updated" the characters and stories made them seem a little too sullied and modern to me-- Snow White was abused by the dwarves, Beast is only human when Beauty is in love with him and their marriage is on the rocks, etc.

Bigby looks human, but at one point reverts to a huge wolfish form-- and I wondered about that. It's not explained during the course of the main story, but there's a brief prose story at the end that describes the invasion of the Fables' home kingdom and the part that Bigby played (harassing the armies, freeing Fables and helping them escape-- although mostly for his own reasons), and the time he first met Snow White (he has a bit of a crush on her). And, eventually, the story reveals that his human form is kind of an inversion of the werewolf curse that lets him live with the human Fables in New York.

An interesting enough story (the resolution to Rose Red's disappearance was fairly clever) and enjoyable artwork. I wouldn't buy this book, but I'd probably read subsequent volumes if I see them at the library.

Title:	Fable: Legends in Exile
Author:	Bill Willingham
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Graphic Novel
Number of pages:	128

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I've been wanting to reread this book ever since I saw the trailer for the recent movie because I read this book in grade school, and that trailer didn't look much like the story I vaguely remembered-- I actually thought it looked like a Narnia ripoff. Reading the book, I was surprised to discover that Narnia actually was one of the many inspirations for Leslie Burke's kingdom of Terabithia. The book is wonderful and touching-- but it's really more about Leslie Burke and Jess Aarons and less about their magic kingdom.

Jess is part of a poor family in a rural town outside of Washington. A new family moves into the run-down place nearby, and soon Jess and the new girl Leslie have become fast friends-- in spite of what the kids at school might say or how Jess' older sisters tease him about his "girlfriend." Leslie decides they need a special place all their own, so they pick a spot across a gully-- they have to swing across on an old rope on the tree-- and name their kingdom Terabithia. Leslie loans him her Narnia books so that he will know how to behave as a ruler of a magical kingdom, and she often tells him stories (her parents are both writers, so she's quite well-read, in contrast to Jess and most of his school-mates). Among the books and stories mentioned are Hamlet, Moby Dick, and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles (Jess alludes to the adventures of an "assistant pig-keeper"). On Easter Sunday, Leslie comes with the Aaron family to church-- she's never been before, and she thinks it's all a beautiful story. (It seemed a bit strange to me that she never connected it with the Narnia stories.)

Most people who know about this book probably know that it is a sad book-- because near the end, Leslie dies. There have been torrential rains, and the gully that is their way into Terabithia is so flooded that Jess is afraid to swing into it (up past his thighs), although he doesn't want to admit it to Leslie. While Jess is gone for the day, Leslie tries to go to Terabithia and the rope breaks. As most of the book, we get this all filtered through Jess' perspective, and the portrayal of a young person dealing with this kind of news is heartbreaking-- and feels quite believable. At first he's numb, and can't really believe it. He keeps thinking of how he and Leslie will talk about things later, and what everyone is saying about her being dead; at times he wants to blame her, at other times he wants to blame himself. He even thinks horrible thoughts, like that now he'll be the fastest runner in his grade (Leslie beat all the boys at recess the first day of school), or how everyone will treat him special now-- and then the next day realizes how awful it was to think such things.

When I was younger and read this, I was disappointed because there really isn't much fantasy. The title perfectly represents the focus of the book itself-- not on the magical country, but on how you get there. And really, Leslie herself is that bridge-- at least for Jess. When Jess is still reeling from the shock of Leslie's death, he thinks to himself:

She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there-- like an astronaut wondering about on the moon. Alone.

But, as the book comes to a close, he gets a sense of how being in Leslie's world has transformed him. So, he takes some spare lumber and builds a bridge across the gully into the kingdom, and then he brings his younger sister May Belle (who adores him, and who he has finally come to see as a friend) into the kingdom-- hinting that someday she might bring the younger sister, who she despises as "just a baby" in to Terabithia, too.

Leslie reminded me a bit of Stargirl-- someone who is so special, but different, and most of the kids don't get her or think she's just weird. And someone that people don't get to enjoy for as long as they'd like to.

Title:	Bridge to Terabithia
Author:	Katherine Paterson
Date published:	1977
Genre:	Children's Literature
Number of pages:	144
Notes:	repeat reading

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The title conveys some of the important aspects of love that the author explores in the book: its complicated nature, its tendency to be inconvenient, and even its ability to inflict pain. Yet the love relationships that develop between Luna, her orphaned new charge Sam, the would-be theologian Paul, and Paul’s mother Mrs. Cowan are satisfyingly healthy and realistic. The failed connections between Luna, her father, and her jilted fiance Steven provide an interesting contrast. Compared to Steven (Ph.D.) and Major Stone, deaf Paul and abused Sam are homely and pathetic, even losers. But Luna discerns their depth of character and empathy and chooses a future with Paul and Sam despite its disadvantages. Betts’ writing is candid and attentive, sometimes a little too confidential.

It is fun to hate Steven Grier. He is a perfect Adonis, plus a lettered doctor of philosophy (botany). He’s an interesting bundle of contradictions. Steven really does appear to love Luna, even though she seems difficult to love. He’s the one who really wants to get married, but often acts self-centered and can be dismissive of Luna’s thoughts and feelings. Steven harshly chides Luna about being stingy, but he sponges off her meager earnings for months – even concealing a large check his new employer sends him for moving expenses.

The weird ghost visitations by Tamsen Donner (doomed member of Donner party) and unreserved sex scenes were annoying, distasteful, and to my mind, completely irrelevant to the story. I was sorry that the author felt her plot needed such frivolous embellishments.

Title:	The Sharp Teeth of Love
Author:	Doris Betts
Date published:	1997
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	336

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Will Tweedy is a 14-year-old in a small town in Georgia in 1906. He relates the story, inasmuch as he understands (and much of which he learns by spying and eavesdropping), of his grandmother’s death, his grandfather’s hasty remarriage, and the resulting uproar. Unfortunately, it is a story that failed to rouse my interest. A year ago, I checked it out from the library, read the first 10 pages, and found it overburdened with hysteria and provincialism. So I returned it. Recently I borrowed the recorded book to give it a second chance. The excellent reader, Tom Parker, had much to do with my slogging through to the end.

There were a lot of things I didn’t like about the book, but the core problem was that I couldn’t manage to like or care about a single main character. It seemed that everyone was a) very selfish, b) hysterically concerned with other people’s opinions, or c) an incurably judgmental gossip. Several characters, especially Will Tweedy, spent considerable amounts of time and effort in scheming about how to humiliate, hurt, or avenge themselves on other people. Women’s bodies and their societal and familial roles were often mocked or made the object of demeaning practical jokes. Christian theology and practice were depicted as mere formal customs that functioned generally as a way to exclude, embarrass, or control others.

Olive Ann Burns’ writing is quite good, and her Southern flair is flawless. Doubtless every small Southern town in the early 20th century had its share of selfish storekeepers, melodramatic women, and mischievous boys, and as a chronicle of such persons, this book excels. However, it is neither a pleasant nor an edifying read.

Title:	Cold Sassy Tree
Author:	Olive Ann Burns
Date published:	1984
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	400
Notes:	Listened to Recorded Book read by Tom Parker

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I knew the basic Peter Pan story and have seen Hook multiple times, but had never read the book before. And there was plenty of unfamiliar information. One evening, Peter Pan comes to find his shadow (which had been previously lost and stored at the Darlings house), and he takes the three children -- Wendy, John, and Michael -- with him. They go to have adventures together in Neverland, with Wendy to be the mother for all the lost boys (including her two brothers and peter, of course). Neverland is inhabited by the Lost Boys, Pirates, Redskins, Beasts, and the Crocodile. And adventures there are!

Peter comes to Wendy and she is kind to him. She sews his shadow back on so he can't lose it again. So he offers to take her (and her brothers) to Neverland. He teaches them to fly and off they go to have adventures. This leaves their parents and Nana without them for a long while. Peter is one of the most selfish characters I've come across in literature. Barrie portrays that as being one of his charms, in that he is so selfish that others care for him and are gentle with him and allow him to continue on as such. Someone who is selfish and demands his own way might be enjoyable and 'cute' for a bit -- but in real life that is not the case. Life is brightened when we make a point to care for others as well as ourselves. Wendy loves being a mother (of sorts) to the Lost Boys, putting them to bed and making sure they take their medicine and such things. I guess it's disappointing to have as a 'hero' a young boy who will not grow up and insists on living only in the present without care for others. Enjoyable for a story, but definitely not characteristics I'd seek out in a friend.

Title:	Peter Pan
Author:	J.M. Barrie
Date published:	1911
Genre:	Children's Literature, Fantasy
Number of pages:	185
Notes:	Borrowed from Teodora

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Simon, Jane and Barney Drew are reunited with Will Stanton and meet his friend Bran in Wales. They, along with Merriman, are the six needed who will help find the last great object of power that may help the Light turn the tide against the advancing Dark. Bran and Will find their way into the Lost Land (something like a Welsh Atlantis) and go through several mazes and puzzles until they eventually recover the crystal sword, Eirias. Then they all trek to the Midsummer Tree with silver blossoms of mistletoe that appears once every seven hundred years, in order to use its power to drive out the Dark once and for all.

The Lost Land is a city of makers, craftsman, artists. They follow neither the Dark nor the Light, but when their King Gwyddno described the crystal sword that he knew it was in him to create, knowing that it would be a powerful weapon for the Light and that it might destroy their land, his people all still agreed that he must make it. Another character out of the Arthurian legends-- the bard who helps Will and Bran make their way to find Gwyddno is called Taliesin, among other names.

One of the most heart-breaking moments in the book centers around the character of John Rowlands, a farmhand that has known Bran since he was a boy, and who has helped both Will and Merriman without wanting to know too much about what they were doing. The children discover that his beloved wife, Blodwen, is really an agent of the Dark who has been there to keep an eye on Bran (and there are hints and suspicions of her duplicity quite early in the book). Rowlands is heartbroken by this knowledge because he truly loved his wife and feels betrayed at the Light for taking her away from him (and even her memory), and the Dark attempt to take advantage of this by choosing him as arbiter in their challenge that Bran does not belong to the time and has no right to approach the midsummer tree.

Bran gets to meet his father briefly, and at the end of the book Arthur, Merriman, and the other Old Ones (except for Will) sail away out of our world-- it reminded me of Tolkien's Elves leaving Middle Earth from the Grey Havens, or all the royals with the gift of magic leaving Prydain in Lloyd Alexander's The High King. Like Taran, Bran recognizes that this world needs him and decides to stay-- clearly a great sacrifice but also the right choice, and proving, as John Rowlands judged, that Bran did indeed belong to this time.

Jane has an interesting role to play-- when they are all looking for the Lost Land and the Lady (one of the most powerful of the Old Ones), she appears only to Jane, admitting a kind of kinship with Jane: she says that some things "may be communicated only between like and like," and goes on to say that "you and I are much the same, Jane, Jana, Juno, Jane, in clear ways that separate us from all others concerned in this quest..." Jane becomes a point of connection of like and like between the lady and Will (since she is both young and female). There's also a kind of tenderness between Bran and Jane that I found interesting. When Bran and Will are in the Lost Land, Bran comments that a girl is not as pretty as Jane, and Will responds that he hadn't noticed. Later, there's a kind of tenderness and maybe even a wistfulness towards her (for instance, when she can't see the crystal sword after he sheathes it), and he calls her "Jenny." Obviously, it wouldn't be appropriate to develop this thread too much in a children's book, but I found myself wondering if Jane might possibly be their century's Guinevere.

Title:	Silver on the Tree
Author:	Susan Cooper
Date published:	1977
Genre:	Children's Fantasy
Series:	The Dark is Rising
Number of pages:	269
Notes:	repeat reading

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Ivy Rowe, born in 1900, is a young girl growing up in the Appalacian mountains of Virginia, a middle child of a family with many children, both dead and alive. Though her life is characterized by hard work, poverty, and parental neglect, she possesses a sense of wonder and beauty that gives her joy despite her failure and disappointments. The book is collection of her letters written to the many people who intersect her life: pen pals, friends, parents, siblings, and children. Ivy is an open, perceptive, gentle, and unreserved soul, and her letters are a pleasure to read. Ivy’s distinctive voice and the detailed rendering of mountain life (and later, mining town conditions) are the strengths of this book. It is impressive how deftly the author plunges into the lives and circumstances of the characters, even with subtle details of plumbing, housework, and botany.

It was sad and a little disturbing to see Ivy, such a vigorous and sprightly girl, get caught up in the same errors and unhappy circumstances that she witnesses in her own mother’s life. She sees her mother ground down early by poverty, toil, grief, and too much childbearing. Her mother could not guide her children as she should have; first Beulah, Ivy’s sister, then Ivy herself become pregnant while unwed. Ivy gives up pursuit of an education because of her pregnancy; she foregoes books and learning, things she truly loves, because she cannot see the ultimate end of her course of action.

There is a paradoxical tendency in Ivy’s character to act according to her principles in some areas and be wholly dictated by other people (men, mostly) in others. Ivy’s strong feelings about family and heritage lead her to work hard for family unity and to keep her parent’s farm functioning. She values books and learning, so she exerts considerable willpower to continue to study; she loves her disabled sister, and so goes to great lengths to protect her from unfeeling strangers. Yet she never develops guiding principles with regard to her sexuality. Rather, she is strangely suggestible and tractable. In so many parts of her life, Ivy forms opinions and acts forcefully upon them, but maintains a blind spot for her sexual self. It is a contradictory flaw that unfortunately determines how her life unfolds.

Title:	Fair and Tender Ladies
Author:	Lee Smith
Date published:	1988
Genre:	Fiction
Number of pages:	316

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