The Last Girls

Rating:
Summary: Depressing and badly written
Review: I can't believe the same woman who wrote Fair and Tender Ladies wrote The Last Girls, too.

The characters in The Last Girls are self-absorbed and cliched so much that I don't care a bit about them. And what are the odds, in a real world, that two of the men in the story (Gene and Kenneth) would be legally blind but fabulous lovers nonetheless? Harriet is the stereotypical meek-never-married-sorry-she-was-ever-born and I was so sick of reading her story. Baby is wild and angry; Catherine has to have a man to feel whole; blah, blah, blah.

What a stupid, stupid book. If you absolutely must read it, get it from the library and don't say you weren't warned.

Rating:
Summary: relatable
Review: Lee Smith's Last Girls was enjoyable. The author's style did not get in the way of the story. The book provided insight into character motivation. With the collection of characters in this book I believe everyone will find someone they can relate to. The ending is not as tight as the rest of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: What a bumper year for Southern fiction 2002 turned out to be! Within months of each other we saw the publication of Tartt's "The Little Friend" and Smith's "The Last Girls." They complement each other well, dealing with a new generation and a fading one. Both are amusing portraits of Southern life. Both have interesting, even fascinating, characters. Neither has a plot. Given a choice, go with the Tartt. But why deny yourself the pleasure of reading "The Last Girls"?

Rating:
Summary: An Enthralling Read
Review: This is the first book by Smith that I've read, but it certainly won't be the last. It's a good, thought-provoking book that uses the college experiences of a group of women as the linchpin of the story. How these girls grew up, a few pivotal years in college, and the thirty or so years since their time together are explored through each character's experiences. It makes a point about how often people don't see more than the surface of even those closest to them, and how reluctant people are to reveal themselves. Sometimes it's safer and there's more superficial fun to be had by not looking too closely. This book certainly doesn't wrap up the characters' journeys with a big happy bow, nor does it give clear indications about what will happen to the characters beyond the end of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Ms. Smith's Best Novel Yet!
Review: For me this is Lee Smith's greatest book. Like the characters in this rich novel, she has reached thoughtful middle-age. According to the jacket blurb, the story is based on a a real life incident that Ms. Smith and other friends experienced while students at Hollins College, a ride down the Mississippi on a raft. This novel is the story of women who went down the river on a raft in 1965 and those who made a similar journey in 2000, but this time they are on a river boat and much older and wiser-- well, sort of. On this trip there are four women. One of them, Harriet, has the ashes of one of the original participants in the young frolic. Ms. Smith is totally on target about the 60's; all her allusions ring true from STEPPENWOLF (the novel, not the rock group)to Simon and Garfunkel to the fashions of the times et cetera. What has happened to these characters reminds me of what another 60's Icon John Lennon said, "Life is what happens when yuou're busy making other plans." Or not making plans in the case of Harriet. For us English majors it was old home week as well with references to Yeats, the crushes on professors, the earnest student poetry. And certainly all of us knew at least one student more pretentious than we were who named his or her dog not Fido but after a literary figure--I remember a yappy dog named "Pip" from GREAT EXPECTATIONS--Ms. Smith got it all just right.

There is a myriad of details about these characters; both the men and women characters are complex and richly developed. Although the device of having characters ride down a river has every chance of being trite and artificial, the author avoids these pitfalls just as the original rafters must have avoided the dangers of the Mississippi. The excitement and wonder of youth have given way to trecherous middle-age where the prospects of early Alzheimer's, breast cancer and suicide loom. To paraphrase another writer Ms. Smith obviously likes, "things fall apart." This is particularly so in middle-age.

One thing Ms. Smith seems to be asking is how much do we really know about our closest friends, a chilling thought.

I raced through the last hundred pages of this book. For me that is the ultimate compliment you can give to any writer.

Rating:
Summary: A journey of life
Review: After reading Oral History I knew I was on to a great writer. Lee Smith does not short change us with this new novel. Her characters are women we all know and depending on your age, have probably grown up with. Her talent at weaving tragedy with humor is on full display with The Last Girls. This novel makes those of us in middle age re-think the choices we've made and the opportunities we might have missed. However, the way Smith writes it with humor and grace keeps the novel from becoming a downer. I agree that Lee Smith is not only a southern treasure but a national one too. It is to the point where I read not only her books but also books she provides comment on. Some good ones I've found thanks to her reviews on the covers are Moon Women, A Place Called Wiregrass, and Clay's Quilt.

Rating:
Summary: Dopey and dippy
Review: I was there, at college in 1964, so I know what it was like to be a "last girl." But why revisit yet again? So many writers born when I was (1946) think readers want to know what went on in their youths. Boring. Harriet is a pain in the neck, the other women are stereotypical. The only thing that kept me reading was Smith's sense of humor. I had to skip some pages - long winded Southern history. Who cares? P.S. I have read many or all of Smith's books and found them fascinating. This is just a romance novel.

Rating:
Summary: Rollin' on the River -- Yes!
Review: I haven't finished "The Last Girls" yet. I'm not even very far into it, preferring to limit myself (it's hard) to only a few pages a day so I won't get overly exuberant and start jumping over hedges or turning cartwheels in the grass. Even with as little as I've read, however, I can tell I'll be sorry to see it end. One reviewer put it perfectly when she said that this book -- I would add: and all Lee Smith's books -- makes you want to LIVE!

And to the two reviewers who didn't like it: Are you out of your minds?

Rating:
Summary: This novel will delight both Smith's fans and newcomers
Review: Dateline: Paducah, Kentucky July 24, 1966
---Sixteen college seniors begin a journey down the Mississippi River: homage to "Huckleberry Finn" and a farewell to their girlhood. They built their own raft, kept journals and had the time of their young lives. Among the raft riders was Lee Smith, who is now an award-winning novelist.

Smith says, "Since it's always easier for me to tell the truth in fiction, THE LAST GIRLS is a novel. Huck was an American Odysseus off on an archetypal journey ... the oldest plot of all. According to the archetype, the traveler learns something about himself (not herself [historically]) along the way" --- and from this premise emerges the story of Smith's new heroines.

Dateline: Memphis, Tennessee May 7, 1999
---The five women who comprise the cast of LAST GIRLS gather at the Peabody Hotel in preparation for another trip on the Mississippi River. But this time, it will be in a luxurious riverboat and with a different mission. One of the original rafters has died and the small group has decided to scatter her ashes upon the water.

Now in their fifties, the women understand, that this river ride will be another "coming of age" experience for each of them. Harriet Holding, spinster and teacher, narrates the story. With her on this tragic-comic trip is Anna Todd, a romance writer with a worldwide reputation; Catherine Wilson, a sculptress, married to her third husband; Courtney Gray, socialite; and of course there is "Baby", their now dead comrade whose ashes they will scatter upon the mighty Mississippi.

Lee Smith is a "Southern storyteller" in the tradition of William Faulkner and Mark Twain. Her gifts are capturing nuance to enhance her characters and writing lyrical prose, while at the same time, allowing the reader "in" for a close glimpse of their lives. They are serious and eccentric, they are sassy and romantic, they are 'southern belles' and they are women who have charted their own lives and are still learning to live with their decisions.

Of the LAST GIRLS Smith sums up her mission this way, "I'm trying to examine the idea of romance, the relevance of past to present, the themes of memory and desire." Both fans and newcomers to Smith's work will be delighted with her accomplishments.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Rating:
Summary: A Novel That Leaves You Soaring
Review: This long awaited novel did not disappoint! Lee Smith is at her best in this tale of old friends reuniting and coming to terms with middle age. Her humor and picture perfect descriptions left me laughing and breathless all at the same time. What a great talent. She is the Eudora Welty for the next generation!