Lee’s new book, Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger, will be published in March, 2010 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. It is a collection of new and selected stories.
Family Linen
The peculiar thought arises that Smith
writes her slightly ramshackle novels in a
mood of philanthropy, to give shelter to
her vulnerable characters. Good for her,
good for them, good for us." --Time
Family Linen (1985), another multi-generational mystery, continues and expands upon some of the themes and techniques Smith began working with in Oral History. This time around, though, the mystery is a more conventional one, at least on its surface: Did Sybill Hess long ago witness the murder of her father, or is it a trick of the memory? Did her mother really take an axe to him and dump his body in a backyard well? To answer these questions, Smith again uses multiple points of view; but, of course, instead of clearing up the matter, Family Linen's irreconcilable narratives succeed only in raising more--and more profound--questions.
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