Oh, my. Such a lovely, touching book. If you have any experience living in Appalachia, this will ring so true to you.

[Audiobook note: The narrator, Kate Forbes, absolutely nails the mountain accent. No caricature; no Deep South drawl. She has the real voice. And she employs it so well, aging the voice as the character grows from adolescent to aged woman.] ( )

Ivy Rowe, a poor undereducated girl growing up in Sugar Fork, Virginia, writes a series of letters to teachers, relatives, and friends. Through these letters, dating from the early 1900’s to the 1970’s, she tells her life story as well as the history of the southern Appalachian region. She paints a picture in words of her pastoral life, love of stories, family triumphs and tragedies, relationships, and personal decisions that shape her life.

The author evokes a strong sense of place, describing the weather, plants, animals, and natural beauty of the area. Ivy is a spirited, rebellious, and opinionated character. In keeping with the tradition of oral storytelling, and a sense of authenticity, the letters are written using the local dialect, colloquialisms, misspellings, and flawed grammar. The dialect lessens in later chapters, but I found this style bothersome and could only read small portions at a time. Luckily, the epistolary nature of the book makes it easy to read a few letters and come back to it later.

I can only guess that the title is ironic, as there are many strong women found here, and not many “fair and tender ladies.” It is also possible the title refers to the heroines of the books that Ivy loves to read. One of my favorite parts is the sense of immersion into history, as we see Ivy’s family home, farm, and local area become more modernized. Some of these changes pertain to automobiles, coal mines, union disputes, electricity, shopping habits, young men going off to war, and so much more. The author avoids becoming overly sentimental, and I enjoyed it much more than expected. ( )

This is a fabulous book with an unforgettable heroine named Ivy Rowe. It is great--believe you me! Set out in letters that begin with a twelve year old Ivy and take us through an entire lifetime, Ivy’s soul is put onto paper, sprinkled with all her hopes, dreams and disappointments. I defy anyone to get past the first letter without loving Ivy unreservedly. She surely made me laugh, cry, rejoice and lament, and she made me remember something of a life that I once had a glimpse of that is now gone forever. If you traveled deep into Appalachia, you might find people still living somewhat the same, but I doubt it. There just isn’t anywhere like Blue Star Mountain anymore.

I have sometimes thought that my own life has a soundtrack. I can conjure up specific events and people when I hear certain songs. Apparently, Ivy Rowe’s life had a soundtrack as well. I loved all the references to old songs and, after one of my fine GR friends, Tom, posted one of the songs off of Youtube, I felt compelled to seek out every song that was mentioned and listen to them one by one. It was a surreal experience, since they were songs that conjured my own father and his brothers, who loved nothing better than to get together on the porch with fiddle and guitars and fill the night with folk music, hymns and popular songs of their time.

Ivy dreams of a bigger life, one filled with purpose and travel and adventure, but she finds hers is destined to be a rather simple life, lived primarily at Sugar Fork and circling around a small community and a limited number of people. But, I think she finds, in the end, that simple lives have purpose too, and perhaps as many or more facets than those lived in exotic places or in fancy homes. Like the creek that leads to Sugar Fork, her life meanders and turns and changes, and it is the memory of all that moving water that matters the most.

"I felt a pain shoot through me, like an arrow in my heart. Oh Joli, you get so various as you get old! I have been so many people. And yet I think the most important thing is Don't Forget. Don't ever forget."

Lee Smith is an adroit writer, who almost paints her scenes, like airbrushing with words. I had a true sense of the beauty and wildness of Sugar Fork, the rising mountains, the foliage, and the fields of wildflowers.

"But night comes in slow over Bethel Mountain and we watch it come, like it is sneaking in I reckon, stealing across the mountains ridge by ridge, they go blue and purple before your very eyes, and then the mist will rise."

I could not be happier to have climbed this mountain with Ivy. She is so refreshingly open-minded, so kind, feeling, accepting and imperfect. Like so many of us, she doesn’t always appreciate what she has, she acts rashly, she caves into desires she barely understands, she falls for lines that she knows are not true, but she presses forward, forgives others and often forgives herself. But, through it all, she chooses. She never abdicates the choice to others and the responsibility, credit and the blame, are always hers alone. If, at the end of my life, I could look back and see a life as full of love and meaning as Ivy’s, I think I could be satisfied.

I am always indebted to Diane and The Southern Literary Trail for introducing me to the best authors and the finest books. I have discovered Tom Franklin, Howard Bahr, Tim Gautreaux, Michael Farris Smith, and now Lee Smith. How on earth do you say “thank you” for that?



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This book was so good!!!! ( )

This was my 1st Lee Smith book, which I read years ago! But I still remember how moving and impacting the characters were! True classic Southern Lit! ( )