Rating: 
Summary: Was Grace really saved?
Review: Beatifully written! I kept looking for Grace to rise above her father's misguided sense of righteousness. She had her chance and then degenerated to the worst side of her father's example. The hint of reform and salvation in the conclusion was weak at best. There is even a suicidal hint which would take her in her father's direction again. The portrayal of characters through the book is beautifully graphic...too bad that the main character is left in a haze.
Rating: 
Summary: Very entertaining!
Review: I love the way Lee Smith writes. The story is told in the first person and I really felt like I knew Grace well by the end of the book. It is obvious that Smith did a lot of research about snake handlers, the story was very believable. Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: a wish for a better ending
Review: I'd forgotten I'd read this until I found it in my bookcase. It's excellent--I think almost everyone will find something to appreciate.
Rating: 
Summary: Sorry to the author
Review: In this book, Lee Smith handles the potentially tricky topic of religion marvelously. Many authors would be condescending towards fundamentalists, where Smith is relatively sympathetic and takes the approach of "one bad egg...". Everything concerning the worship, the churches, and the styles of Holiness preachers and congregations seemed extremely accurate. This book not only tells a story about a girl named Florida Grace, but it gives readers a glimpse into a little-seen and much-maligned segment of Christianity.By the way, other reviewers have complained about the ending, wishing that Grace had not returned to her home. In my opinion, she NEEDED to make this return to confront her past, and to be humbled after spending so long hiding from goodness and grace.
Rating:
Summary: Gimme that old-time religion...
Review: In this book, Lee Smith handles the potentially tricky topic of religion marvelously. Many authors would be condescending towards fundamentalists, where Smith is relatively sympathetic and takes the approach of "one bad egg...". Everything concerning the worship, the churches, and the styles of Holiness preachers and congregations seemed extremely accurate. This book not only tells a story about a girl named Florida Grace, but it gives readers a glimpse into a little-seen and much-maligned segment of Christianity. By the way, other reviewers have complained about the ending, wishing that Grace had not returned to her home. In my opinion, she NEEDED to make this return to confront her past, and to be humbled after spending so long hiding from goodness and grace.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry to the author
Review: Lee Smith is my all-time favorite writer. I have read all of her books except for her newest novel. This is my least favorite by a long shot.
Rating:
Summary: So What Have We Learned?
Review: Make no mistake about it, I enjoyed reading this story told in first person by the daughter of a snake-handling, fundamentalist preacher who exhibits more lunacy than religion. And all the characters are well drawn and very believable. But as did several other reviewers, I too found the ending to be disappointing, even jarring. It seems to me the author, near the end, lost sight of the Grace Shepherd she developed through the first 250 pages, a young girl and later a woman who was intelligent, reflective, and often independent in her thinking. She would not have returned to the church of her father and its dangerously ridiculous routines. More likely an ending would have been the angry, stalking return of her Southern-boy lover from whom she stole several thousand dollars.
Rating:
Summary: Entrancing
Review: This book locks your interest from the beginning. You can feel every bit of what Florida Grace feels in this book. Each character is someone you've met in East TN. This is the first book I've read by Lee Smith and I will read her other books.
Rating:
Summary: Well-done, but ...
Review: This is a very good book, but I did not like the ending, nor do I agree with critics who say it is her best (which is Family Linen or Fancy Strut, perhaps). It's another fine character study thought. I just hoped that Florida Grace Shepherd would grow to find herself in ways different from how she did. I expected more of her I guess, because I liked her so much. But, that is what makes Lee Smith's books so readable for me: I come to care about her characters and what happens to them, especially the ones I like, but I become invested in caring about the fate of even those I cannot stand, like Grace's father, a huckstering, snake-handling, back-woods preacher. I guess I care because Smith creates such plausible personalities on the page. Also, Smith had done her homework well and could show these people, warts and all, without condescending, sentimentalizing, or oversimplifying. The exception, as I see it, is the ending, which I see as more sentimental than psychologically probable.
Rating:
Summary: So glad I bought it.
Review: This is the first of Ms. Smith's books I have read and I loved it. She does a wonderful job guiding the reader through Grace's life and the characters she meets along the way.
| 
