A masterful storyteller

Lee Smith truly knows how to weave a tale.  There is no denying that she is a masterful storyteller.  I honestly could read her stories all day.  MRS. DARCY AND THE BLUE-EYED STRANGER is a book of short stories by Lee Smith, so know going in that it is NOT a novel.  I, for one, really love the short story.  I think that the short story is a lost art in the world today, so it is refreshing to read a book full of wonderful short stories!  I can't possibly pick one to say it's my favorite.  There are great qualities to each and every story.  Smith's stories focus mostly on women as the main characters and/or as the narrators of her stories.  Many women will more than likely relate quite easily to the women in these stories.

My only complaint (please don't be mad, Lee!) is the portrayal of people of faith (religion) in Lee Smith's stories.  I guess her stories are more realistic than I am aware of and it's that part that disappoints me--not Lee Smith's storytelling.  As a woman of faith myself, I don't like to see people "play" at religion or to take it lightly or to show it in any way negative.  It's probably my own personal perspective that makes me see many of the religiously focused stories in a negative light rather than it actually being that way.

I know that I live in a fantasy world in so many ways.  I've joked with my students when we talk about such things that I want to live in my fantasy world and they should let me live here.  I LIKE believing that all the young women I know are "perfect" little virgin angels--and the young men, too.  That they don't do drugs, drink alcohol, or disrespect their parents.  I am fully aware of my fantasy world being exactly THAT--a Fantasy.

Just let me live in it, ok?!   ;)