“Lee Smith has long had a reputation as a master of the short story, and her new collection, Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger galvanizes that reputation . . . Smith offers the grit of the domestic scene, the power of the written word, and the transcendent beauty of women as friends, lovers, daughters and mothers. We fall under the spell of her delicious Southern cadence, and we care for her characters, especially at the moment when one distilled event irrevocably alters everything. At the end, we are there, celebrating their strong and certain victories of the heart.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“[Smith] has a soft spot for incorrigibles like the dyspeptic ex-writer of ‘House Tour,’ who resists playing reindeer games with the local philistines at Christmas, or the former teacher in ‘The Happy Memories Club,’ who refuses to placate an amateur writing group that appears to prefer its fare upbeat and scrubby-clean. Smith’s book, you suspect, is the one those club members would sneak under their bedcovers to read by penlight.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Like Chekhov, Smith can lay out a world of social and personal connections in a few pages. Her new collection, mingling seven previously published short stories with seven new pieces, offers a marvelous panorama of Smith’s achievement over four decades. It’s funny, shrewd, and heartbreaking—often all three at once.”
—AARP magazine
“Lee Smith is a master storyteller with an inspired ability to express what gives people hope . . . A writer for 40 years, Smith’s true strength lies in the short story.”
—The Charleston Post and Courier
“This sensitive collection of short stories features an array of endearing players.”
—Working Mother
“Smith cares about her people . . . [She] is excellent at examining characters in cruel situations . . . ‘Mrs. Darcy’ is a remarkable story, as are others in this collection that spans decades of Lee Smith’s work.”
—The Raleigh News and Observer
“These stories are classic Lee Smith—each one alert to the moment of change, deftly built with a deeply comic sense of timing, and taut with compressed energy that most certainly will burst out of bounds. The characters living in her pages may seem as familiar as neighbors, but as they pass through Smith’s alchemical process, they reveal all we don’t know about what we know. Entertaining, yes they are, and what I love most is how the stories pull you back to read them again, simply for their big vision of life.”
—Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun
“With her trademark Southern charm and wicked humor, Smith draws us into the lives of people she’s about to fling off a cliff without so much as a polite ‘oops.’ It’s all for the best, though. On the way down, they get to know parts of themselves they’ve never met before.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Smith’s heroines find strength in the moments that push us all forward.”
— People magazine
“A lyrical, moving mix of tales featuring strong and complex characters, delivered with Smith’s trademark wit and insight . . . Filled with humor, pathos and satisfying moments of revelation and clarity . . . Whether you are a short story devotee or simply a lover of good fiction, you will find much to admire—and savor— in Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger.”
—BookPage
“Smith’s character-driven tales are funny, touching and resonant, with a quirky honesty. A southern-fried charmer!”
—Family Circle
“This wonderful writer is a readers’-advisory librarian’s dream. Short stories, ordinarily a relatively hard sell to library patrons, are a different ‘animal’ when they are Lee Smith’s short stories. In a very hospitable way of ‘talking,’ reminiscent of Ellen Gilchrist’s style in her delicious writing, Smith offers stories that deliver an irresistible one-two punch. The first punch is . . . the humor that fills every page . . . The second punch is the meaningfulness of every story.”
—Booklist, starred review
“Smith slips effortlessly into the voices of her funny, smarter-than-they-look characters in her latest collection . . . Each tale is beautifully honed and captures in subtle detail and gentle irony the essential humanity of [the] characters . . . [A] thoroughly enjoyable collection.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Always colorful . . . Profoundly moving.”
—Kirkus Reviews