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On Agate Hill
A dusty box discovered in the wreckage of a once prosperous plantation on Agate Hill in North Carolina contains the remnants of an extraordinary diaries, letters, poems, songs, newspaper clippings, court records, marbles, rocks, dolls, and bones. It's through these treasured mementos that we meet Molly Petree. Raised in those ruins and orphaned by the Civil War, Molly is a refugee who has no interest in self-pity. When a mysterious benefactor appears out her father's past to rescue her, she never looks back.Spanning half a century, On Agate Hill follows Molly’s passionate, picaresque journey through love, betrayal, motherhood, a murder trial—and back home to Agate Hill under circumstances she never could have imagined.
403 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
193 people are currently reading
2730 people want to read
About the author
Lee Smith
43 books983 followersGrowing up in the Appalachian mountains of southwestern Virginia, nine-year-old Lee Smith was already writing--and selling, for a nickel apiece--stories about her neighbors in the coal boomtown of Grundy and the nearby isolated "hollers." Since 1968, she has published eleven novels, as well as three collections of short stories, and has received many writing awards.
The sense of place infusing her novels reveals her insight into and empathy for the people and culture of Appalachia. Lee Smith was born in 1944 in Grundy, Virginia, a small coal-mining town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, not 10 miles from the Kentucky border. The Smith home sat on Main Street, and the Levisa River ran just behind it. Her mother, Virginia, was a college graduate who had come to Grundy to teach school.
Her father, Ernest, a native of the area, operated a dime store. And it was in that store that Smith's training as a writer began. Through a peephole in the ceiling of the store, Smith would watch and listen to the shoppers, paying close attention to the details of how they talked and dressed and what they said.
"I didn't know any writers," Smith says, "[but] I grew up in the midst of people just talking and talking and talking and telling these stories. My Uncle Vern, who was in the legislature, was a famous storyteller, as were others, including my dad. It was very local. I mean, my mother could make a story out of anything; she'd go to the grocery store and come home with a story."
Smith describes herself as a "deeply weird" child. She was an insatiable reader. When she was 9 or 10, she wrote her first story, about Adlai Stevenson and Jane Russell heading out west together to become Mormons--and embodying the very same themes, Smith says, that concern her even today. "You know, religion and flight, staying in one place or not staying, containment or flight--and religion." From Lee Smith's official website.
The sense of place infusing her novels reveals her insight into and empathy for the people and culture of Appalachia. Lee Smith was born in 1944 in Grundy, Virginia, a small coal-mining town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, not 10 miles from the Kentucky border. The Smith home sat on Main Street, and the Levisa River ran just behind it. Her mother, Virginia, was a college graduate who had come to Grundy to teach school.
Her father, Ernest, a native of the area, operated a dime store. And it was in that store that Smith's training as a writer began. Through a peephole in the ceiling of the store, Smith would watch and listen to the shoppers, paying close attention to the details of how they talked and dressed and what they said.
"I didn't know any writers," Smith says, "[but] I grew up in the midst of people just talking and talking and talking and telling these stories. My Uncle Vern, who was in the legislature, was a famous storyteller, as were others, including my dad. It was very local. I mean, my mother could make a story out of anything; she'd go to the grocery store and come home with a story."
Smith describes herself as a "deeply weird" child. She was an insatiable reader. When she was 9 or 10, she wrote her first story, about Adlai Stevenson and Jane Russell heading out west together to become Mormons--and embodying the very same themes, Smith says, that concern her even today. "You know, religion and flight, staying in one place or not staying, containment or flight--and religion." From Lee Smith's official website.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 524 reviews
July 18, 2024
There is no doubt that a tremendous strength was required of the men and women who survived the Civil War and rebuilt their lives during the Reconstruction period in the South. Scarlett O’Hara, fist in the air, promising never to be hungry or let any of those she loves go hungry, is seared upon my mind, and now, Molly Petree, refusing to become a “ghost girl” will be printed there beside her. For as she says, I live in a house of ghosts. I dare say she lives in a world of ghosts.
I am like a ghost girl wafting through this ghost house seen by none. I truly think I would blow away save for this piece of fool’s gold I keep here in my pocket for good luck.
I am taken by the way some writers can paint a picture with words that make you feel the physical and mental stress of their characters. Lee Smith does this beautifully.
He will burn in Hell for sure if there is one. But I am so cold right now as I sit here writing that Hell sounds pretty good. I put socks on my hands for gloves but they are cracked and bleeding anyhow. Liddy rubs them with lard. My face is as red and rough as a cob. I cannot write my hands are too cold. This is my blood on this page. It is snowing again.
I wanted to pull on a blanket, and believe me, it is not cold in my apartment.
Lee Smith became a favorite writer for me as soon as I read Fair and Tender Ladies, and On Agate Hill reawakened the magic that she planted in me then. As I loved Ivy Rowe, so I love Molly Petree. The reader is brought to that love through much the same device, for we read her diary and her letters and her thoughts that are meant only for herself and are so uncensored and honest they make one cry. She experiences losses that seem unbearable, injustices that sting, and grace that seems deific to me, for she is so often saved by a simple love. She is so deserving, because she is so magnanimous; she loves the souls of people, not their outer visages; she never looks down at anyone.
Molly learns about love as she leads her life, and we learn about love with her. It is found in unexpected places. It is ever present and only undiscovered.
Now I understood that love does not reside in places, neither in the Capulet’s tomb nor the dales of Arcady nor the Kingdom by the Sea not in any of those other poems that Mary White and I read so long ago, love lives not in places nor even bodies but in the spaces between them, the long and lovely sweep of air and sky, and in the living heart and memory until that is gone too, and we are all of us wanderers, as we have always been, upon the earth.
I am like a ghost girl wafting through this ghost house seen by none. I truly think I would blow away save for this piece of fool’s gold I keep here in my pocket for good luck.
I am taken by the way some writers can paint a picture with words that make you feel the physical and mental stress of their characters. Lee Smith does this beautifully.
He will burn in Hell for sure if there is one. But I am so cold right now as I sit here writing that Hell sounds pretty good. I put socks on my hands for gloves but they are cracked and bleeding anyhow. Liddy rubs them with lard. My face is as red and rough as a cob. I cannot write my hands are too cold. This is my blood on this page. It is snowing again.
I wanted to pull on a blanket, and believe me, it is not cold in my apartment.
Lee Smith became a favorite writer for me as soon as I read Fair and Tender Ladies, and On Agate Hill reawakened the magic that she planted in me then. As I loved Ivy Rowe, so I love Molly Petree. The reader is brought to that love through much the same device, for we read her diary and her letters and her thoughts that are meant only for herself and are so uncensored and honest they make one cry. She experiences losses that seem unbearable, injustices that sting, and grace that seems deific to me, for she is so often saved by a simple love. She is so deserving, because she is so magnanimous; she loves the souls of people, not their outer visages; she never looks down at anyone.
Molly learns about love as she leads her life, and we learn about love with her. It is found in unexpected places. It is ever present and only undiscovered.
Now I understood that love does not reside in places, neither in the Capulet’s tomb nor the dales of Arcady nor the Kingdom by the Sea not in any of those other poems that Mary White and I read so long ago, love lives not in places nor even bodies but in the spaces between them, the long and lovely sweep of air and sky, and in the living heart and memory until that is gone too, and we are all of us wanderers, as we have always been, upon the earth.
July 4, 2024
I'm going to go ahead and rate this with 5 stars. It runs a very close second to my favorite of Smith's novels, Fair and Tender Ladies. I don't like to make an author's books compete against each other, so this one gets the highest rating as well.
We first meet Molly Petree in 1872 when she is 13 years old and presented with a diary as a gift. She's an orphan living with her kind Uncle Julian, who takes in anyone needing a home. That doesn't mean things are perfect, as times are tough for everyone, black and white alike.
Molly's tale ends in 1927 and in between we are presented with her rebellious life, as she is " a spitfire and a burden" in her own words.
This novel is so full of wonderful things: memorable characters, history, love, friendship, fun and excitement, and all told from different points of view through diary entries, letters, straight narration and at one point, a coroner's inquest from a testifying witness. A sense of place highlighted everything for me as well, as I am familiar with both the NC piedmont of Agate Hill and the Jefferson, NC Appalachian settings as well. The speech patterns of the mountain people were done perfectly as well, delightfully expressive and completely descriptive.
In other words, a winner!
We first meet Molly Petree in 1872 when she is 13 years old and presented with a diary as a gift. She's an orphan living with her kind Uncle Julian, who takes in anyone needing a home. That doesn't mean things are perfect, as times are tough for everyone, black and white alike.
Molly's tale ends in 1927 and in between we are presented with her rebellious life, as she is " a spitfire and a burden" in her own words.
This novel is so full of wonderful things: memorable characters, history, love, friendship, fun and excitement, and all told from different points of view through diary entries, letters, straight narration and at one point, a coroner's inquest from a testifying witness. A sense of place highlighted everything for me as well, as I am familiar with both the NC piedmont of Agate Hill and the Jefferson, NC Appalachian settings as well. The speech patterns of the mountain people were done perfectly as well, delightfully expressive and completely descriptive.
In other words, a winner!
July 5, 2024
"Myself I love a thunderstorm better than anything. Sometimes I will run to the top of the hill to whirl around and around on my Indian Rock in the wind, it is like a dance I can not stop. The smell of the lightning goes into your nose and down your whole body. Old Bess says if you get hit by lightning yet live you will have special powers, well I could use some of those. So I don't care if I get hit or not."
Headstrong thirteen-year-old Molly Petree writes in her diary that she has been orphaned by the Civil War, and is the legal ward of her aged Uncle Junius on a rundown plantation in North Carolina. She describes herself as a "ghost girl wafting through this ghost house seen by none." Molly's story is told through diaries, letters, Appalachian music, poems, and artifacts that she found on the Agate Hill plantation.
Her father's best friend, Simon, acts as a benefactor and sends her to a girls boarding school where
the spirited girl makes friends and is educated to be a teacher. She later meets a musician who soon has her under his spell. After a tragedy, she comes full circle back to Agate Hill to live out her life. Writing is a way for Molly and others to help themselves survive when they are not treated well, are filled with grief, or just need to sort their feelings out.
Author Lee Smith is an excellent storyteller. Some of her characters are "larger than life," but a vibrant personality helped them survive during the Reconstruction period in the South. "On Agate Hill" is a riveting book that had me turning pages late at night. 4.5 stars, rounded up.
Headstrong thirteen-year-old Molly Petree writes in her diary that she has been orphaned by the Civil War, and is the legal ward of her aged Uncle Junius on a rundown plantation in North Carolina. She describes herself as a "ghost girl wafting through this ghost house seen by none." Molly's story is told through diaries, letters, Appalachian music, poems, and artifacts that she found on the Agate Hill plantation.
Her father's best friend, Simon, acts as a benefactor and sends her to a girls boarding school where
the spirited girl makes friends and is educated to be a teacher. She later meets a musician who soon has her under his spell. After a tragedy, she comes full circle back to Agate Hill to live out her life. Writing is a way for Molly and others to help themselves survive when they are not treated well, are filled with grief, or just need to sort their feelings out.
Author Lee Smith is an excellent storyteller. Some of her characters are "larger than life," but a vibrant personality helped them survive during the Reconstruction period in the South. "On Agate Hill" is a riveting book that had me turning pages late at night. 4.5 stars, rounded up.
July 11, 2024
4.5 stars.
Author Lee Smith is a master at creating a Southern atmosphere - the clothes and hairstyles, the houses and schools and churches, the fields and animals and food, the ballads and dances, the dialect and dialogue - but she particularly excels at writing the lives of young Southern girls who are coming of age. This is my second such Smith protagonist, the first being Ivy Rowe in Fair And Tender Ladies, a personal favorite. In this story, we meet the feisty and irreverent 13-year-old orphan Molly Petree, who calls herself a “ghost girl” because of all the deaths in her family during and following the Civil War. This is but one wonderful excerpt from her secret diary, written in her secret cubbyhole, dated December 7, 1872:
“I dont want to be an angel any more than I want to be a ghost girl. I want to be a real girl and live as hard as I can in this world, I dont want to lie in the bed like Mama or be sick like Mary White. Or be a lady. I would rather work my fingers to the bone and die like Fannie. I want to live so hard and love so much I will use myself all the way up like a candle, it seems to me like this is the point of it all, not Heaven. I want to have a demon lover and also a real boy who will be my husband and love me more than life itself. I want to live on my own land not somebody elses plantation. I don’t give a damn about Heaven.”
The story follows Molly’s long unpredictable life, and along the way we meet a horde of unforgettable people with fascinating lives - some good, some bad, but all original. Smith’s descriptions of the Appalachian mountain towns where some of these folk reside and their customs and culture are some of the best you’ll ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing areas I’m personally familiar with through Smith’s imagination and words and visiting her literary creations like Agate Hill Plantation, the Bobcat School and Plain View for the first time. She knows these people and this area so well. I will dearly miss the free-spirited and kind Molly Petree Jarvis - she was a needed breath of fresh mountain air for me.
“I remembered how, as a girl, I thought that I could not leave Agate Hill, that I could not leave my ghosts. Now I understand that love does not reside in places . . . love lives not in places nor even bodies but in the spaces between them, the lovely sweep of air and sky, and in the living heart and memory until that is gone too, and we are all of us wanderers, as we have always been, upon the earth. I was free to go.”
Author Lee Smith is a master at creating a Southern atmosphere - the clothes and hairstyles, the houses and schools and churches, the fields and animals and food, the ballads and dances, the dialect and dialogue - but she particularly excels at writing the lives of young Southern girls who are coming of age. This is my second such Smith protagonist, the first being Ivy Rowe in Fair And Tender Ladies, a personal favorite. In this story, we meet the feisty and irreverent 13-year-old orphan Molly Petree, who calls herself a “ghost girl” because of all the deaths in her family during and following the Civil War. This is but one wonderful excerpt from her secret diary, written in her secret cubbyhole, dated December 7, 1872:
“I dont want to be an angel any more than I want to be a ghost girl. I want to be a real girl and live as hard as I can in this world, I dont want to lie in the bed like Mama or be sick like Mary White. Or be a lady. I would rather work my fingers to the bone and die like Fannie. I want to live so hard and love so much I will use myself all the way up like a candle, it seems to me like this is the point of it all, not Heaven. I want to have a demon lover and also a real boy who will be my husband and love me more than life itself. I want to live on my own land not somebody elses plantation. I don’t give a damn about Heaven.”
The story follows Molly’s long unpredictable life, and along the way we meet a horde of unforgettable people with fascinating lives - some good, some bad, but all original. Smith’s descriptions of the Appalachian mountain towns where some of these folk reside and their customs and culture are some of the best you’ll ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing areas I’m personally familiar with through Smith’s imagination and words and visiting her literary creations like Agate Hill Plantation, the Bobcat School and Plain View for the first time. She knows these people and this area so well. I will dearly miss the free-spirited and kind Molly Petree Jarvis - she was a needed breath of fresh mountain air for me.
“I remembered how, as a girl, I thought that I could not leave Agate Hill, that I could not leave my ghosts. Now I understand that love does not reside in places . . . love lives not in places nor even bodies but in the spaces between them, the lovely sweep of air and sky, and in the living heart and memory until that is gone too, and we are all of us wanderers, as we have always been, upon the earth. I was free to go.”
May 21, 2009
The novel was rather disappointing I thought. Basically, it's the story of Molly, a little girl who's orphaned right after the civil war. She's taken in by her Uncle who lives on Agate Hill, an old plantation falling to ruin.
**SPOILER!!!** Through diary enteries, county papers, and court reports, we follow Molly as her life makes one dynamic change after another (her Uncle's mistress tries to take over, she befriends a sick little girl, family members die off or leave one by one, etc.). Eventually she is shipped off to an all-girls school, and finally makes her way to a little town in the Appalachian Mountains to teach. She eventually falls in love with a man, who is eventually murdered.
The story ends with her back on Agate Hill as on old women with her Father's Friend's Servant and her blind midgit cousin.
The entire book was rather dull and uninteresting. As a fan of historical novels, this one didn't explain the times and lifestyle to my satisfaction. There wasn't a lot of likable characters in the novel, and the murder of Molly's husband is never fully explained, leaving the reader rather frustrated (I went online to see if anyone could make sense of it, and I found a forum where many readers felt this way. Someone finally wrote the author, and she responded, but even HER take on what happened wasn't satisfying!).
In all honesty, if you're looking for a good read that leaves you feeling fulfilled, moved, and changed, look elsewhere. :P
**SPOILER!!!** Through diary enteries, county papers, and court reports, we follow Molly as her life makes one dynamic change after another (her Uncle's mistress tries to take over, she befriends a sick little girl, family members die off or leave one by one, etc.). Eventually she is shipped off to an all-girls school, and finally makes her way to a little town in the Appalachian Mountains to teach. She eventually falls in love with a man, who is eventually murdered.
The story ends with her back on Agate Hill as on old women with her Father's Friend's Servant and her blind midgit cousin.
The entire book was rather dull and uninteresting. As a fan of historical novels, this one didn't explain the times and lifestyle to my satisfaction. There wasn't a lot of likable characters in the novel, and the murder of Molly's husband is never fully explained, leaving the reader rather frustrated (I went online to see if anyone could make sense of it, and I found a forum where many readers felt this way. Someone finally wrote the author, and she responded, but even HER take on what happened wasn't satisfying!).
In all honesty, if you're looking for a good read that leaves you feeling fulfilled, moved, and changed, look elsewhere. :P
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 22, 2009
I hardly know where to start with this review. The book begins in the years following the civil war told mainly from journal entries and letters. Molly as a 14 year old writes, "I want to live so hard and love so much I will use myself all the way up like a candle, it seems to me like this is the point of it all, not Heaven”
The rest of the book details how she lives her life up like a candle. She leads a tragic life from the very first "dear diary," and although there are wonderful times filled with warmth and joy in the end I felt completely depressed. One of the closing thoughts is this, “love lives not in places nor even bodies but in the spaces between them, the long and lovely sweep of air and sky, and in the living heart and memory until that is gone too, and we are all wanderers, as we have always been, upon the earth”
I loved the author's descriptions and voice. I would love to read more by her but I'm already haunted enough by this one.
FYI: There is some language and some difficult scenes like a young girl being raped.
The rest of the book details how she lives her life up like a candle. She leads a tragic life from the very first "dear diary," and although there are wonderful times filled with warmth and joy in the end I felt completely depressed. One of the closing thoughts is this, “love lives not in places nor even bodies but in the spaces between them, the long and lovely sweep of air and sky, and in the living heart and memory until that is gone too, and we are all wanderers, as we have always been, upon the earth”
I loved the author's descriptions and voice. I would love to read more by her but I'm already haunted enough by this one.
FYI: There is some language and some difficult scenes like a young girl being raped.
June 25, 2025
‘On Agate Hill’ by Lee Smith is an almost great book, but sadly, the ending glides to a lifeless stop that feels like an alternative ending, which doesn't work, or as if the author became ill and a ghost writer had to finish it. Still, it has great appeal in the characters and in the setting, North Carolina after the Civil War. It is a serious book about a realistic woman, from her childhood to the end of her adult life, and she is a woman who does not choose to walk an easier path, despite several opportunities to do so. As an entertainment, it is a good read. (It is not a Romance, though.) A lot of research was done by the author to add realism and in this she succeeds. It would have been far more satisfactory, though, if the wonderful spunky Molly was given a different, more adventurous life after the fire.
December 3, 2022
This is my second book by Lee Smith and it is written in a very similar style to the first, Fair and Tender Ladies. The story is about the life of Molly Petree, from the age of thirteen until her death. The first third of the book is told by Molly through daily entries into her diary about her life at Agate Hill, a former plantation, where she went to live with her uncle for a couple of years after being orphaned and the rest of the book is told through letters by various people about the rest of her life. It is a mostly tragic tale of heartbreak and sorrow with occasional joyful parts and a little on the depressing side but was exceptionally well written.
November 30, 2007
Lee Smith has a lovely way with words and history and tells an enthralling tale, following orphan Molly Petree from childhood to old age. The voice of each character is distinct and engaging. Now that I'm done, I miss these characters!
July 18, 2024
This is about what families in the south went through after the Civil War. The stories are told through diaries, letters, and sweep across races. The main character, Molly Petree, reminds me of Ivy Rowe from "Fair and Tender Ladies" and her eventual husband, Jackie Jarvis, reminds me of Honey Breeding from the same book. It’s apparent Lee Smith is comfortable with and skilled in the letter-writing format, delighting in strong-willed, smart child characters. I was easily drawn into the story of Molly Petree. I’m happy to add Lee Smith to my favorite authors list.
July 19, 2024
I enjoyed this novel but not as much as Fair and Tender Ladies. Establishing motivation for one of the main plot drivers was its weakest elements. The audio version was enhanced with some singing of traditional songs. 3 stars plus a half for the tunes.
November 26, 2011
I can't say that I love this book quite as much as my first novel by Lee Smith -- Fair and Tender Ladies -- but those are some huge shoes to fill.
Two of Lee Smith's biggest strengths are her ability to create a profound sense of loss in a reader and her talent for creating a sense of place. My favorite books often stick with me less in terms of plot and more like memories from my own life -- in fragmented but lucid snapshots of place. I remember my own childhood mostly as a series of places: a sunken spot of ground outside the kitchen window that bubbled over with sudsy froth when my mom washed dishes, a desk against the door leading to stairs that wound up to our attic, the dank "ice potato" dirt floor in one of the barns near the house. These places are as real to me as when I was actually in them, and Smith's places -- Molly's attic cubby at Agate Hill, Chattie Badger's lean-to room, and the general store -- are just as real. Even as details of the story are lost to my memory these places will remain.
I've gone back and forth, though, about whether I think Smith's overall technique worked in this novel. On Agate Hill demonstrates her varied writing talents as she pulls together the story of Molly Petree using diary entries, letters, court documents, and school records. She even wrote a folk ballad, a portion of which is available for streaming at http://www.5-string.com/sound/5sp06003/M...
At first I thought the use of these fictional documents demonstrated her ability to weave together a story in an inventive and difficult way as Molly moves from Agate Hill -- a small Southern plantation literally and figuratively mired in the mess of the Civil War and, subsequently, Reconstruction-- to the North Carolina mountains. The move wouldn't seem that far to us now, but it was a huge one for Molly, and it felt jolting as I read it. I missed Agate Hill, and I started to doubt Lee Smith's skill. The story felt like two separate novels.
That feeling nagged at me for a large portion of the book. I love Appalachian literature, so it didn't make sense that the portion of Molly's story that took place in the mountains should irritate me as much as it did. What I eventually realized is that the transition is supposed to be jarring. It is supposed to feel different and uncomfortable, and Molly's childhood at Agate Hill is supposed to feel like another lifetime. Why? Because that is the way shit is, and I see that more and more as I get older. We change, the people around us change, the world changes, and bad stuff happens. I'm not kidding myself into thinking I'm being profound here, but I now recognize that until the last few years, my understanding of those ideas was almost completely intellectual. Nothing is the same, and in a lot of ways I don't feel like the same person as I was 15 years ago. When I say that I mean that I feel like two people -- sort of the way Molly felt to me like one person at Agate Hill and another in the mountains. Those two people were really similar in a lot of ways, yet they felt different, separate. Ultimately, then, the disparate pieces of the novel work really well -- enough so that I still feel a little agitated.
If I could give this book 3.5 stars I would, but I can't, so I rounded up. I'm not sure why it wouldn't be higher. I think there is something about this story that makes me profoundly uncomfortable, but I don't know what that is. I can't access that particular emotion, and I can't afford therapy sessions to help me work out my literary feelings. I suspect, though, that it has to do with the deep and persistent feeling of sadness throughout the novel. It is a little too real and hits too close to home. Of course, it isn't fair to judge a book that way, but today my gut wins, and it says 3.5 stars. Also, I wasn't a huge fan of the frame narrative, and that likely plays into my rating as well.
One last thing, and this probably says a lot about me, but I never took enough psychology classes to know. I LOVE books with hidden rooms. I can still picture the hidden room in The Beth Book where Beth Caldwell did her reading in secret, a small space that she controlled absolutely because her husband didn't know about it. Similarly, Molly's cubbyhole holds her secrets. As readers we are granted access to Molly's space and everything it holds. I just really love that.
Two of Lee Smith's biggest strengths are her ability to create a profound sense of loss in a reader and her talent for creating a sense of place. My favorite books often stick with me less in terms of plot and more like memories from my own life -- in fragmented but lucid snapshots of place. I remember my own childhood mostly as a series of places: a sunken spot of ground outside the kitchen window that bubbled over with sudsy froth when my mom washed dishes, a desk against the door leading to stairs that wound up to our attic, the dank "ice potato" dirt floor in one of the barns near the house. These places are as real to me as when I was actually in them, and Smith's places -- Molly's attic cubby at Agate Hill, Chattie Badger's lean-to room, and the general store -- are just as real. Even as details of the story are lost to my memory these places will remain.
I've gone back and forth, though, about whether I think Smith's overall technique worked in this novel. On Agate Hill demonstrates her varied writing talents as she pulls together the story of Molly Petree using diary entries, letters, court documents, and school records. She even wrote a folk ballad, a portion of which is available for streaming at http://www.5-string.com/sound/5sp06003/M...
At first I thought the use of these fictional documents demonstrated her ability to weave together a story in an inventive and difficult way as Molly moves from Agate Hill -- a small Southern plantation literally and figuratively mired in the mess of the Civil War and, subsequently, Reconstruction-- to the North Carolina mountains. The move wouldn't seem that far to us now, but it was a huge one for Molly, and it felt jolting as I read it. I missed Agate Hill, and I started to doubt Lee Smith's skill. The story felt like two separate novels.
That feeling nagged at me for a large portion of the book. I love Appalachian literature, so it didn't make sense that the portion of Molly's story that took place in the mountains should irritate me as much as it did. What I eventually realized is that the transition is supposed to be jarring. It is supposed to feel different and uncomfortable, and Molly's childhood at Agate Hill is supposed to feel like another lifetime. Why? Because that is the way shit is, and I see that more and more as I get older. We change, the people around us change, the world changes, and bad stuff happens. I'm not kidding myself into thinking I'm being profound here, but I now recognize that until the last few years, my understanding of those ideas was almost completely intellectual. Nothing is the same, and in a lot of ways I don't feel like the same person as I was 15 years ago. When I say that I mean that I feel like two people -- sort of the way Molly felt to me like one person at Agate Hill and another in the mountains. Those two people were really similar in a lot of ways, yet they felt different, separate. Ultimately, then, the disparate pieces of the novel work really well -- enough so that I still feel a little agitated.
If I could give this book 3.5 stars I would, but I can't, so I rounded up. I'm not sure why it wouldn't be higher. I think there is something about this story that makes me profoundly uncomfortable, but I don't know what that is. I can't access that particular emotion, and I can't afford therapy sessions to help me work out my literary feelings. I suspect, though, that it has to do with the deep and persistent feeling of sadness throughout the novel. It is a little too real and hits too close to home. Of course, it isn't fair to judge a book that way, but today my gut wins, and it says 3.5 stars. Also, I wasn't a huge fan of the frame narrative, and that likely plays into my rating as well.
One last thing, and this probably says a lot about me, but I never took enough psychology classes to know. I LOVE books with hidden rooms. I can still picture the hidden room in The Beth Book where Beth Caldwell did her reading in secret, a small space that she controlled absolutely because her husband didn't know about it. Similarly, Molly's cubbyhole holds her secrets. As readers we are granted access to Molly's space and everything it holds. I just really love that.
January 1, 2013
I randomly picked up this audio book while living in Texas. It turned out to be quite a coincidence that I chose to listen to this book at the precise time that I did. Let me begin with a little background on the novel. First there are two related story lines in this book … a past that contributes to a present.
In the present Tuscany Miller, college student, is living in the mountains of North Carolina with her father and his partner. They have been restoring a recently acquired house into a bed and breakfast inn. While Tuscany is exploring the attic of this house, she finds a box of old letters and diaries from the post Civil War era. She becomes so absorbed in the hidden stories behind these documents that she uses them as a basis for her thesis paper. This brings the past alive on Agate Hill.
The diaries are written by Molly Petree, a young girl, orphaned by the Civil War and follow through her early years. She is sent to an all-girls school in the Appalachian mountains and settles there as an adult, working as a teacher. Letters and more diaries, along with newspaper clippings are saved though the years, telling Molly's story. The people she becomes close to and her mysterious benefactor are referred to often, becoming characters in the unfolding drama. When Molly marries, she returns to her childhood home and faces multiple tragedies. She has numerous still-born children and then her husband is murdered. It is uncertain what exactly took place … a fire destroyed the crime scene. Molly continues to survive despite her hardships. I'm inclined to believe there were secrets she took to her grave. What Tuscany finds are remnants of an extraordinary life along with clues to a cold case … an unsolved mystery. The ending left me wondering???
Okay so what is the coincidence between this book and my world …
At the time I was listening to this book, I was looking for a job in the Appalachian mountains. As I said, I randomly picked up this book and thought how cool it was that the setting was in the mountains. I had sent out email alerts to notify me of available library jobs near Sparta, NC. Sparta is my father's hometown. In fact my grandmother who recently passed away lived there and I wanted to find a job in the vicinity in order to buy her house. One afternoon I opened my email and found an alert for a county librarian's job in West Jefferson, NC at the Ashe County Public Library. This was only 28 miles away from my grandmother's house and I immediately began the process of applying for the position. While driving home that evening, anxious to tell my husband of the available job, I turned on the audio for Lee Smith's book. At that precise moment, Tuscany was going to the reading room at the Ashe County Public Library in West Jefferson, NC to research background on Molly Petree! It was like an omen! Several weeks later I received a telephone call from the Appalachian Regional Library Director to schedule an interview. What a coincidence it was when I learned her name was also Molly!
Now I have the job at Ashe Library and am living in my grandmother's old house! I visited the mountains many times growing up and have always wanted to live here. One of the most exciting things about this dream-come-true was the opportunity to meet Lee Smith. Ashe County Library has an annual literary festival every year and when I was hired, the festival was about to kick-off with a community read …. Lee Smith's collection of short stories Mrs.Darcy and the Blue-eyed Stranger. Lee is a charismatic speaker and I loved hearing about her background and how she develops her stories. After listening to her talk, I became inspired to write more myself. Funny how this all came to be … isn't it?
In the present Tuscany Miller, college student, is living in the mountains of North Carolina with her father and his partner. They have been restoring a recently acquired house into a bed and breakfast inn. While Tuscany is exploring the attic of this house, she finds a box of old letters and diaries from the post Civil War era. She becomes so absorbed in the hidden stories behind these documents that she uses them as a basis for her thesis paper. This brings the past alive on Agate Hill.
The diaries are written by Molly Petree, a young girl, orphaned by the Civil War and follow through her early years. She is sent to an all-girls school in the Appalachian mountains and settles there as an adult, working as a teacher. Letters and more diaries, along with newspaper clippings are saved though the years, telling Molly's story. The people she becomes close to and her mysterious benefactor are referred to often, becoming characters in the unfolding drama. When Molly marries, she returns to her childhood home and faces multiple tragedies. She has numerous still-born children and then her husband is murdered. It is uncertain what exactly took place … a fire destroyed the crime scene. Molly continues to survive despite her hardships. I'm inclined to believe there were secrets she took to her grave. What Tuscany finds are remnants of an extraordinary life along with clues to a cold case … an unsolved mystery. The ending left me wondering???
Okay so what is the coincidence between this book and my world …
At the time I was listening to this book, I was looking for a job in the Appalachian mountains. As I said, I randomly picked up this book and thought how cool it was that the setting was in the mountains. I had sent out email alerts to notify me of available library jobs near Sparta, NC. Sparta is my father's hometown. In fact my grandmother who recently passed away lived there and I wanted to find a job in the vicinity in order to buy her house. One afternoon I opened my email and found an alert for a county librarian's job in West Jefferson, NC at the Ashe County Public Library. This was only 28 miles away from my grandmother's house and I immediately began the process of applying for the position. While driving home that evening, anxious to tell my husband of the available job, I turned on the audio for Lee Smith's book. At that precise moment, Tuscany was going to the reading room at the Ashe County Public Library in West Jefferson, NC to research background on Molly Petree! It was like an omen! Several weeks later I received a telephone call from the Appalachian Regional Library Director to schedule an interview. What a coincidence it was when I learned her name was also Molly!
Now I have the job at Ashe Library and am living in my grandmother's old house! I visited the mountains many times growing up and have always wanted to live here. One of the most exciting things about this dream-come-true was the opportunity to meet Lee Smith. Ashe County Library has an annual literary festival every year and when I was hired, the festival was about to kick-off with a community read …. Lee Smith's collection of short stories Mrs.Darcy and the Blue-eyed Stranger. Lee is a charismatic speaker and I loved hearing about her background and how she develops her stories. After listening to her talk, I became inspired to write more myself. Funny how this all came to be … isn't it?
March 4, 2011
This was a fairly good book, though I felt the different places and people in them felt a little disconnected. That is, it felt almost like I was reading a different book in different places, despite the main character being in all of them. It spans the main character's life, and when she moves places, she is surrounded my completely new people, and each stage in her life is narrated by a different person, but it still didn't quite mesh together for me. Still, it was a good story. An interesting perspective on how Confederate Southerners suffered after the War. Probably the thing I liked the least is the lack of clarity in who committed a crime at the end of the book. Even the author, who intended it to be a particular person, confessed that many characters could have done it. (I'm being vague so as not to spoil anything). It is just such a big part of the book that I thought it should have been explained. I don't see the point of making that part foggy. It was actually kind of frustrating.
July 20, 2024
5+ stars! This book and Molly’s life completely captured me. The story told largely through diary entries, letters, from different people was very memorable this will stay with me for a long time. Definitely a top book of the year and that I’ve read in some time. My only regret was that the characters and locations were not real - it is fiction, after all, but it felt so real to me that I wanted to learn more. Rest well, Molly.
May 18, 2014
Having been disappointed by my last read of Lee Smith, a friend and fellow Smith reader was quick to get this book into my hands to restore my pleasure in Smith's writing. It worked.
The character of Molly from her childhood through an unexpected (for the reader) and long life is one who proves herself to be "a spitfire and a burden...a refugee girl" as she describes herself. This remains true throughout. Her story is compelling, her voice is authentic, and the many surrounding characters are also finely drawn.
So also is the telling of the land, the culture, and the times. For example, while another character is describing the "pull" of the land which was once the State of Franklin (now parts of North Carolina and Tennessee), Smith writes, "This country suits me..It does not suit everyone...But it has gotten into my blood." In that same passage, Smith goes on to make a statement about "the people here fiercely individualistic, not to say cantankerous...Some of us, like to be lost. This is a different world, as you will see if you choose to stay."
The dialect is to be admired as she is able to suit each character and time period to the individual's speech and habits. I was so pleased to see "iffen" for the first time in my reading and equally pleased to have the custom of shivaree mentioned.
This was my first realization of Lee Smith's strength in using the young woman as the observer/narrator. I just had not realized how several of my favorites employ this device. Also, again there is the use of letters and diaries which originated early in Smith's work.
My favorites are in the ballads series, and I am delighted to have thoroughly enjoyed and added this book to my list of Lee Smith's great reads. Thanks, my friend!
The character of Molly from her childhood through an unexpected (for the reader) and long life is one who proves herself to be "a spitfire and a burden...a refugee girl" as she describes herself. This remains true throughout. Her story is compelling, her voice is authentic, and the many surrounding characters are also finely drawn.
So also is the telling of the land, the culture, and the times. For example, while another character is describing the "pull" of the land which was once the State of Franklin (now parts of North Carolina and Tennessee), Smith writes, "This country suits me..It does not suit everyone...But it has gotten into my blood." In that same passage, Smith goes on to make a statement about "the people here fiercely individualistic, not to say cantankerous...Some of us, like to be lost. This is a different world, as you will see if you choose to stay."
The dialect is to be admired as she is able to suit each character and time period to the individual's speech and habits. I was so pleased to see "iffen" for the first time in my reading and equally pleased to have the custom of shivaree mentioned.
This was my first realization of Lee Smith's strength in using the young woman as the observer/narrator. I just had not realized how several of my favorites employ this device. Also, again there is the use of letters and diaries which originated early in Smith's work.
My favorites are in the ballads series, and I am delighted to have thoroughly enjoyed and added this book to my list of Lee Smith's great reads. Thanks, my friend!
July 5, 2020
I have always been fascinated with the history and life in this part of the country and I was looking forward to reading this book for book club. I really liked the main character, Molly Petree. She was spunky and resilient and faced life head on. Unfortunately, to me it seemed that some parts of the book were over-written while others were incomplete. I prefer to read the "Ballad" series by Sharyn McCrumb. This series covers the same time period in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. I just felt that Lee Smith jumped around too much in the second half of the book, leaving parts of the story sketchy. I also felt that the beginning and end with Tuscany were unnecessary. I will be interested in the opinions of the other members of book club
May 9, 2010
I was captivated by the honesty of this little girl's narrative. I always love a story in which the characters have no pretenses - and the world she is trying to grow up in (Reconstruction-era South) is falling apart, one page at a time, one layer at a time, one person at a time, and she is making sense of it in the best way she can. I kept wondering what was ahead for her, and was always surprised. There is something both gruesome and fascinating about this book - it has a lingering sense of Miss Haversham about it.
February 25, 2024
This book had been in my TRB since 2012. I thought I better give it a try before I put it in the give away pile. This was such an amazing book about characters that I fell completely in love with…even the bad ones. The only thing that hurts the book is Tuscany. I’ll let you read it to find out why I didn’t care for her. Definitely recommend!!!
July 11, 2013
On Agate Hill, by Lee Smith is a historical piece that follows the life of the orphaned Molly Petree. The reader first meets Molly in 1872 at the age of 13. She is living in her uncle’s house and has just begun to keep a journal, which is one of the forms that is used to tell her story. In fact, the whole novel is in the form of journal entries, letters and court documents.
With the epistolary style, a plot is not always easily identified, as is the case with this book. This style of writing generally leads itself to wonderful character portraits and allows one to gain a fuller knowledge and understanding of one or more characters. As Molly is the main character, all of the journal entries, etc… are either written by her or about her.
The story unfolds in four basic stages of Molly’s life. The first stage is Molly’s life on the Agate Hill Plantation, owned by her Uncle Junius. At this point in her life, Molly has lost a lot of people close to her. Both of her parents have died, as well as her aunt and a cousin and other cousins have grown up and moved out of the house. Her uncle’s sister comes to stay and brings her granddaughter, Mary White. Mary and Molly become close friends during their short time together and Molly faithfully writes to her throughout her life, even though she is not sure that Mary is still alive.
The second stage of the story takes place after Molly’s Uncle Junius dies. Simon Black, a former friend of Molly’s parents shows up shortly after Junius’ death and sends Molly off to boarding school in Virginia. At the Gatewood Academy, Molly blossoms and becomes the darling of her classmates and many of her teachers. The headmistress, Mariah Snow, however, is not impressed with Molly from the very first. Her distaste for her and her self-hatred are clearly evident in the journal that she keeps.
The next stage begins when Molly and Agnes leave the Gatewood Academy and take over a small school in the mountains of North Carolina. It is here that Molly gets her love story (she and Mary White were constantly making up love stories for each other on Agate Hill). Engaged to a prominent businessman from Salisbury, N.C., Molly runs off in the night with a man of questionable morals and characters. Jacky Jarvis is the only man for Molly and he and his family welcome her into their homes and their hearts.
Unfortunately, Molly’s and Jacky’s lives were filled with sorrow as one after another of their children either die at a very early age or are stillborn. Devastated by each loss, somehow Molly manages to find the strength the pull through each time, but each time it becomes more difficult for her. As the story of Molly begins to wind down, a major “plot-twist” is thrown in when the reader learns of the mysterious death of Jacky Jarvis and the trial of Molly Petree Jarvis for his murder.
The last stage of the story brings Molly back to Agate Hill and her guardian, Simon Black. Molly spends her last years in the place she knew as a young girl and in the company of Simon’s former servant and her own cousin, who was born shortly before Molly left Agate Hill to attend the Gatewood Academy.
The main themes in this heartwarming tale are those of loss and survival and of living one’s life to one’s own satisfaction, regardless of the opinions of others. Loss and survival are the most obvious themes, as they are present from the very beginning. Molly lost many family members through death prior to the beginning of the novel and even more before she went off to school. She lost her cousin Spencer, while she was at Gatewood and then she lost all of her children and finally her husband and then Simon Black. Death however was not the only form of loss for Molly. She also had to deal with the loss of close friends, as they were forced to move away or their life’s journey took them elsewhere. At her trial for Jacky’s murder, Molly commented in her journal later, that seeing the family there, she realized that even though they supported her, she no longer belonged with them.
In regards to the theme of living your life to your own satisfaction: as the reader learns more about Molly, they see that she often has opinions and tastes that tend to contradict what polite society would find acceptable. The best example of this is when she ran off and married Jacky Jarvis. She ignored the gossip and talk about him and followed her heart and never once regretted it.
Overall, I found this book to be a very enjoyable read. I usually find myself drawn to books that have strong, well defined characters and I was not disappointed with this one. I read it slowly, over a three month period (not due to lack of interest, but lack of time to read!) and this allowed Molly to linger in my thoughts and become someone that I felt I knew and I grew to care about what happened to her.
With the epistolary style, a plot is not always easily identified, as is the case with this book. This style of writing generally leads itself to wonderful character portraits and allows one to gain a fuller knowledge and understanding of one or more characters. As Molly is the main character, all of the journal entries, etc… are either written by her or about her.
The story unfolds in four basic stages of Molly’s life. The first stage is Molly’s life on the Agate Hill Plantation, owned by her Uncle Junius. At this point in her life, Molly has lost a lot of people close to her. Both of her parents have died, as well as her aunt and a cousin and other cousins have grown up and moved out of the house. Her uncle’s sister comes to stay and brings her granddaughter, Mary White. Mary and Molly become close friends during their short time together and Molly faithfully writes to her throughout her life, even though she is not sure that Mary is still alive.
The second stage of the story takes place after Molly’s Uncle Junius dies. Simon Black, a former friend of Molly’s parents shows up shortly after Junius’ death and sends Molly off to boarding school in Virginia. At the Gatewood Academy, Molly blossoms and becomes the darling of her classmates and many of her teachers. The headmistress, Mariah Snow, however, is not impressed with Molly from the very first. Her distaste for her and her self-hatred are clearly evident in the journal that she keeps.
The next stage begins when Molly and Agnes leave the Gatewood Academy and take over a small school in the mountains of North Carolina. It is here that Molly gets her love story (she and Mary White were constantly making up love stories for each other on Agate Hill). Engaged to a prominent businessman from Salisbury, N.C., Molly runs off in the night with a man of questionable morals and characters. Jacky Jarvis is the only man for Molly and he and his family welcome her into their homes and their hearts.
Unfortunately, Molly’s and Jacky’s lives were filled with sorrow as one after another of their children either die at a very early age or are stillborn. Devastated by each loss, somehow Molly manages to find the strength the pull through each time, but each time it becomes more difficult for her. As the story of Molly begins to wind down, a major “plot-twist” is thrown in when the reader learns of the mysterious death of Jacky Jarvis and the trial of Molly Petree Jarvis for his murder.
The last stage of the story brings Molly back to Agate Hill and her guardian, Simon Black. Molly spends her last years in the place she knew as a young girl and in the company of Simon’s former servant and her own cousin, who was born shortly before Molly left Agate Hill to attend the Gatewood Academy.
The main themes in this heartwarming tale are those of loss and survival and of living one’s life to one’s own satisfaction, regardless of the opinions of others. Loss and survival are the most obvious themes, as they are present from the very beginning. Molly lost many family members through death prior to the beginning of the novel and even more before she went off to school. She lost her cousin Spencer, while she was at Gatewood and then she lost all of her children and finally her husband and then Simon Black. Death however was not the only form of loss for Molly. She also had to deal with the loss of close friends, as they were forced to move away or their life’s journey took them elsewhere. At her trial for Jacky’s murder, Molly commented in her journal later, that seeing the family there, she realized that even though they supported her, she no longer belonged with them.
In regards to the theme of living your life to your own satisfaction: as the reader learns more about Molly, they see that she often has opinions and tastes that tend to contradict what polite society would find acceptable. The best example of this is when she ran off and married Jacky Jarvis. She ignored the gossip and talk about him and followed her heart and never once regretted it.
Overall, I found this book to be a very enjoyable read. I usually find myself drawn to books that have strong, well defined characters and I was not disappointed with this one. I read it slowly, over a three month period (not due to lack of interest, but lack of time to read!) and this allowed Molly to linger in my thoughts and become someone that I felt I knew and I grew to care about what happened to her.
September 23, 2015
I have read all of Lee Smith's novels now and I love her work. Born and raised in Southwest Virginia and a graduate of Hollins, she captures the people and history of Appalachia so authentically. This is now among my favorite of her works along with Guests on Earth, Fair and Tender Ladies, The Last Girls, Dirty Linen and Oral History.
We follow Molly Petree from her girlhood following the Civil War in 1872 to her old age in the 1920s. It is at once a sweeping saga and a detailed very personal narrative shared through letters, diaries and testimonies from the perspective of various characters and Molly herself. These are pulled together by a modern day narrator, Tuscany Miller, who has come upon these artifacts and is writing to her professor to share them as a possible foundation for a thesis.
What I have always loved most about Smith's characters is how recognizable they are to me. She not only uses real places and historical events as the backdrop to her fiction, but she also chooses names that are indigenous to the region. The family names in these various regions of SWVA, West Virginia and North Carolina are so common there that they are familiar to me. That adds to the feeling that her characters once lived and breathed and moved about on this planet, living ordinary lives that are rich in the telling of them.
There is a theme of "love stories" throughout the book as Molly writes to Mary White throughout her life. One of the best lines of the entire book written in her old age is this: “Love lives not in places nor even bodies, but in the spaces between them.”
I was sorry to see the book come to a close as I could have spent more time with Molly Petree, Mary White, Uncle Junius, Agnes Rutherford, Mrs. Mariah Snow, Jackie Jarvis, Simon Black, Martha Fickling and Chatty Badger. I highly recommend it.
We follow Molly Petree from her girlhood following the Civil War in 1872 to her old age in the 1920s. It is at once a sweeping saga and a detailed very personal narrative shared through letters, diaries and testimonies from the perspective of various characters and Molly herself. These are pulled together by a modern day narrator, Tuscany Miller, who has come upon these artifacts and is writing to her professor to share them as a possible foundation for a thesis.
What I have always loved most about Smith's characters is how recognizable they are to me. She not only uses real places and historical events as the backdrop to her fiction, but she also chooses names that are indigenous to the region. The family names in these various regions of SWVA, West Virginia and North Carolina are so common there that they are familiar to me. That adds to the feeling that her characters once lived and breathed and moved about on this planet, living ordinary lives that are rich in the telling of them.
There is a theme of "love stories" throughout the book as Molly writes to Mary White throughout her life. One of the best lines of the entire book written in her old age is this: “Love lives not in places nor even bodies, but in the spaces between them.”
I was sorry to see the book come to a close as I could have spent more time with Molly Petree, Mary White, Uncle Junius, Agnes Rutherford, Mrs. Mariah Snow, Jackie Jarvis, Simon Black, Martha Fickling and Chatty Badger. I highly recommend it.
March 13, 2021
Spoiler alert, sort of. I was between a three and a four but gave it three stars because even though I really did enjoy reading this book, stayed up late turning pages, I think it needed some editing. The opening and ending, the brief story of Tuscany is totally unrelated to Molly’s story and completely unnecessary. Why include it at all? Why do we need to know about her father? Her schooling? What does she have to with Molly? I’d initially thought somehow the two stories would be interwoven but that did not happen. It could easily have started when Molly receives the gift of a diary. I’d also have edited out the Brazil segment and just have let Simon Black be beholden to Charles . . . It’s otherwise a very engaging, interesting book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2020
This was not an easy book to read. Firstly, I struggled to get into it because the first part is written by a young girl as diary entries and while the language suits the character, it made it hard to read. The next part was a little better as there are letters written by a teacher and the girl (being in boarding school, it made her writing easier to understand) but also heartbreaking due to diary entries by the headmistress. Up to this part, I thought that this sounded a bit like Jane Eyre (orphan sent to boarding school with a questionable reverend, etc) but set in North Carolina. While Jane Eyre ends with a possibility of happily ever after, we follow Molly Petree to the end of her life.
She found love and heartbreak. Her life was filled with music and then it was filled with silence. The readers were informed by letters, court transcripts (this was totally unexpected!), and diary entries. Life was tough in those times especially for a girl/woman who just wants to be herself.
She found love and heartbreak. Her life was filled with music and then it was filled with silence. The readers were informed by letters, court transcripts (this was totally unexpected!), and diary entries. Life was tough in those times especially for a girl/woman who just wants to be herself.
September 15, 2017
Lee Smith's books are always beautiful and tragic. She has an amazing ability to describe the people of Appalachia and their singular connection to the landscape. On Agate Hill is heartbreaking, but enchanting as it follows the life of Molly from the decimation of her family in the Civil War to her old age in the early 1920's. Even in the historic setting, many readers can empathize with Molly, who attempts to blockade her heart after suffering so much. I won't spoil anything, but Molly's growth and development in the book is remarkable. Words fail me to encompass the lyrical beauty of her writing and Smith's ability to make tragedy seem poetic and enlightening.
November 25, 2019
When a dusty box with diaries, news clippings, court records, songs, poems and other mementos is found in the ruins of a once prosperous plantation in North Carolina we learn about the life of Molly Petree from her birth until her death. Lee Smith’s family sagas are always tell a good story. I especially loved her novel FAIR AND TENDER LADIES, but all her stories are worth reading.
November 8, 2024
DNF This may have ended up being ok…maybe? But tbh I just couldn’t get over the weird intro, always wondering if we were going to have to revisit it at some point. It’s not what I signed up for in my historical fiction. I also don’t have time right now to stumble over the author writing so awkwardly in the child’s perspective.
September 9, 2019
Can't help but love one of my fave North Carolina authors and her story tale set just up the road fro my home in the TarHeel state. Written epistolary style by its young protagonist from the mid-1800s, Smith injects humor and warmth into her story with letter-writing. How cool is that!
July 11, 2024
The best book I have read in a long time! Absolutely loved Molly Petree & her story is one that will stick with me forever. How can you not love & respect a woman who stood her ground for true love & lost so much yet continued to show love & compassion to others.
November 18, 2025
3.5 believable historical novel of the reconstruction south.
July 11, 2013
Haunting, unforgettable, tragic. It's an epistolary novel comprised of Molly Petree's diary, and excerpts from other characters' diaries and letters, as well as newspaper clippings, songs, and court records.
When the book opens, 13-year-old Molly Petree is living on a plantation named Agate Hill under the protection of her legal guardian, Uncle Junius Hall.
The book spans 50 years of Molly's life. While she suffers many traumatic events, she always recovers, and you admire her strong heart even while you fear the consequences of her impulsiveness.
The depiction of life in the south after the Civil War was most striking. Society was completely disrupted, except for some of the very wealthy. Many people, like Molly's friends and relatives, lived in poverty, not knowing if they would have enough to eat, often being robbed of what little they did have.
All of the characters in the book were depicted well, even though their stories were told through diary entries and letters.
I gave the book four stars because I thought the narrator who finds the diaries, letters and other items that tell Molly's story was a twit. I was glad she was in the story only briefly. Also, the ending wasn't very clear.
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
Here's what the author, Lee Smith said about the ending to clarify it after someone on an Amazon forum emailed her to ask about it:
"Thank you for reading On Agate Hill. I think BJ did shoot Jacky, intending to murder him, because BJ had been secretly in love with Molly for years, and felt that Jacky was "doing her wrong" by being so unfaithful to her. (I had hoped that was clear in the way BJ worshipfully talked about Molly in his narration) Molly found Jacky mortally wounded at the store, then shot him herself in order to put him out of his misery. But then BJ lied to everybody, saying that she had not shot her husband, and thereby got her off at her trial. BJ thought that HE could be Molly's husband then, since she "owed" him, but as you read, this was not to be. Molly did not love him in that way. So she really had to leave, and she did.
Now, that was my intention, as I said... but as BJ said, there were a lot of people that had a motive to kill Jacky... such as, for instance, Icy. There was "a bullet out there waiting for him" all along, I guess.
Sincerely,
Lee Smith "
When the book opens, 13-year-old Molly Petree is living on a plantation named Agate Hill under the protection of her legal guardian, Uncle Junius Hall.
The book spans 50 years of Molly's life. While she suffers many traumatic events, she always recovers, and you admire her strong heart even while you fear the consequences of her impulsiveness.
The depiction of life in the south after the Civil War was most striking. Society was completely disrupted, except for some of the very wealthy. Many people, like Molly's friends and relatives, lived in poverty, not knowing if they would have enough to eat, often being robbed of what little they did have.
All of the characters in the book were depicted well, even though their stories were told through diary entries and letters.
I gave the book four stars because I thought the narrator who finds the diaries, letters and other items that tell Molly's story was a twit. I was glad she was in the story only briefly. Also, the ending wasn't very clear.
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
Here's what the author, Lee Smith said about the ending to clarify it after someone on an Amazon forum emailed her to ask about it:
"Thank you for reading On Agate Hill. I think BJ did shoot Jacky, intending to murder him, because BJ had been secretly in love with Molly for years, and felt that Jacky was "doing her wrong" by being so unfaithful to her. (I had hoped that was clear in the way BJ worshipfully talked about Molly in his narration) Molly found Jacky mortally wounded at the store, then shot him herself in order to put him out of his misery. But then BJ lied to everybody, saying that she had not shot her husband, and thereby got her off at her trial. BJ thought that HE could be Molly's husband then, since she "owed" him, but as you read, this was not to be. Molly did not love him in that way. So she really had to leave, and she did.
Now, that was my intention, as I said... but as BJ said, there were a lot of people that had a motive to kill Jacky... such as, for instance, Icy. There was "a bullet out there waiting for him" all along, I guess.
Sincerely,
Lee Smith "
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