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The Devil's Dream
Now back in print from the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Girls. It was in 1833 or '34 that Moses Bailey brought young Kate Malone down to Cold Spring Holler to be his wife. But Moses, wanting to become a preacher like his daddy was, left Kate time and again to look after the kids while he went out in search of a sign from God. Though he warned them about the evils of playing the fiddle, a kind of music he likened to the devil's own laughter, it passed the time for his bride and children, and soon became not just a way of life for the Baileys, but a curse that would last for generations.
386 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1992
29 people are currently reading
745 people want to read
About the author
Lee Smith
43 books984 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 86 reviews
August 5, 2018
A multigenerational saga about a family of country music fiddlers and song artists. We begin in the 1800s and conclude in the 1960s, with the country music star Katie Cocker. The pull of music is strong in the family. Religion equally so. We meet six generations of the family. As the years pass, we move from casual attachments of the heart and love affairs to flagrant adultery, drugs and the treacherous dealings of the music industry and infatuation with stardom. Eating, singing, fiddling progresses to drinking, fighting, swearing, physical abuse, sex and drugs. Murder, prison sentences, car explosions and incinerated vehicles too.
Look at the title--The Devil’s Dream. It has a message. It speaks of the evolution of music into modern times.
There are too many characters to feel attachment to any. We meet six generations worth. Some of the parents have as many as six kids, and the kids have kids and you get the picture. Great-grandparents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and half-siblings. Children born out of wedlock and those within. There are just too, too many to keep track of. By the end, I simply did not care anymore. One can deal with hard times and understand wrong choices IF one cares for the characters! Not caring for any of them, it was very hard to swallow the train of grueling events.
At the end, Katie finds salvation in God. This was for me the final straw on the camel’s back.
The humor fell flat for me. The gossipy tone annoyed me.
The best of the book is found at the beginning. The beginning reminded me of the author’s Oral History. Then the story goes downhill. It drags and drags and never seems to end.
I cannot recommend this book to anyone, not even those who love country music. It draws the music in a depressing and sordid light.
The audiobook has eight narrators. It is in fact a fullcast performance and is remarkably well done. Way above the ordinary. We hear the fantastic Sally Darling and the very good performances by Linda Stephens, Ruth Ann Phinister, Mark Hammer and Tom Stechschulte. I could not distinguish Christina Moore’s or Eliza Brezneham’s narration, but theirs and C.J. Critt’s performance were all good. The narrators sing wonderfully! The total narration I have given four stars.
These are the books I have read by the author:
*Oral History 4 stars
*Fair and Tender Ladies 4 stars
*Family Linen 3 stars
*Dimestore: A Writer's Life 2 stars
*The Devil's Dream 1 star
I am so disappointed with this book that I do not know if I dare read any more by Lee Smith. Getting to the end was excruciatingly difficult, and the end was totally terrible.
Look at the title--The Devil’s Dream. It has a message. It speaks of the evolution of music into modern times.
There are too many characters to feel attachment to any. We meet six generations worth. Some of the parents have as many as six kids, and the kids have kids and you get the picture. Great-grandparents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and half-siblings. Children born out of wedlock and those within. There are just too, too many to keep track of. By the end, I simply did not care anymore. One can deal with hard times and understand wrong choices IF one cares for the characters! Not caring for any of them, it was very hard to swallow the train of grueling events.
At the end, Katie finds salvation in God. This was for me the final straw on the camel’s back.
The humor fell flat for me. The gossipy tone annoyed me.
The best of the book is found at the beginning. The beginning reminded me of the author’s Oral History. Then the story goes downhill. It drags and drags and never seems to end.
I cannot recommend this book to anyone, not even those who love country music. It draws the music in a depressing and sordid light.
The audiobook has eight narrators. It is in fact a fullcast performance and is remarkably well done. Way above the ordinary. We hear the fantastic Sally Darling and the very good performances by Linda Stephens, Ruth Ann Phinister, Mark Hammer and Tom Stechschulte. I could not distinguish Christina Moore’s or Eliza Brezneham’s narration, but theirs and C.J. Critt’s performance were all good. The narrators sing wonderfully! The total narration I have given four stars.
These are the books I have read by the author:
*Oral History 4 stars
*Fair and Tender Ladies 4 stars
*Family Linen 3 stars
*Dimestore: A Writer's Life 2 stars
*The Devil's Dream 1 star
I am so disappointed with this book that I do not know if I dare read any more by Lee Smith. Getting to the end was excruciatingly difficult, and the end was totally terrible.
May 18, 2018
I finally finished reading The Devil's Dream. I've enjoyed reading Lee Smith's other novels. This one is no different. I liked the old country music artists she mentions. The different voices narrating the story works well.
March 11, 2019
I fell in love with Lee Smith when I read Fair and Tender Ladies, and I have been hoping that I would find another Lee Smith book that would come close to touching it. I have found it. It is The Devil's Dream.
When Moses Bailey, a strictly religious man, marries Kate Malone, a girl who loves fiddling and singing, he tries to suppress her love of music and shut it out of her life. He is not successful, for the music rises in her like water bubbling from a stream. Their story is an unnecessary tragedy, but from their union comes several generations of Bailey/Malones, and the recurring importance of both religion and music winds through their lives and this saga.
This book felt at times like being home for me. My daddy was a country music fiddler, one of the best, self-taught. His brothers played instruments and so did his friends, and my young life was full of music and gatherings of friends and family to play and sing. So many of the songs mentioned here were familiar to me, forming a part of the soundtrack of my life. I can remember singing Patsy Cline and Skeeter Davis with the accompaniment of a full band when I was little more than ten years old. What I love of my memories is that everyone sang, whether they were old or young, perfect-pitched or not, and they sang for the joy. We watched the Grand Ole Opry and I went to hundreds of small venue shows where household names like George Jones, Jim Ed Brown, Bobby Bare and Porter Wagoner performed, shook hands and talked to fans on such a personal level. Country music sprang from the heartland and the artists in those days still belonged to the people they had come from.
Perhaps his book is so realistic because it is loosely based on the lives of The Carter Family. One instinctively feels, while reading, that these people are based on life experiences. There is a simple earthiness, particularly in the early stories; a bit of humor, a lot of tragedy, as people struggle to shape their lives into the lives they want versus the ones they have been given. There is a fair amount of ugliness and moments of unbridled beauty, for, as we all know, there is no perfection, no happily ever after, there is only life, which brings us some of both, and sometimes it is we, ourselves, who decide the balance.
When Moses Bailey, a strictly religious man, marries Kate Malone, a girl who loves fiddling and singing, he tries to suppress her love of music and shut it out of her life. He is not successful, for the music rises in her like water bubbling from a stream. Their story is an unnecessary tragedy, but from their union comes several generations of Bailey/Malones, and the recurring importance of both religion and music winds through their lives and this saga.
This book felt at times like being home for me. My daddy was a country music fiddler, one of the best, self-taught. His brothers played instruments and so did his friends, and my young life was full of music and gatherings of friends and family to play and sing. So many of the songs mentioned here were familiar to me, forming a part of the soundtrack of my life. I can remember singing Patsy Cline and Skeeter Davis with the accompaniment of a full band when I was little more than ten years old. What I love of my memories is that everyone sang, whether they were old or young, perfect-pitched or not, and they sang for the joy. We watched the Grand Ole Opry and I went to hundreds of small venue shows where household names like George Jones, Jim Ed Brown, Bobby Bare and Porter Wagoner performed, shook hands and talked to fans on such a personal level. Country music sprang from the heartland and the artists in those days still belonged to the people they had come from.
Perhaps his book is so realistic because it is loosely based on the lives of The Carter Family. One instinctively feels, while reading, that these people are based on life experiences. There is a simple earthiness, particularly in the early stories; a bit of humor, a lot of tragedy, as people struggle to shape their lives into the lives they want versus the ones they have been given. There is a fair amount of ugliness and moments of unbridled beauty, for, as we all know, there is no perfection, no happily ever after, there is only life, which brings us some of both, and sometimes it is we, ourselves, who decide the balance.
January 1, 2012
What a beautiful intergenerational tale of music, family, religion, the Appalachian south and all the complications thereof! I've been reading some of Smith's earlier works lately, where she's starting to find her groove, and in this novel, she totally found it!
The timing is perfect, as she seems to pace each generation's story in just the right way, and I felt drawn to every character in the book.
This is definitely one of those novels where the family tree on the inside cover is a must. At first, I kept flipping back and forth to try to keep all the family members straight, but I realized pretty quickly that it is almost better that you can't keep every detail of every character in your mind. Instead, what ends up happening is that Smith incorporates details from generations past -- someone is drawn to vodka, someone finds themselves overcome by religion, etc. -- and you think, oh wow, this is something that was buried in the family history/mythology and is cropping up again. I LOVED this because I totally believe that we carry aspects of our ancestors within us, and we do this subconsciously most of the time.
Smith absorbed me in these stories to the very last page. I'm sad to have to let these characters go.
The timing is perfect, as she seems to pace each generation's story in just the right way, and I felt drawn to every character in the book.
This is definitely one of those novels where the family tree on the inside cover is a must. At first, I kept flipping back and forth to try to keep all the family members straight, but I realized pretty quickly that it is almost better that you can't keep every detail of every character in your mind. Instead, what ends up happening is that Smith incorporates details from generations past -- someone is drawn to vodka, someone finds themselves overcome by religion, etc. -- and you think, oh wow, this is something that was buried in the family history/mythology and is cropping up again. I LOVED this because I totally believe that we carry aspects of our ancestors within us, and we do this subconsciously most of the time.
Smith absorbed me in these stories to the very last page. I'm sad to have to let these characters go.
May 20, 2021
This is a beautifully written book about a hillbilly family from about 1840 to 2000. The family were fundamental Christians that had the gift of musical talent. The chapters are from the perspective of certain family members over the time period. It includes a history of Country music in its chapters. As a person from that region, I found the family relationships not only believable but realistic. I liked this rendition and I have a growing affinity for this writer. I would compare this to Nobody's Fool, which is about everyday guy in New York. It was made into a film with Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy and Bruce Willis. I would also mention "Clay's Quilt" from a promising author named Silas House. I wonder whether these books have much relevance to the urbanized society of today?
June 26, 2008
It all starts when Moses Bailey marries young, beautiful Kate Malone. The Baileys are known to be a strict, religious family and the Malones are known to be a fun-loving, party family. This dichotomy continues throughout Moses and Kate's family tree. Some of their descendants are fiddle-playing musicians and some are devout church-going folks who frown on their more-popular relatives. The book mainly follows the lives of five different family members. Each one has something to contribute to the church vs fiddle feud, whether it's "I used to be a good-time man, but God showed me the error of my ways late one night" or "My mama was a real religious woman and I just couldn't wait to get out from under her roof and off to Nashville."
This was just okay. Now that I think about it, the book read more like a series of long short stories, if you know what I'm trying to say. I enjoy short stories, but Lee Smith tends to write very complicated, nuanced characters. Each main character's story ended before I really felt ready for it to end, so I was always left wanting more. If she ever used this book for a jumping-off place for five different novels, I would probably enjoy those. This book just left me a little frustrated.
But, as alway, Smith got the culture and the language of the Southern Appalachians exactly right. And to an extent, this church-or-music-heaven-or-hell-there's-no-meeting-of-the-two kind of culture is still out there. It's not so widespread, but it's still definitely around. So she knows what she's talking about. The book was, as always, very readable, and the fact that I wanted more about each character should tell you something about characterization. All the characters could get confusing at times, but my copy had a family tree at the front and the back. Expect to refer to that pretty frequently.
I would recommend this to those who are already fans of Lee Smith, but for someone who's never read one of her wonderful books, I would recommend one of her more traditional novels.
This was just okay. Now that I think about it, the book read more like a series of long short stories, if you know what I'm trying to say. I enjoy short stories, but Lee Smith tends to write very complicated, nuanced characters. Each main character's story ended before I really felt ready for it to end, so I was always left wanting more. If she ever used this book for a jumping-off place for five different novels, I would probably enjoy those. This book just left me a little frustrated.
But, as alway, Smith got the culture and the language of the Southern Appalachians exactly right. And to an extent, this church-or-music-heaven-or-hell-there's-no-meeting-of-the-two kind of culture is still out there. It's not so widespread, but it's still definitely around. So she knows what she's talking about. The book was, as always, very readable, and the fact that I wanted more about each character should tell you something about characterization. All the characters could get confusing at times, but my copy had a family tree at the front and the back. Expect to refer to that pretty frequently.
I would recommend this to those who are already fans of Lee Smith, but for someone who's never read one of her wonderful books, I would recommend one of her more traditional novels.
June 12, 2008
if you are looking for a great story, lee smith's novels are an excellent place to go. she has a style that is at once lyrical and intimate. this is my favorite of the lee smith novels i've read--it's a story that spans several generations of an appalachian family. from a technical standpoint, i love the switches between narrative styles as the story evolves. from an entertainment standpoint, i was immediately drawn in by the characters and their lives.
April 4, 2008
This book is a very loose re-telling of the story of the Carter family (in itself a fascinating subject) and the effect of one family's musical talent on the whole of country music. By turns funny, sharp and even creepy, this is definitely for anyone who is interested in the history of country music. Of course, it's FICTION (don't be mislead), but see if you can pick out the A.P. Carter character!
August 23, 2007
A wonderful novel about the history of blue grass and country music. It's easy to read, and it's so interesting to compare all of the characters to thier real-life counterparts. I read this as Drew and I were taking an Appalacian Music History class. If you love music, this will be a great read for you!
October 18, 2016
Lee Smith's The Devil's Dream tells the story of the country-musically-inclined Bailey family, over the course of several generations. The tale is loosely based, I'm told, on the Carter family (For anyone who doesn't know, the most recognizable name from the Carter family is probably June Carter, aka June Carter Cash). The novel is set mainly in and around the Appalachians. It begins with Kate Malone, a young mountain bride whose overly religious husband forbids her to play the fiddle because fiddle music is the devil's laughter, apparently. The story follows the family tree all the way to Kate Malone's great-great-granddaughter Katie Cocker, who really does become a country music star.
I had to read this book for a southern literature class (undergrad, senior), so I was already predisposed to not liking it, but honestly, it was better than anything else we read for the class. Not something I'd revisit, but not a terrible waste of time, either. I was really thankful that Ms. Smith had so graciously included a family tree at the front of the novel, because I would have been completely and utterly lost without one.
Also, the section of the novel about Rose Annie and Johnny Rainette/Blackjack Johnny Raines made me want to watch Crybaby.
I had to read this book for a southern literature class (undergrad, senior), so I was already predisposed to not liking it, but honestly, it was better than anything else we read for the class. Not something I'd revisit, but not a terrible waste of time, either. I was really thankful that Ms. Smith had so graciously included a family tree at the front of the novel, because I would have been completely and utterly lost without one.
Also, the section of the novel about Rose Annie and Johnny Rainette/Blackjack Johnny Raines made me want to watch Crybaby.
July 13, 2015
I read this in preparation for our book club's field trip to Nashville in hopes of getting a flavor for the history of country music. The book was loosely based on the lives of the Carter family and I ended up wishing I was reading a biography of the Carters rather than a fictionalized account.
3 stars for the myriad of characters. 3 stars for the jumble of stories that were a bit of a chore to keep straight.
Enjoyable enough and piqued my interest in the Carter family enough to put Mark Zwonitzer's "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music" on my "To Read" shelf!
3 stars for the myriad of characters. 3 stars for the jumble of stories that were a bit of a chore to keep straight.
Enjoyable enough and piqued my interest in the Carter family enough to put Mark Zwonitzer's "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music" on my "To Read" shelf!
March 26, 2015
I believe that Smith's Fair and Tender Ladies is considered her masterpiece, but for myself, The Devil's Dream is close to perfect.
I can hear the voices of these characters as they relate the stories of the descendants of Moses Bailey and Kate Malone. I love the people, their strangeness, their humor, their obsessions with life, God, love and music.
I can hear the voices of these characters as they relate the stories of the descendants of Moses Bailey and Kate Malone. I love the people, their strangeness, their humor, their obsessions with life, God, love and music.
September 4, 2008
My fave author. Recent books are three or four stars compared with first ones, which are all 5. Oral History is a classic for all women to read, all literature and writing students to study.
July 20, 2023
4.5 - Discovered this author in a TN Trivial book. Sure glad I did.
May 18, 2020
This is the third time I have read this book since discovering it in the 90’s, and each time it’s been a totally new book to me. It is so rich in local color, capturing a history that will be forgotten to its decedents. Beautiful character development and generational traits.
August 12, 2013
I so loved the world that Smith creates in this novel and the family that encompasses that world, that I rationed my reading to one chapter a day, a self-discipline I was not able to keep in the end. Each chapter is a short story in itself, each section a novella, and the complete oeuvre an intricate entwining of stories and generations. Not only is the story riveting, but Smith's writing skills are astonishing. Each narrator (and the novel has many) has their own distinct voice, point of view, and motivations.
How can the same author write lines as disparate as Old Man Ira Keen's explanation of how inspiration for a song comes to him: "A song will grow up in my mind unawares, and one day I'll just pick up this here dulcimore and hit'll be there whole and good, and springin to the tongue,"
bitter Zinnia Hulett's account of her sister Nonnie's unacceptable behaviour "For Nonnie was the silliest, mooniest child you ever saw, and not one grain of sense in her head! She would of starved to death or killed herself a hundred times if it hadn't of been for me. She would have killed herself over and over doing the crazy things she done...And was lazy to boot! If you asked her to churn, she might start out a-churning..."
the educated Lizzie Bailey, Nonnie's daughter "We depart for Europe within a fortnight, as soon as the Red Cross is completely stocked and outfitted,"
the narration describing the gambling, womanizing, drugged-up, and washed-up rockabilly singer Johnny Rainette "He hung up on the bitch. College girls are a pain in the ass. But now, remembering it, he grins, driving right on through this goddamn college town until he hits a place out on the highway that looks more like his kind of a place. Square cinder-block building, trucks in the dirt lot outside, MAMA'S GOOD FOOD it says, well all right. God, he's starved. Johnny parks but does not lock the Ford, fuck it,"
the narration of Rose Annie, Johnny's wife, rambling on to a police officer in the daze of a nervous breakdown (and one of the most haunting scenes of the book): "I got this idea for the tree out of a magazine, I always wanted an all-blue Christmas tree. Then Harry Russo, that's my decorator, found this beautiful blue tree for me. He also found the angel on the top, she's French porcelain, I don't know where he bought her, but isn't she perfect? I think that little star she's carrying is so cute. Well, it's a little light bulb, actually, but it's supposed to be a star. And her lovely blue dress is in the Empire style, Harry says. Isn't she beautiful ... It does look like a real baby, doesn't it? But it's just a doll. Just a doll. That's what they used to say to me, 'Rose Annie, you're just a doll.'"
Now I'm going to have to hunt down everything else Lee Smith has ever written!
How can the same author write lines as disparate as Old Man Ira Keen's explanation of how inspiration for a song comes to him: "A song will grow up in my mind unawares, and one day I'll just pick up this here dulcimore and hit'll be there whole and good, and springin to the tongue,"
bitter Zinnia Hulett's account of her sister Nonnie's unacceptable behaviour "For Nonnie was the silliest, mooniest child you ever saw, and not one grain of sense in her head! She would of starved to death or killed herself a hundred times if it hadn't of been for me. She would have killed herself over and over doing the crazy things she done...And was lazy to boot! If you asked her to churn, she might start out a-churning..."
the educated Lizzie Bailey, Nonnie's daughter "We depart for Europe within a fortnight, as soon as the Red Cross is completely stocked and outfitted,"
the narration describing the gambling, womanizing, drugged-up, and washed-up rockabilly singer Johnny Rainette "He hung up on the bitch. College girls are a pain in the ass. But now, remembering it, he grins, driving right on through this goddamn college town until he hits a place out on the highway that looks more like his kind of a place. Square cinder-block building, trucks in the dirt lot outside, MAMA'S GOOD FOOD it says, well all right. God, he's starved. Johnny parks but does not lock the Ford, fuck it,"
the narration of Rose Annie, Johnny's wife, rambling on to a police officer in the daze of a nervous breakdown (and one of the most haunting scenes of the book): "I got this idea for the tree out of a magazine, I always wanted an all-blue Christmas tree. Then Harry Russo, that's my decorator, found this beautiful blue tree for me. He also found the angel on the top, she's French porcelain, I don't know where he bought her, but isn't she perfect? I think that little star she's carrying is so cute. Well, it's a little light bulb, actually, but it's supposed to be a star. And her lovely blue dress is in the Empire style, Harry says. Isn't she beautiful ... It does look like a real baby, doesn't it? But it's just a doll. Just a doll. That's what they used to say to me, 'Rose Annie, you're just a doll.'"
Now I'm going to have to hunt down everything else Lee Smith has ever written!
December 30, 2020
In Peter Guralnick’s new collection of essays, Looking to Get Lost, there is a chapter on Lee Smith, an author I’ve heard of but never read. So I got this 1992 book out of the library. After reading it I looked at several reviews of the book in 1992 and found that almost all of them praised the book and gave summaries of the plot. Now I’m conflicted, because there are times that the book seems authentic and there are times when the story is so broad that it approaches caricature. All the chapters are in the voices of different characters, but each voice seems rooted to an Appalachian life and point of view. That approach seems authentic. But the plot of loves, lust, bad choices and jail time, alcohol and pills, death and mental illness seems just too overblown to be anything but caricature. Lee Smith is from this territory, both geographically and attitudinally, so it certainly is her birthright to picture these people as she sees fit. But I wonder if she is just being a bit tongue-in-cheek? She wrote this book given a grant to explore Country Music and I wonder how country people might feel about being portrayed as they are portrayed in this book. Although there are traces of humor in the escapades of the characters, each one is deadly serious about their circumstances. And there is this to consider also: if any non-country loving’ folk needed ammunition to dismiss country life and music, it’s all here to be loaded. So although the writing is actually pretty good, this book reads like a bad country song: “I lost my lover and now I’m drunk and I can’t find my bottle of pills but I sure found Jesus!”
December 15, 2010
I have read almost everything Lee Smith has yet published, have had the privilege of meeting this lady, who's friends with a friend and old colleague of mine from Auburn days. Let me tell you, people, Smith shines like the sun, both in person and in prose.
If I have to choose, _The Devil's Dream_ is my absolute favorite Lee Smith novel. Resonates for me like a good guitar, like the fiddle music haunting the souls of this gifted, tormented mountain-music family for the 200 years it takes to tell their tale.
Yup, I truly am this crazy about this book. Taste, and see.
Jeannette, who's old enough to know better, and doesn't care, in that other, very musical LA
If I have to choose, _The Devil's Dream_ is my absolute favorite Lee Smith novel. Resonates for me like a good guitar, like the fiddle music haunting the souls of this gifted, tormented mountain-music family for the 200 years it takes to tell their tale.
Yup, I truly am this crazy about this book. Taste, and see.
Jeannette, who's old enough to know better, and doesn't care, in that other, very musical LA
February 27, 2016
Compelling read that moves along at a pretty good clip. The first two-thirds meanders through a couple of generations of a family, plus extended family and assorted strays. There are many names to keep track of and, after awhile, it doesn't seem to matter because the story line zeroes in on one particular group. The main character, then, is crystal clear and the last one-third is told in her voice. It's Katie's one-sided conversation, told to you in common dialect, with little backtracks to fill in gaps in the current narrative. The book is well-researched and musically accurate, which I appreciate a great deal.
January 18, 2009
What a great book! What a great storyteller!
She lets each character speak for his or her self and I was convinced by all of them!
Goes from 19c to today, the ''hillbilly'' singing up in the mtns in Virginia. Along the way you hear about food they grew, food they cooked, how they dressed, the scenery, family relations, love, rebellion, liquor.
And the Nashville scene of commercial country music.
I have several of her novels waiting to be read, it loooks like I will be enjoying them too!
She lets each character speak for his or her self and I was convinced by all of them!
Goes from 19c to today, the ''hillbilly'' singing up in the mtns in Virginia. Along the way you hear about food they grew, food they cooked, how they dressed, the scenery, family relations, love, rebellion, liquor.
And the Nashville scene of commercial country music.
I have several of her novels waiting to be read, it loooks like I will be enjoying them too!
August 17, 2016
I enjoyed this book so much! Starting out in the mountains of Virginia, this family saga follows five generations of the Bailey family and their strong musical ties from the early 1830's traditional Appalachian ballads right up to country music of the '60's. This new-to-me author brought a smile to my face quite a few times, the first being when someone was fixin' to cook a mess of beans. She also brought a few tears to my eyes, but then, isn't that what those old country songs are supposed to do?
October 23, 2016
I've been spending my time knitting instead of reading, but I did finish THE DEVIL'S DREAM by Lee Smith. It follows several generations of a Southern family living in the Appalachians. From simple hymns, old-time medicine shows, radio barn dances, sleazy rockabilly joints, primitive recording sessions, to the Grand Ole Opry and tales of growing up in the Appalachian south. Lee Smith is a wonderful story teller and the lure of music is something I think anyone can identify with.
March 18, 2010
"There once lived a fair maid name Kate Malone
You could not help but foller,
Fell in love with the preacher's son
Way down in Cold Spring Holler."
"Soon Kate she lost her merry laugh,
She was like to lose her beauty
Tied back her hair of purest gold,
Bore three babes out of duty...."
You could not help but foller,
Fell in love with the preacher's son
Way down in Cold Spring Holler."
"Soon Kate she lost her merry laugh,
She was like to lose her beauty
Tied back her hair of purest gold,
Bore three babes out of duty...."
February 26, 2010
Loved the story, but could not keep up with the characters due to the way it was written (in chapters telling stories from various characters' points of view).
July 16, 2012
I have always thought Oral History was my favorite of Lee Smith's books, but it may now be The Devil's Dream.
September 27, 2012
I highly recommend this book to my music loving friends
its great
its great
July 31, 2017
"It took me a long time to understand that not a one of us lives alone, outside of our family or our time, and that who we are depends on who we were, and who our people were."
Part history of country music, part epic saga in the line of James Michener, part expose of Appalachian life, this book sucked me in and refused to spit me out until I finished it a day later.
So many of us try to reject our family history or deny our roots, but Smith demonstrates that the better path is always to own it, accept it, and build on it. I don't know if that's what she was trying to do, but that's what I learned. It's also simply entertaining...in a voyeuristic kind of way.
I found it slightly confusing to follow Smith's changing point-of-view and how that narrator related to the greater story, how he or she fit into the time line. A family tree in the front helps.
If you like anything by Sharon McCrumb or maybe Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, you'll like this book. If you're from the Appalachian mountains or if you love country music--especially the old stuff--you'll connect with this book. In any case, pair it with Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast episode, The King of Tears (S2E6), for an outside sociological perspective. I've listened to it twice since I read the book.
There's alot of extramarital sex (though not explicit at all) and alcohol consumption, including alcoholism. While Smith presents aspects of church and religion honestly, the perspectives of certain characters would probably require explanation (e.g. that fiddle music is from the devil). For these reasons, I can't recommend this one for younger readers.
Part history of country music, part epic saga in the line of James Michener, part expose of Appalachian life, this book sucked me in and refused to spit me out until I finished it a day later.
So many of us try to reject our family history or deny our roots, but Smith demonstrates that the better path is always to own it, accept it, and build on it. I don't know if that's what she was trying to do, but that's what I learned. It's also simply entertaining...in a voyeuristic kind of way.
I found it slightly confusing to follow Smith's changing point-of-view and how that narrator related to the greater story, how he or she fit into the time line. A family tree in the front helps.
If you like anything by Sharon McCrumb or maybe Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, you'll like this book. If you're from the Appalachian mountains or if you love country music--especially the old stuff--you'll connect with this book. In any case, pair it with Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast episode, The King of Tears (S2E6), for an outside sociological perspective. I've listened to it twice since I read the book.
There's alot of extramarital sex (though not explicit at all) and alcohol consumption, including alcoholism. While Smith presents aspects of church and religion honestly, the perspectives of certain characters would probably require explanation (e.g. that fiddle music is from the devil). For these reasons, I can't recommend this one for younger readers.
February 14, 2018
At one point I read everything I could by Lee Smith, so my bar may be set too high. She’s a brilliant storyteller, no doubt. But with these stories, I sometimes got confused as to who is doing the telling, and there is a certain sameness to the first-person narratives. Quirky women, men with wanderin’ eyes. A lot of alcohol and cigarettes. There is music in the language, but I’m not sure the actual country music thread works, though it does give you a feel for how the music business was born in the deep South. Ms. Smith seems to be more interested in the lyrics than whether they’d work in an actual song. I have no idea how you’d edit a book like this, because the colorful language and poor grammar are part of the flavor, but does every character have to confuse lay and lie? Just hate it when literary fiction contributes to the demise of the English language. Thanks to Bob Dylan, numerous advertisers, etc., America is already thoroughly confused on this issue. Okay, pet peeve. Only partly serious. I still love Lee Smith.
September 21, 2020
Over the years I've read a few North Carolina writers (Clyde Edgerton being a favorite), but I had never picked up a Lee Smith book. I found The Devil's Dream in a neighborhood little library box and I thought I would see what all the fuss was about when it comes to Lee Smith. If I didn't know, NOW I know! From the first page, I was caught up in Smith's tale, woven with downhome flavor, vernacular, and written with such skill and ease that I believed I could have known this family of musicians and singers and followed their successes and failures. I'm not going to review the book because it is complete in itself with each character's conveyed autobiographical chapter. I am a Lee Smith fan with this first reading.
December 29, 2020
A dark and dreamy reflection on music, inherited trauma, and the quiet violence of Appalachia. I recognized every character like family members, which is likely influenced by my knowing most of the locations as real places around me. It can be a hard read for someone who is not familiar with Appalachian vernacular, which the author uses liberally in the first half, but I guess only as hard as reading Tolstoy and trying to figure out how much fifty roubles is worth. This book spans well over a hundred years of one family, and it does not shy away from the horrible truths of life in the hollers. I and my entire family are from the places in this book, and it was almost painful to look into such a sharp and unrepentant mirror as this. I absolutely love it.
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