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Me and My Baby View the Eclipse
It is Lee Smith's "love for her characters"--as the San Francisco Chronicle wrote--that gives her work "a down-home flavor, as satisfying as an old-fashioned Sunday dinner." And she certainly loves the people in the stories that make up her first collection since Cakewalk.
These are average folks whose average lives are suddenly shaken up by the eclipses that come to us all--illness, death, divorce, the loss of faith, of children, of dreams. The stories of these eclipses--sometimes uproariously funny, sometimes unbearably sad, occasionally visionary--suggest that love can bring meaning to even the craziest lives.
From the book jacket
These are average folks whose average lives are suddenly shaken up by the eclipses that come to us all--illness, death, divorce, the loss of faith, of children, of dreams. The stories of these eclipses--sometimes uproariously funny, sometimes unbearably sad, occasionally visionary--suggest that love can bring meaning to even the craziest lives.
From the book jacket
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
19 people are currently reading
405 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 34 reviews
February 14, 2012
Pleasant as a cloudless summer day, the stories in this book are sweet, charming, and funny. Quite a few of them deal with women getting on with their lives after their menfolk have hightailed it for greener, younger pastures.
"Intensive Care" was the most powerful story. A man reminisces as he waits for his wife to die. I'm fairly immune to emotional manipulation, but the last line of this one made me burst into tears.
Smith has a gossipy "just between us girls" style. Reading this was like sitting quietly in the next room, eavesdropping on your mother's bridge club. You find out who wore what to church last Sunday, and a little bit about life as well.
"Intensive Care" was the most powerful story. A man reminisces as he waits for his wife to die. I'm fairly immune to emotional manipulation, but the last line of this one made me burst into tears.
Smith has a gossipy "just between us girls" style. Reading this was like sitting quietly in the next room, eavesdropping on your mother's bridge club. You find out who wore what to church last Sunday, and a little bit about life as well.
September 3, 2012
My bookcases are not organized (and me a librarian). They feature shelves and shelves of assorted paperbacks I bought in college and after college, and read or didn't back then, and haven't read in years at any rate. I spotted this collection of short stories by the wonderful Lee Smith on the shelf yesterday, and devoured it overnight, jumping around so that, coincidentally, I got to the most powerful and wonderful story, "Intensive Care", last, and just finished it a couple minutes ago. These economical yet generous stories are mostly domestic vignettes, their protagonists store clerks and small-town homemakers in the American South of the late 20th century. With the exception of "Desire on Domino Island" (a funny, slight spoof on romance novels), they consider a common set of themes - romantic love and infidelity, family, the making of choices that generally could be looked back upon as mistakes. They are sad and sweet and mesmerizing, full of characters anyone would think of as unremarkable and perhaps pathetic, but who are elevated by the clear fierce love of the author for them and, doubtless, for the real people and towns and events that informed their creation. A beautiful collection.
May 23, 2013
I love this book; I first read it in the late '90s, I think, and recently re-read it and was glad that it didn't disappoint, after all these years. Lee Smith has the most wonderful feel for the late-20th-century American south, in all its quirks. She doesn't sentimentalize, and is often quite funny, but the way so many of the stories make my heart catch, or cause a sudden lump in my throat and/or tears, is remarkable. Hers is a wise, compassionate perspective. I highly recommend this one.
August 14, 2021
This is a 200 page collection of short stories. Most of the stories are set in the rural South from 1960-2000. Lee Smith is a good writer and most of her stories have a female lead. The stories usually come from the viewpoint of the main character. The stories are about love, betrayal, family and a smattering of other topics. Faulkner comes to mind but while her stories are good, they do not rise to Faulkner status. Are they realistic? Yes, my family comes from rural West Virginia.
January 1, 2011
Lee Smith has an unusual writing style. Very refreshing. Her characters tend to ramble, digress and get distracted easily at times but you soon realizes that this type of writing is very authentic to how most people think. You get inside the mind of the character and caught up in the moment and thought process.
December 12, 2023
Lee Smith hails from the same part of the world as me, so I've always felt the need to dive into her books, and I'm also proud that such a prolific author is from the Appalachian region. I read her memoir a few years back, so this is the first actual book of hers that I've read.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. If you would have told me that a book of short stories about the run-of-the-mill goings-on of working class and middle class people in the American South during the late 20th Century, I would have said that that type of book doesn't sound very interesting.
The thing about Lee Smith though is that she is a great writer. She can take the bland, the mundane, and the average and make it interesting. I read this in less than two days. I don't know if it's because she "writes like I talk" or what, but she's good. Damn good.
I liked all of the stories, except for "Desire on Domino Hill", which was blah (and I believe that was the point). I particularly liked "Bob, a Dog", "Tongues of Fire", "Dreamers", and "Intensive Care". The remaining stories, "Mom", "Life on the Moon", "The Interpretation of Dreams", and the titular story, "Me and My Baby View the Eclipse" were good, but not as striking as the aforementioned.
In summary, this was a fun collection and it reminded me of short stories that were required reading for English classes in college.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. If you would have told me that a book of short stories about the run-of-the-mill goings-on of working class and middle class people in the American South during the late 20th Century, I would have said that that type of book doesn't sound very interesting.
The thing about Lee Smith though is that she is a great writer. She can take the bland, the mundane, and the average and make it interesting. I read this in less than two days. I don't know if it's because she "writes like I talk" or what, but she's good. Damn good.
I liked all of the stories, except for "Desire on Domino Hill", which was blah (and I believe that was the point). I particularly liked "Bob, a Dog", "Tongues of Fire", "Dreamers", and "Intensive Care". The remaining stories, "Mom", "Life on the Moon", "The Interpretation of Dreams", and the titular story, "Me and My Baby View the Eclipse" were good, but not as striking as the aforementioned.
In summary, this was a fun collection and it reminded me of short stories that were required reading for English classes in college.
July 13, 2021
Lee Smith, according to her own bio, wrote her first "novel" at age eight, in which Jane Russell and Adlai Stevenson inexplicably fell in love, went west, and became Mormons. She's been writing stories ever since, most rooted in her native southeastern United States.
In "Me and My Baby View the Eclipse," we get nine short stories, each a slice of southern life, ranging from the mysteries of childhood to the trappings, and traps, of adulthood. Like most reviewers, I enjoyed "Tongues of Fire" the most, in which a child sees events through the window of her relationship with God. I found "Intensive Care" wrenching, similar to "Mom" - having experienced / witnessed something similar to both.
I think what I enjoyed most about these stories is their authenticity, the references to southern locations (that seems like a minor point, but it makes such a difference when an author mentions a place in your past or present), and the ability to call out to common experiences. The characterizations are so realistic - we all know someone with a dog like Bob, or a friend like Lucie. The stories don't always have a "smart" beginning and end, like an O. Henry story - but neither does life. Although I didn't like all of the tales - I understood the rite of passage, but could have done without the titular story - I certainly enjoyed the majority.
In "Me and My Baby View the Eclipse," we get nine short stories, each a slice of southern life, ranging from the mysteries of childhood to the trappings, and traps, of adulthood. Like most reviewers, I enjoyed "Tongues of Fire" the most, in which a child sees events through the window of her relationship with God. I found "Intensive Care" wrenching, similar to "Mom" - having experienced / witnessed something similar to both.
I think what I enjoyed most about these stories is their authenticity, the references to southern locations (that seems like a minor point, but it makes such a difference when an author mentions a place in your past or present), and the ability to call out to common experiences. The characterizations are so realistic - we all know someone with a dog like Bob, or a friend like Lucie. The stories don't always have a "smart" beginning and end, like an O. Henry story - but neither does life. Although I didn't like all of the tales - I understood the rite of passage, but could have done without the titular story - I certainly enjoyed the majority.
June 26, 2024
This collection of short stories took me to the southern U.S. where people in small towns acknowledge each other, sometimes even talk at length with each other, then return to their homes to reflect on memories of friends of the past, Then they must move on with their own challenges. Each story has distinct characters and the reader gets to know them well. Their connections to each others' lives become visible as their hopes and fears are explained. Do any of the diverse lives mirror the reader's life? Maybe in reading the book you will find yourself.
May 7, 2018
This was a weird book. Disjointed. Did not enjoy at all.
December 31, 2018
Student gave this to me. & while I appreciate the thought. Don't really appreciate reading about women who have just been left by their men. Well written though.
April 26, 2021
Short stories. Always enjoy her books.
March 20, 2016
I had wanted to read this book for a long time and now that I have , I have to say it wasn't exactly what I expected.The authentic Southerness was there and as a person who has grown up in the South, I recognized and related to that immediately.It felt very familiar. Most of the stories had gripping elements and a couple were especially engrossing, but a couple of stories just ended abruptly without any defined ending and although the author provided enough information throughout the narrative for you to know what would likely end up happening, that annoyed me quite a bit.I'm a reader that needs some kind of a definitive ending to feel satisfied and not getting one greatly impacts my enjoyment.
Lee Smith is a talented writer and this book was a worthwhile read but not a book I'm likely to ever read again.
Lee Smith is a talented writer and this book was a worthwhile read but not a book I'm likely to ever read again.
June 20, 2013
Another book with short stories by Lee Smith. She writes with each character's diction telling his or her social standing and personal opinions. The title of the book is the last short story in the book. Each story has a theme, and sometimes I thought they would all deal with divorce, or superstition for motivation, or justification of irrational behavior sometimes known as denial. Thanks to this approach to writing, the author makes the reader smarter than the story teller!
Some phrases appear in this and other books: "seersucker suit," and "s/he went to church every time the door cracked open."
Some phrases appear in this and other books: "seersucker suit," and "s/he went to church every time the door cracked open."
February 2, 2010
OK, finishing books that I found painful. I don't know who cares about all these bimbos with no education, not me. However 2 of these stories were amusing, the last two, reason enough to put them in the back of the book. According to Lee Smith, or her readers, everybody in the south has no moral code, no education, no taste, and all pop in and out of bed with odious characters. Why is this interesting to anybody? Please tell me her books will NOT be sent to any foreign nation, or galaxy, to give a picture of American/southern lack of culture.
September 9, 2016
I love this short story collection by Southern writer Lee Smith. Her wit and ear for dialogue is unmatched, resulting in prose that is both wickedly sharp and yet surprisingly tender. My favorite is "Tongues of Fire," about a girl who turns to religion for answers after her father has a nervous breakdown.
"Me and My Baby View the Eclipse," the title story, is also worthy of a good read.
I visit this collection every few years or so and always, it's like spending time with an old and very dear friend.
"Me and My Baby View the Eclipse," the title story, is also worthy of a good read.
I visit this collection every few years or so and always, it's like spending time with an old and very dear friend.
July 8, 2008
I love Lee Smith's novels, but I love her short stories -- especially this collection -- even more. She's got a real eye for finding the most human parts of her characters, and making you love them despite their flaws. The title story is one of my top five short stories of all time. (Three of the others appear in W.P. Kinsella's The Thrill of the Grass, and the fifth is Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find".)
February 22, 2010
I reread this collection of stories by Lee Smith and found that they have held their charm. The book is populated by the quirky Southern characters one would expect from this author with interesting and varied viewpoints. The collection held together well yet each story was quite individual. The only one I did not care for was a spoof on romance writing called "Desire on Domino Island." Otherwise, I'd recommend this book to anyone.
December 9, 2008
This was a comfort read, like most of Lee Smith's books, like Little Women and Elizabeth Berg. The only thing I don't like about Lee Smith's writing is the inevitable infidelity. There is usually at least one person cheating on the other in her books, and the matter-of-fact way the characters do these things leave me with an uneasy anger.
October 12, 2012
Smith is a force of nature. She concocts elaborate plots with intricately woven characters (like Flannery O'Connor) and tells the story in the simplest, most unobtrusive way she can (like Tolstoy). Highlights: really all except the romance novel one, which is still good, but the titular story might make you cry.
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September 17, 2008
Another spectacular look into the lives of small town southerners from the author of Oral History. Stories of despair, made transcendental. I loved it so much I already lent it to someone to try and convert them to Lee Smith. One of the best short stories I have ever read are in this collection.
April 14, 2010
This book has a great Steel Magnolias quality about it; it would be a good collection to have on hand if you were in a bad mood and needed a pick-me-up. My favorites were Life on the Moon, Tongues of Fire, and Intensive Care.
January 5, 2015
Loved it. Despite the fact Smith is a writer whose stories take place, for the most part, in Appalachia, I had never read any of her works. This short story collection has insured I will read all her books.
January 19, 2015
Light & lovely stories of love and loss, by a southern author who mentions Nashville in one tale. Greensboro, Winston-Salem and other cities I like are also included by her characters. And her stories are mostly sweet or at least entertaining.
July 8, 2016
I love the way this author writes, and some of these short stories were just fantastic, but I found the subject matter in all of them to be too similar. Variations on a theme, I guess, but I tired of it a bit after a while.
February 6, 2017
Kudos and utmost respect to Lee Smith for writing a collection of short stories that never felt like a collection of short stories while reading it. Great work. For me, the ultimate compliment to a good read is wanting more from the author after you've finished the book. I'll have more please.
August 12, 2007
One of my favorites...I love Lee Smith's sense of humor and her timing and delivery is great. If you haven't ever read Lee Smith, this is book is a great jumping off point.
October 31, 2008
My first Lee Smith encounter--these are the kinds of stories that lead you into writing your own stories; loved "Tongues of Fire" esp.
February 8, 2012
One of my favorite collections by Lee Smith! Must read the title story.
September 21, 2012
Great read! Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews