Cultural Intermarriage in Southern Appalachia: Cherokee Elements in Four Selected Novels of Lee Smith (review)

Abstract

sapling/ she stands/ daguerreotyped/ by the night"). The listing of herbs, the description of a diamondback rattlesnake, the "fence of flowers"—it's all poetry This collection moves us through the seasons, through the life, the hurts, the beauty of a hard life with touches of humor (surely most mountain kids remember the woeful "Big Toe Tale"); but there's no glossing over the painful miscarriage, the snake bitten child, the mood of the wife, the "umber statue inthe dusk," who waits inthe doorway when the unfaithful husband returns from his week with her sister in Idaho. Ifyou're going to buyjust one book ofpoetry this year, buyFirst Light. Ifyou're going tobuythreebooks ofpoetry,buy Dillingham'sNew Ground (1998), The Ambiguity ofMorning (2001), and First Light. And don't expect these books to gather dust or merely add to your shelved collection; they are to be read again and again. To paraphrase Eudora Welty's story title: A good poem is hard to find. You can find plenty of them in First Light. —Celia Miles Prajznerová, Kateina. Cultural Intermarriage in Southern Appalachia: Cherokee Elements in Four Selected Novels of Lee Smith. New York: Routledge, 2003. 161 pages. Hardcover. $65.00. This groundbreaking book, part of Routledge's Indigenous People and Politics Series, explores the Cherokee influence on Appalachian culture by analyzing its appearance in four novels by Lee Smith: The Last Day the Dog Bushes Bloomed (1968), BlackMountain Breakdown (1980), Oral History (1983), and Fair and Tender Ladies (1988). Prajznerová, an English professor at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, employs the "Marxist branch of cultural anthropology" to show how Cherokee ideas about climate, geography, religion, race, sex, and family intertwined with those of European settlers to create a distinct set of cultural codes now recognized as "Appalachian." Although this book is a revised version of Prajznerová's Ph.D. dissertation, readers will notbe put offby its theoretical nature or Marxist orientation. Her discussion offers fresh insight into both Smith and Appalachia, and her clear style will be enjoyed by any fan of Lee Smith, scholar and lay reader alike. After a brief introduction that lays out her theoretical framework and provides a background of previous Smith criticism, Prajznerová delves into her discussion of the author's work by focusing specific chapters on Smith's ecological concerns; her use of orality; and her depiction of women's roles inAppalachian culture, analyzing especially the characters 74 Vashti and Ora Mae Cantrell. At the same time, Prajznerová traces the Cherokee cultural influences that color Smith's perception of the area and her subsequent depiction of it. Convincingly, Prajnerová shows that Cherokee beliefs concerning the healing power of medicinal plants; their oral myths about Spear Finger, Raven Mocker, the Little People, and the Booger Men; and the matrilineal structure of Cherokee society vastly influenced Smith's characterization of Appalachian landscape, people, and socialrelationships. Unconsciously, Smithhasbeenimmersed insuch Cherokee myths, beliefs, and stories since her early childhood in Grundy, Virginia, because they underpin so much of the larger "Appalachian" culture. Consequently, she cannothelpbutemployCherokee tropes inher fiction, which create an interesting subtext concerning Smith's ideological influences and her authorial positioning. An especial treat comes at book's end where Prajznerová provides a twenty-one-page transcript of an interview she conducted with Smith at Baylor University's Institute for Oral History in February 2001. While many of Prajznerová's questions focus on the themes covered in her book—natural conservation's ties to cultural preservation, Smith's conscious and unconscious use of Cherokee mythic material, the importance of the Appalachian dialect in storytelling—she also delves into questions concerning Smith's relationship with the Hindman Settlement School, James Still's influence on her life and work, and the flooding of Grundy. In all, Prajznerová succeeds in showing how the Cherokees' appearance in Smith's fiction proves their undeniable influence on Appalachia. Her book's ambitious aim allows us to think about Lee Smith's fiction and Appalachian culture in many new, exciting, and innovative ways. —Shawn Holliday 75 ...