“These Dark Woods Yet Again”: Rewriting Redemption in Lee Smith's Saving Grace

Abstract

Lee Smith recently commented, “In a way my writing is a lifelong search for belief. I have always been particularly interested in expressions of religious ecstasy, and in those moments when we are most truly ‘out of ourselves’ and experience the Spirit directly” (“Notes,” Saving). In more than ten novels and short story collections, Smith has explored aspects of Southern life, history, and culture—its oral traditions, sacred and secular music, class divisions and race relations, mountain customs, Appalachian folklore, and the spiritual life and beliefs of white Southern fundamentalist churches.1 Some of her characters, like Ivy Rowe in Fair and Tender Ladies, resist the salvation offered by the church. Others, like country star Katy Cochran in The Devil's Dream, are “saved” and realize they have been “starving for God's love” all their lives (295).