In the brisk and readable The Last Girls, acclaimed Southern writer Lee Smith reunites four college suitemates on a boat tour of the mighty Mississippi. Thirty-five years before, inspired by reading Twain's Huckleberry Finn in class (a detail not nearly revisited enough), the women floated down the same river on a manmade raft; now they are gathered at the request of their recently deceased ringleader's husband. The story unfolds through the eyes of each woman as the old friends weave college memories with their own dramas spanning the three decades since graduation. Harriet, Courtney, Catherine, and Anna come through muddily compared to their dead friend Baby. Even in death, Baby, a Sylvia Plath-like creature with voracious appetites for poetry, self-mutilation, and sex, nearly overwhelms her more reticent friends with past behaviors better suited to a mental institution than a dorm room. As the tour boat bobs along in the wake of these women's emotional crises, Smith offers up the contemporary female life experience, fivefold. At its heart, this is a book about how we never quite outgrow the past, even after plenty of chances to do otherwise. --Emily Russin


From Publishers Weekly
The Big Chill meets Huckleberry Finn in a moving novel inspired by a real-life episode. Thirty-six years ago, Smith (Oral History) and 15 other college "girls" sailed a raft down the Mississippi River from Kentucky to New Orleans in giddy homage to Huck. Here she reimagines that prefeminist odyssey, and then updates it, as four of the raft's alumnae take a steamboat cruise in 1999 to recreate their river voyage and scatter the ashes of one of their own. What results is an unsentimental journey back to not-quite-halcyon college days of the mid-1960s ("periods cramps boys dates birth babies the works") masterfully intercut with more recent stories of marriages, infidelities, health crises and career moves, all set firmly in the South. At first the characters threaten to be mere stereotypes: innocent, self-sacrificing Harriet; arty, maternal Catherine; brittle Southern belle Courtney; brassy romance novelist Anna. But Smith reveals surprising truths about each character, even as she suggests that the fate of their departed classmate-the wild, promiscuous, possibly suicidal Baby-may never be understood. The steamboat setting provides ample opportunities to skewer cruise ship tackiness and Southern kitsch, a witty counterpoint to the often troubled personal stories of the passengers. Readers who like their plots linear may be challenged by the tangle of tales, but those who agree that "there are no grown-ups," and that there's "no beginning and no end" to the "real story" of people's lives, will find this tender, generous, graceful novel a delight. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this latest effort by Southern author Smith (Fair and Tender Ladies), the characters are the "last girls" because they came of age at a women's college in Virginia just as young women ceased to enjoy being referred to as "girls." This group of former coeds, who once traveled down the Mississippi on a raft of their own construction, reunite to make the same trip on a fancy steamboat to scatter the ashes of one departed member. Along the way, we learn the stories of the unmarried Harriet, wealthy romance writer and once-poor West Virginia girl Anna, straying society wife Courtney, and Catherine and husband Russell. Each has had troubles and romances, and as they trace their stories with plentiful flashbacks to their college days, personalities are gradually revealed. This entertaining novel should be popular with readers who enjoy tales of women's lives, but it lacks the sharp edge and grimmer reality of Smith's earlier work. Recommended for popular fiction collections. Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., VACopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Devotees of the Southern novel will enjoy this book; after a few minutes of Smith's artful prose, read in her addictive, musical drawl, listeners will be hooked. The premise of the novel's present-day plot is a bit thin: Four college friends meet up after many years apart to spread the ashes of a wild-child former classmate on the Mississippi River, a locale they know intimately from an unlikely college-era "Twain-esque" raft trip. The novel sparkles, however, through its flashbacks and engrossing accounts of the histories of these characters and the people they encounter. Smith evokes a sense of place best when she travels back in time, and listeners will enjoy making that trip. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
*Starred Review* In 1965, inspired by reading Huckleberry Finn for a favorite college teacher, a dozen young women took a raft trip down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. Thirty-four years later, four of these former Mary Scott College coeds duplicate the trip, this time on a riverboat quite luxurious compared to the craft they used before. Their reunion is not merely a way for them to catch up on each other's lives; they also intend to spread the ashes of one in their group who recently died. There is the ever-repressed Harriet, the flamboyant romance writer Anna, the proper society lady Courtney, and the happily married Catherine, all of them accompanied, of course, by their memories of the irrepressible, irresistible, but manipulative Baby, now deceased. Achieving greater depths of characterization and heights of technique with each succeeding novel, Smith sets out here, as the women themselves set out on their trip, to explore various paths by which women journey from late adolescence to early middle age. With graceful, even brilliant shifts from past to present, Smith builds this absolutely inviting, completely compelling novel around the idea that "whatever you're like in your youth, you're only more so with age." Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Revered for her powerful female characters, Lee Smith tells a perceptive story of how college pals who grew up in an era when they were still called "girls" have negotiated life as women. Harriet Holding is a hesitant teacher who has never married (she can't explain why, even to herself). Courtney Gray struggles to escape her Southern Living lifestyle. Catherine Wilson, a sculptor, is suffocating in her happy third marriage. Anna Todd is a world-famous romance novelist escaping her own tragedies through her fiction. And finally there is Baby, the girl they come to bury - along with their memories of her rebellions and betrayals.

FROM THE CRITICS

USA Today

An honest portrait of intelligent, well-rounded Southerners is always refreshing, and The Last Girls delivers.

People Magazine

[A] delightful cruise. . . . Smith delivers a nimble narrative that loops back and forth from the present to the 1960s.

Book Magazine

Thirty-five years after taking an impromptu rafting trip down the Mississippi, four college friends reunite on a luxury steamboat to throw the ashes of a recently deceased fifth friend into the river. Middle age has set in, and so has a touch of nostalgia. Anna, now a famous romance novelist, ponders the literary talent that she squandered. Courtney must choose between the zany, overweight lover who makes her laugh and the philandering, wealthy and now sick man she married. Catherine is trapped in the ambiguity of love with yet another husband who both embarrasses and saves her. Harriet, desirable but never married, reflects on the guilt that has kept her locked outside the life she might have had. Moving back and forth across the years, masterful in its evocation of character and place, full of wicked humor and loving asides, Smith's novel manages both to tell a compelling story and draw credible portraits of its female protagonists. Author￯﾿ﾽBeth Kephart

Book Magazine - Beth Kephart

Thirty-five years after taking an impromptu rafting trip down the Mississippi, four college friends reunite on a luxury steamboat to throw the ashes of a recently deceased fifth friend into the river. Middle age has set in, and so has a touch of nostalgia. Anna, now a famous romance novelist, ponders the literary talent that she squandered. Courtney must choose between the zany, overweight lover who makes her laugh and the philandering, wealthy and now sick man she married. Catherine is trapped in the ambiguity of love with yet another husband who both embarrasses and saves her. Harriet, desirable but never married, reflects on the guilt that has kept her locked outside the life she might have had. Moving back and forth across the years, masterful in its evocation of character and place, full of wicked humor and loving asides, Smith's novel manages both to tell a compelling story and draw credible portraits of its female protagonists.

Library Journal