Customer Reviews

Fancy Strut (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Smith certainly knows how to interweave characters' plots. This is a delightful book. A bit more obvious than her later books, it is also more humorous, with several laugh-out- loud moments. Mostly, it has a wry sense of irony, as people believably rail against the very vice they are illustrating, for instance. The title is ostensibly about an event in competitive baton twirling (a quintessentially Southern event in 1965, the time of the novel). But, the title is also about the self-congratulatory town celebrating its 150th anniversary, and all of the town's population are represented doing their own version of a "fancy strut." I think my favorite is Manly Neighbors (a too-obvious name, but fun), the owner/editor of the weekly paper, a happily complacent guy who knows he doesn't like to think too much. I also like batty, snobbish old Miss Iona Flowers, a belle left over from a finer era, as she alone sees it.

This book made me laugh so hard, so often, I had to run to the bathroom on more than one occasion to avoid wetting my pants. The characters are all a delight to get to know, even the ones you love to hate, and it made me wish I lived among fun folks like these. What better compliment could a writer get?

I had a very hard time getting through this one. I have enjoyed some of Smith's other work, but I had to force myself through this one. The characters were one-dimensional caricatures and the plot seemed contrived and disjointed. This story was certainly not as tightly woven as FAMILY LINEN, which I enjoyed immensely.

I have read most of Lee Smith's books, I found this one to be one of the best, It flows and keeps you guessing

I've been lucky enough to see Lee a few times. She never fails to have a grin, a mischievous grin, plastered on her face, like she's laughing at you and with you all at once. And I see why in this book. Fancy Strut is a TRIP. Smith takes us inside the world of Speed, Alabama to see how they will celebrate their Sesquicentennial Week (that's 150 years young, for those of you not up on your Latin roots). This is sometimes in the 1960's, and the Ladies-who-Lunch crowd figures prominently in this tale of seduction, segregation, and baton twirling.

Two of the main characters are high school rivals, two majorettes who compete in the Susan Arch Finlay Memorial Marching Contest at the University in Tuscaloosa. Their mothers are cousins and rivals, as well, and a wonderful scene unfolds as the girls "Fancy Strut" it with all their hearts. At a recent reading, Smith explained that she used to be a journalist for a paper in Alabama in the 1960's and covered this very real competition. She interviewed Miss Fancy Strut, newly crowned, by asking her, "Well, what does it feel like to be Miss Fancy Strut?" to which the real girl exclaimed, "This is the happiest moment of my life!" The irony of this was not lost on Smith, who then concocted this twirling tale about Speed. I loved how each of the characters seems so ordinary from the outside and how Smith delves into their twisted personal thoughts. Many of them reflect along the lines of, "I think I'm going completely crazy." The closeness, the smallness of the town presses in on you from every side--everyone knows everyone's intimate business. And then this celebration seems to be the breaking point. People from all walks of life choose this very event, full of community pageantry, civil duty, bunting and marching bands, to break with their molds. They have reckless affairs, they send criminal threats, they all go a little bit nuts and seem heartrendingly and hilariously aware of it.

Lee Smith is one of my favorite authors, so I was delighted to find this previously unread book. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as I've come to expect from Lee Smith. It was one of her earlier novels so maybe she was still developing her skill. The characters lacked authenticity and were occasionly stereotypes, while the story development was a bit trite. I'll look forward to finding another book or rereading an old favorite from her.