This is Lee Smith at her best. Through the voice of Florida Grace Shepherd we relive her poverty stricken 1950s childhood in Scrabble Creek, North Carolina and later follow her through adolescence and her adult life. The brilliance of this story is in the childhood Grace describes as a daughter to a serpent-handling, evangelistic preacher. Though Grace is known to have her doubts, she loves her mother and father dearly and clings to the memories of the years she lived in a borrowed house on the side of a mountain with brothers and sisters she adores. Her southern dialect gives an honest voice to a child struggling to understand her situation which makes her so different from the lives she sees around her, but also allows her the beauty of a simple time and place. As Grace develops into a young lady and tragedy strikes her family, the story changes dramatically in the years she spends with her father on the road and the final betrayal by him. Grace redefines herself several times before embracing her childhood and returning to her roots. ( )

In Saving Grace we meet Florida Grace. Grace's father is a preacher, an anointed man of God, who handles snakes as part of worship and asks other people to support him and his family. In the first thrill of religious ecstasy, communities and churches embrace and uphold the family but as times passes the truth can not be kept covered.

When Grace's mother met Virgil Shepherd, she was a dancing girl and he swept her up in glory and power. Now they live in a donated house eating donated food and she finds out that Virgil is cheating on her. He has a sexual magnetism that draws women to him, women young and old; the older women become his staunch supporters and worship with him and the younger women take him to their beds. The women, his previous behaviours, and a child from a previous marriage visit Scrabble Creek to bring him down. Not terribly worried, Virgil repents and is cleansed and moves on to start anew.

Grace is a child who has been so abused and manipulated by people she loves that she is unable to feel real love. She despises Virgil and yet is tied so tightly to him that she acts out his behaviours in her adolescent and adult life. Grace keeps searching for love and freedom but is mired down by her honest desire to not hurt other people and her destructive actions.

In the end, Grace returns to Scrabble Creek and fasts. She tells her friends and family not to worry, that she will come back as soon as she clears her mind. I think that at the end she commits suicide but two other people who read the book believed that she came out and began handling snakes at the new place of worship.

Not impressed with this one. I can, however, see how some people would like it. The roots of Florida Grace captivated me, but the older she got, the more I disliked the story & the less compassion I felt for her. By the time Randy Newhouse showed up, I was bored. Needless to say, I don't think I will be picking up any more Lee Smith books in the future. ( )