Critical Essays on the Writings of Lillian Smith

Bennett, a University of North Georgia English professor, collects scholarly works that shed light on the life and work of novelist Lillian Smith (1897–1966). Smith made a splash in 1944 with the publication of her debut novel, Strange Fruit, which explored an interracial relationship in a small Southern town. Smith constantly strove to create a “healthier humanity,” according to Bennett, and wrote “in pursuit of a better world.” The seven essays that make up the collection reflect “the chronology of Smith’s publications... organized to guide the reader through the powerful aesthetic and thematic workings of her texts.” In “Reading One Hour in the Time of #MeToo,” Cameron Williams Crawford impressively unpacks the novel’s treatment of rape culture, while in “Positive Self-Identity: Neighborliness in Lillian Smith’s Memory of a Large Christmas,” April Conley Kilinski highlights family and community dynamics in Smith’s writing. The essays succeed in illuminating Smith’s commitment to her artistic vision and her activism, though lay readers are likely to get bogged down by the profusion of academic jargon and theory. Still, this solid reassessment has a place on the shelf of literature students and scholars of mid-century America. (Nov.)