Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9410040001
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: G6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY LANA WHITED
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A recently discovered or little-known work by a well-loved author is always cause for celebration. Such is the case with "The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed," Lee Smith's first novel, written while its author was an undergraduate at Hollins College and republished in April as part of the Louisiana State University Press "Voices of the South" series.
I read the 180-page novel originally (in one sitting) when I stumbled across it in the Hollins stacks. As a first-semester student in the Hollins creative writing program myself, I didn't know who Smith was. I was struck by the power of the book's irony, especially considering its 9-year-old first-person protagonist. I was certainly not surprised that the novel was a Book-of-the-Month Club Writing Fellowship Contest winner. Many years later, having read nearly everything Smith has written (including her latest novel, "The Devil's Dream"), I still think her first one is her best.
"That whole summer is as clear and as still in my head as the corsage under the glass bell in Mrs. Tate's parlor. Even now, summers and summers since, I can remember everything. I remember the day summer started."
Thus begins Smith's novel, which is actually more about the end of summer than its beginning.
The dogbushes of the title are the large summer-blooming bushes at the rear of 9-year-old Susan Tobey's yard, bushes where Susan once found a dog who later died and where she retreats to sort out the ideas in her "special summer head." The ideas this summer are big ones, so big that Susan has constructed a romantic fantasy around them: her mother, "the Queen," pays little attention to Susan's father, who is "not the King," largely because of the presence of a frequent visitor, "the Baron."
Susan's older sister, "the Princess," is too distracted by her growing interest in boys and sex to help Susan sort out the problems in "the Castle," and so the child is left to the care of the housekeeper, Elsie, or no one.
On her own, Susan is usually found in the company of "the Club," ruled this summer by newcomer Eugene, a neighbor's nephew and every parent's worst nightmare. Characterized by a deadly combination of cruelty and insecurity, Eugene teaches Susan her first real lesson in victimization. As Susan's family spirals farther out of harmony, she turns more and more to "the Club" for affirmation, and the climax is a painful study in peer pressure.
If all of this sounds heavier than Smith's other fiction, rest assured the trademark humor is here. Despite its very serious material, "Dogbushes" is a funny novel, with much of the comedy resulting from Susan's half-understanding of the events around her (and 6-year-old neighbor Baby Julia's total innocence and enthusiasm). The tone of the novel is the lightest possible, considering its subjects, resulting in a work that floats along in its lyricism. It continues to astound me that an undergraduate could have written this book.
Like Scout Finch of "To Kill a Mockingbird," Susan Tobey must be confronted with violence and death in order to develop a necessary faith in her father; like Frankie Adams of "The Member of the Wedding," Susan makes a desperate search for belonging during one "green and crazy summer."
For all three protagonists, the summer in question is the end of childhood, and it does not go unmourned. Smith makes a reader simultaneously wistful for childhood innocence and grateful not to have to relive its loss. "The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed" is a maturation novel of the highest order. Its revival is long overdue.
Lana Whited teaches English and journalism at Ferrum College.
by CNB