The Christmas Letters

Bless Lee Smith’s heart! Once again, the novelist from Chapel Hill, NC, has proved that nobody knows Southern women better. Once again, her prose is apparently effortless–a deft trick for any writer. Once again, she has crafted a sparkling little gem of a story brimming with wit, charm, heartbreak and even, this time, recipes.” —The Chicago Tribune

The Christmas Letters (1996), returns to the epistolary style of Fair and Tender Ladies. The novella opens with Birdie Puckett writing to her mother and sister about life on a North Carolina farm in 1944. In parts 2 and 3, Birdie’s daughter and granddaughter continue the letter-writing tradition that spans and links the three generations. The focus shifts from Birdie to her daughter Mary and her life as a new mother, later as a woman whose marriage has turned sour, and finally as a Peace Corps volunteer.

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