On Agate Hill

by: Lee Smith

Published by: Algonquin Books

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

Lee Smith, author of The Last Girls, has another great book here. The story of Molly Petree follows her from her childhood living on Agate Hill plantation with her mother and other distant relatives, just after the end of the Civil War--to her old age and death.

Molly's mother dies, then her Aunt Fannie, then her Uncle Junius--until finally she is living with Junius' second wife Selena and her children after Junius dies. All of the people she is close to either die or leave, convincing Molly she is a ghost child. She spends hours in an attic cubbyhole writing in her diary.

Most of the black plantation workers have gone, and her existence gets more and more difficult--until she is saved from a horrible situation by a friend of her father's, Simon Black, who takes her off to the Gatewood School where he has paid for her education.

Despite a tough beginning, Molly soon makes friends among the students and teachers. She goes from Gatewood to a teaching position in a one-room school in the remote rural hills of North Carolina. Eventually she meets the intriguing Henderson Hanes, a factory owner, and is attracted to him and what she sees as a way to see the world. Before they can marry, she goes to a dance and meets the singer and musician Jacky Jarvis--and her fate is sealed. She is his.

This fascinating story is told in letters, diaries, legal proceedings, and such--with some dialect and the rhythm of country speech. Smith has managed to create such a solid character in Molly that I looked at the back of the book to see if she really existed and if the story had been based on an actual diary.

Armchair Interviews says: A novel with a very strong feel of being based on an actual person.