SAVING GRACE

Southern writer Lee Smith has created a range of memorable, eccentric, and often touching characters, whom Christina Moore manages to distinguish deftly, if without thespian fireworks. The story's narrator, Florida Grace, is the daughter of a snake-handling fundamentalist preacher who turns out to be a kind of snake himself. Grace survives her often harrowing childhood through pluck and a lot of serendipity, to learn as an adult that a life of returning kindness with kindness is harder than it looks. Moore's voice is light and warm and young, wholly appropriate for Grace. B.G. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 01]