Shari Smith

I learned about I AM A TOWN through Facebook, by following an interesting thread to its author, Shari Smith. Lemme just say this, if you don't like the stories she tells in here, then there's something very wrong with you. Because these are stories that will - almost all of them - make you both laugh and cry (or at least tear up) in the space of just five or six pages. And none of these little pieces is any longer than that. You might call it "flash non-fiction."

The title comes from a song of the same name by Mary Chapin Carpenter. (And yeah, I love her music too.) The first line of the song says, "I am a town in Carolina …" And that's what Smith is writing about here. Her stories are a love song to her adopted town of Claremont, North Carolina. A place where she settled in with a five year-old son after a couple of failed marriages and maybe a relationship or two gone south in there too. It took her a couple years to really come out of her shell, but then she came out like gangbusters, getting involved in bringing a library to town, and inviting some prominent Southern writers to help raise money for it - Rick Bragg and Sonny Brewer. And yeah, I've read a couple of Bragg books and one of Brewer's, so I got even more interested when I heard this and then, in subsequent stories, learned about even more connections Smith has - and made - in the world of music, art and literature.

But the stories themselves are what captured me and kept me reading. There are forty-six of 'em here. They all make a point, and they all are just gems, by God. For example, here's one on miscarriage and stillborn babies, and the often unspoken heartbreak it brings. Shari's friend, Paula, says this to her about her stillborn baby boy, months later -

"'You know, you are the only one who talks about him, about Quinton. Everyone is afraid to mention it. They act like he wasn't here, but he was. He was to me.' Me too … Paula Schroeder Hawkins is the mother of five babies, not four, and we remember that. We remember him, her girlfriends …" ("Designing Women")

Or this, about same-sex marriage -

"Anyone who does not agree with gay marriage is free to go to a church with like-minded people and exclude anyone they wish. A government cannot, must not …" Smith goes on to say that she believes that one day our children "will grow up to wonder what all the fuss was about, that … no one will ask and everyone will tell because it finally dawns on people that it just doesn't matter who is sleeping with whom. It really doesn't." ("Andrea, Me, and a Pack of Southern Women")

I started dog-earing pages here and there to find stuff for this review, but then I realized I was kinda ruining this nice book, crumpling so many page corners, so I quit. But lemme just tell ya - Shari Smith is a real find for someone who loves good, pure writing, with healthy doses of southern speech and vernacular that might make you laugh, or maybe - if you're from the south - just nod your head in recognition, thinking, yup that's how we talk. She writes of friendship, family, heartache, grief, loss, loneliness, music, writing, and more. There are whole lives in here, people she's known, loved, lost. Children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, and dear friends - all those connections. And plenty about being southern too. You know that phrase, "it takes a village"? Well Shari Smith found her village in Claremont, and she pays tribute to its people in I AM A TOWN.

Damn this is a good book! Do not miss it! TEN STARS! My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (lisätietoja)