A 
Lee Smith's On Agate Hill
Reviewed by Kim Holloway
In On Agate Hill, Lee Smith returns to a format that she employed so successfully in Fair and Tender Ladies - the epistolary novel. Readers are introduced in this novel to Molly Petree, who has been orphaned by the Civil War and whose story is told in a collection of diary entries, newspaper clippings, lists, letters, and other documents.
An orphan of the Civil War, Molly must make her way in the new world that she has been thrust into as she endures the loss of those people she loves most: The deaths of her father and then her mother are followed by those of her beloved Aunt Fannie and finally her Uncle Junius, whom she notes "is not really my uncle at all but my mothers first cousin a wise and mournful man who has done the best he could for us all I reckon."
Molly describes herself as a "ghost girl" who "waft[s] through this ghost house seen by none." Invisibility does seem to be the one gift in her difficult early life; indeed, at her uncle's home she is so invisible that she is able to disappear into a hidden alcove in which she keeps what treasures she has and writes letters and journals. The ghost house really houses two groups of "ghosts." First, it hold a group of living ghosts, those who walk through their lives as ghosts even though they are still among the living and who struggle to survive in the years during and after the Civil War. Most of these living ghosts have little time and often little desire to keep track of a ghost girl like Molly. The "real" ghosts that Molly lists are her loved ones who have already passed on. She writes a few brief sentences describing each of the deceased, and, in doing so, she paints for the reader a picture of the devastating effects of the Civil War. Molly's life seems to be equally populated by ghosts of both the living and the dead, all of whom have been permanently changed by the War.
But Molly soon proves to be a strong and resilient ghost girl, even when circumstances force her from the home she has made for herself with her uncle and his family and servants. Sent to a boarding school reminiscent of the Jane Eyre's Lowood and later serving as a teacher in a remote mountain school, Molly survives and even thrives in her own way wherever she goes. Molly's story, including the story of the people who love her and the events surrounding her murder trial, is just as inspiring as Jane's. Her journey is not easy, and Molly's story takes us to places we would never have suspected at the beginning of the novel. We feel as if we have been with her at each place she calls home and that we have come to know the people she loves and even those she does not. Even when we question her actions, we still admire the woman Molly becomes.
Smith has created in this novel a cast of characters that is unique and captivating. Molly's mysterious benefactor Simon Black, another "ghost girl" named Mary White, and Molly's husband Jacky Jarvis are only a few of the characters that Smith draws so vividly that we can almost see them. The novel is populated by a good mix of people: the good and the flawed, the well-intentioned and the selfishly motivated - characters who live on long after the book is finished and put back on the shelf, awaiting a re-reading on some cold and rainy afternoon.
For those who have never read an epistolary novel, this is a good introduction to the genre. The bits and pieces of Molly's life are perfectly woven together so as to seem to be all of one piece. The added dimension of the multiple viewpoints adds a fullness to Molly's story that makes her come alive. Instead of the more objective view of an omniscient third person narrator or the limited consciousness of first person narration, we see Molly as others see her - courageous and strong but also headstrong and flawed. We see someone we can relate to, someone who might have as a friend if she lived outside the pages of a novel.
