Dimestore: A Writer’s Life was Lee Smith’s first nonfiction title. Somewhere, I have a copy that I haven’t read yet. But, when I heard Judy Blume recommend Smith’s novella Blue Marlin, I immediately ordered the book. It may be a small book, but Smith’s note at the end of the book, “The Geographical Cure” shows how much emotional truth there is in this coming-of-age story.

Jenny Dale is thirteen years old in 1958. She has ambitions to be a spy and a writer, and she’s honing her craft as she rides her bike around town. Jenny’s the youngest of three daughters, the late-in-life one who didn’t know either of her older sisters well. But, she adores her parents. Her mother, Billie, is one of the most beautiful women in Virginia, and her father, John, “the best lawyer in town”, runs Dale Industries, the local mill, and has since his father committed suicide. But, when Jenny’s riding her bike around, spying on people, including a local artist, Carroll Byrd, she discovers her father is having an affair with the woman. Jenny’s just bursting to tell someone, but she keeps it a secret.

The affair remains a secret until another death brings it into the open. Billie’s brother is shot and killed in a bar, and when Billie falls apart, no one can find John. When he returns, Bille is sent away to recover, and then Jenny is sent to South Carolina to live with Cousin Glenda, a high school principal who should be able to make Jenny behave.

Enjoy Jenny’s story of her time with Cousin Glenda’s family, a story of the late fifties and bomb shelters and first kisses. Jenny is reluctant to leave when her parents pick her up, but the trio is heading to Key West, Florida, on a geographical cure to try to save the marriage. The resulting account of Jenny’s adventures in a cemetery, a strip club, and with Hollywood celebrities is a celebration of Key West’s eccentricities.

Jenny Dale sees her family through slightly different eyes because of the year she’s thirteen. It’s a charming, melancholy story with its wisps of sadness and hints of adulthood. And, it may not be an accurate account of Lee Smith’s family and their trip to Key West, but her note indicates the story is emotionally true. How many of us can remember events from the year we were thirteen, and remember them accurately? The truth, though, can be found in the emotions that evoke the past. That’s what you’ll discover in Lee Smith’s Blue Marlin.

Lee Smith’s website is www.leesmith.com

Blue Marlin by Lee Smith. Blair, 2020. ISBN 9781949467314 (paperback), 123p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I bought a copy of the book.