Me and My Baby View the Eclipse

Written by Lee Smith

Narrated by Tom Stechschulte and Linda Stephens

A storyteller in the very best southern tradition, Lee Smith pens unexpected plots vibrant with luminous prose. Her powerful short stories in Me and My Baby View the Eclipse capture those extraordinary moments in everyday life when greatness and tragedy shimmer through the surface. This collection was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Richly satisfying, each tale portrays ordinary people meeting trouble head on with courage and compassion: a teenaged girl coping with her father's nervous breakdown, a housewife filling her humdrum days with an eccentric lover, and a single mother struggling to hang onto her wayward son. With narrators Linda Stephens' and Tom Stechschulte's brilliant performances, these lyrical stories-made to be read aloud-will linger long in your memory. The collection includes: Bob, a Dog; Mom; Life on the Moon; Tongues of Fire; Dreamers; The Interpretation of Dreams; Desire on Domino Island; Intensive Care; and Me and My Baby View the Eclipse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 7, 2008
• ISBN: 9781440799891

Lee Smith

Lee Smith is the best-selling author of over a dozen books, including Dimestore: A Writer's Life and Guests on Earth. She lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Reviews for Me and My Baby View the Eclipse

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Any of these stories might be enjoyable for you on its own, but the problem here is that, as a collection, it gets extremely repetitive. You feel as if you're reading about the same characters (with different names) facing the same types of settings and situation, with little variation in even theme. I enjoyed the first one, and then the second one less, the third one less, and so on. They're sweet southern stories, but as a pack, they come off as no better than average. If you're interested, I'd suggest keeping the collection on hand to read single stories in between longer/other works so you have some variation. The writing is nice, but it's not enough to balance out the repetitiveness of what you end up reading as you go through the stories.