The Beautiful Mary Lee Settle
When I first read prolific WV novelist Mary Lee Settle‘s memoir, Addie, I felt kind of like I felt after reading Denise Giardina’s Storming Heaven (Denise has called Mary Lee her “literary mother”): like someone had spun out in gorgeous, poetic language the answers to so many of my questions about home.
Set in Settle’s ancestral homeland of Cedar Grove, WV, the book weaves together the story of Settle’s childhood, the life of her mythic grandmother, and the waves of resource extraction that have surged through the Kanawha Valley since it was first settled by whites.
I had never read Settle before (how could I have missed her?), but thanks to Gibbs Kinderman over at Allegheny Mountain Radio, I am now embarked upon what we hope will become an hour-long audio documentary about her work.
I’m dying to talk about this with someone else who’s read Addie, so get in touch if that’s you!