I am a big fan of Lee Smith. No author today is capable of bringing the southern family to life the way she does and she does it again in Family Linen. The only problem is that she hangs them out to dry too long. There are all these wonderful characters, each with their own distinct voice and unique story to tell but then nothing really happens. She tries to cover it up by saying small town gossip gets forgotten as soon as there's something new to talk about but it shouldn't work that way in a book. When you've invested a couple of hundred pages in something there should be some kind of payoff. Definitely not her best effort.