The Last Girls: A Novel (Paperback)

The premise is a good one: College girlfriends reunite to journey down the river as they did in college, only this time, it's to spread the ashes of one of their own.

Now, interestingly enough, there were 12 girls that took the initial trip back in 1965 and only four meet up for this tour. The most interesting of the four women discussed is Harriet, the shy, never married best friend to the deceased - Baby Ballou. Harriet is both interesting and endearing and everytime the author gives us a glimpse into her, she changes the direction of the story. In fact, Smith never gives you enough time with any of the characters to develop a real connection. For that matter, she spends more time on the husband of one of the women rather than the woman herself!.

I was also perplexed that the women who were reunited on the boat never really seemed to reconnect with one another or have any real interest in being there. It left me wondering what the purpose was in even telling this story.

Overall the story seems scattered and lacking of any real focus. Furthermore, I did not understand the author's need, after 370+ pages of no real mention, to "update" us on the lives of the women who didn't take the reunion ride. Who cares? If they weren't important enough to write about in the bulk of the book, why are they now? Why even have them at all?

Ms. Smith may have a large following of readers, however, I will not be one of them.

Five classmates from a Blue Ridge Mountain college take a homemade raft trip down the Mississippi. 35 years later these same women meet again for a steamboat ride down the Mississippi following the same trek. This time the boat trip is not for fun but to bury one of the classmates, Baby.

Margaret Ballou, nee Baby was the trouble maker/finder of the group. She was beautiful and winful. She once said she made love after every funeral she ever attended and she loved funerals. It is unclear if Baby drove off the bridge intentionally in her small town in Mississippi or if she lost control of her car. She had many instances of "breakdowns" in her her years. She had several marriages and alcohol and drugs played a big part in her life. Saying that, everyone loved Baby, everyone wanted to be her friend. But Baby picked her friends carefully and the four other women who were gliding down the Mississippi were her only real friends.

Harriet was a teacher. She has led a solitary life. First living with her mother and then alone inheriting the home they shared. She has had a few romances, but is skittish and has a big hole in her life.

Courtney, the Southern belle, living the good life. A husband who paid little attention and a lover who paid too much. She wanted both but could not choose between them.

Catherine, the sculptor on her third marriage. Her present husband did not trust her and accompanied her on this steamboat trip. Did she love him, probably not, she loved her work too much.

And finally, Anna, the romance novelist. She had many fictional lovers and other lovers in her lifetime, but she was growing older and the lovers were not there any longer.

These four women met at the Peabody Hotel, at the mouth of the Mississippi to start their trip down the Mississisppi River to New Orleans. It would be in New Orleans that the ashes of Baby would be dispersed. There would be men on this trip, stories and truths to be told and revealed. Would the lives of these four women change as a result of this adventure? You Betcha!

The novel was engrossing giving a sense of "being there". Not exciting but moving. The lives of these women were not dull and a lesson to be learned in each one. prisrob

The cruise provides the setting for the ladies to renew their acquantances and catch up with one another on 35 years of their lives.

Smith's characters are complex and well defined in a simple style and engrossing story that remains with you long after the completion of the book. Smith possesses the ability to present characers the reader actually cares about.

The story is engrossing and the reader is not left disappointed at the conclusion. Well recommended, especially for you lovers of Southern Fiction.