Reviews for The lives of Agnes Smedley

The average rating for The lives of Agnes Smedley based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-13 00:00:00 Jim Hendricks I read this book in 2000 after it had been re-published by the Femminist Press. And,I loved it. This Spring I was in a used book store looking for the THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. The bookseller pointed me toward the children's section and lo and behold, there was THE LITTLE LOCKSMITH. I quickly drew the classificiation mistake to the bookseller's attention and began to tell him the story. Then he said, "Do you want it?" So, I took the book and read it again. And, I still love the story of a young woman with a terrible disability and how she lived her life. Strangely, I had just read Margaret Atwood's book about being a writer NEGOTIATING WITH THE DEAD and I found Butler agonizing over the same troubles that Atwood described. Having people not understand the need to be alone and write; having writing seem to be a frivolity and not a real job and similar writerly concerns. This time I found Butler, who begins the tale of THE LITLE LOCKSMITH in 1895, a little dramatic, but her story also resonated with another book I had just read called THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE by Lucy Grealy. Both Butler and Grealy suffered mightily with pain and disfigurement. Both write beautifully and yes, dramatically, about their journey. But, Butler turns into a real person, while, Grealy did not. The books are worth reading one after another. My favorite parts of Butler's books are where she describes the house that she bought and the improvements that she made to it. This house comes to mean so much to her as a way to prove herself and to have a sanctuary for her work. Butler is a lavish writer. To me, this means that she lavishs her attention upon the things that she loves and details their meaningfulness to her. And, her writing style is exaggerated and lavish. But, if you can get through it, the book is worth it.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-11-25 00:00:00 Justin Gaines Loved this book - wasn't sure if I really did till p. 232 to the close. Here are some quotes from pages 232-235: "The first thing I found is a sequence...first I looked and I began to see...then, inevitably I noticed that what I saw was amazing, beautiful. The beginning of the sequence, then, is, first you see, then you admire. Next admiration leads to gratitude, next, gratitude leads to humility, for the person who receives much feels grateful and then humble, because he wonders how he can have deserved such an extravagant kindness. Humility is naturally followed by a feeling of wonder and adoration toward the source of these miracles, the god who made them and put them there. When I thought of our incredible rudeness, taking all this for granted and then complaining and asking for more, I tried to think of some way to make amends and it dawned on me then to pray. It is the natural expression of those who begin and end each day in that most beautiful instinctive human attitude, the attitude of the sensitive, courteous guest of God, on their knees with the head bent down before an ever-present God toward whom their hearts open like drooping flowers or like radiant flowers. They know the whole sequence. They not only see, and admire, and take, and stop there. In recognition of what they have seen, admired, and received, they finish the sequence, they put themselves and their lives into God's hands to do as He will with them. p. 235 "[Don't] forget to guard your happiness with humility and prayer."