Beginning with her novel Crazy Ladies (1990), Michael Lee West has developed characters whose voices echo not only those of her family but also that of the South as a whole. Witty anecdotes drawn from the stories of her family members have become fodder for her fiction, and her retelling confirms their humor and power as folk narratives. West's work illustrates the growth of a third wave of writers from the South since the Southern Renaissance, and her novels demonstrate the abilities of these authors to depict universal themes and experiences in regional locales.

West's family was upper middle class, and she grew up during the period of post-World War II prosperity. She was born Michael Lee Helton in Lake Providence, Louisiana, on 15 October 1953. Her father, Ralph Helton, was a store manager who for many years worked for a chain of stores called Morgan and Lindsay. Later he bought...