With their pubescent rotundities to the rear and impertinent little bosoms to the front, young majorettes twirling quite superfluous batons in the course of a sesquicentennial celebration by townsfolk in a medium-sized Southern city constitute the center of attraction in Lee Smith's newest novel [Fancy Strut], enabling her to disclose with admirable deftness the behind-the-scenes manipulations by promoters and participants alike, their petty chicaneries and their predatory pursuits of old-fashioned sin. Her book clips along at a lively pace and thus prompts the reader to hope she will presently develop material matching her innate capacities and engaging narrative skill.

"Notes on Current Books: 'Fancy Strut'," in The Virginia Quarterly Review (copyright, 1974, by The Virginia Quarterly Review, The University of Virginia), Vol. 50, No. 1 (Winter, 1974), p. viii.∗