Cakewalk [Cake Walk]

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1981. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Near Fine. 20x20x20. Signed by author. First edition. Signed and dated with location (Dec. 1981, Chapel Hill) by author without inscription on title page. An excellent copy. 256 pp. 8vo. Author's first collection of short stories. "Comic and observant, Smith's fourteen tales in Cakewalk introduce readers to a host of memorable Southern characters. Her protagonists include aging gossips, a soap opera-hooked housewife, a runaway teenager, and divergent sisters in various combinations. Smith's gutsy Southern women don't always triumph, but, with her sympathetic portrayals, readers gain appreciation for the merits of spirited perseverance, right or wrong, in the face of modern adversity. The characters are everyday folks with everyday problems, particularly the tensions of home and family and loneliness and connection. Smith is keenly aware of the foibles that make people so maddeningly funny but also deeply sensitive to their pain and sorrow." Includes: Between the Lines; Georgia Rose; All the Days of Our Lives; The Seven Deadly Sins; Gulfport; Artists; Heat Lightning; Dear Phil Donohue; Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger at the Beach; Not Pictured; Saint Paul; Horses; The French Revolution: A Love Story; Cakewalk.