Guests on Earth by Lee Smith (2013)

This is an OK book, interesting enough and well written in a workmanlike manner, but I had expected something else and certainly much more, so I was disappointed. From the descriptions of the book I read on-line, I expected that the focus of the story would be a fictionalized account of Zelda Fitzgerald's stay at a famous mental asylum. Instead, she is only one of a passing parade of the hospital's residents and is not portrayed in any detail. I was expecting a more powerful book because I remember being much impressed by Lee Smith's book The Devil's Dream, which I read maybe 20 years ago. This one pales in comparison. Well, so it goes.

The narrator of the novel, Evalina, is sent to the famous Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, as a young teenager following the death of her beautiful exotic dancer mother. She seemingly regains her mental health there after several years, during the course of which she receives intense training as a classical pianist. (To accept that bit of plot requires some suspension of disbelief.) Unfortunately, when she leaves the hospital things don't go well for her, and she returns for another extended stay.

Most of the book is given to accounts of the histories and behaviors of Evalina's fellow inmates, but Smith includes so many that they all tend to blur together after a bit. Some of her most memorable scenes involve the local Appalachian Mountain natives and their unearthly-sounding music (which is the focus of The Devil's Dream), but these episodes seem thrown in because of Smith's fascination with the music, not because they advance the plot.

Smith does have something to say about the thin boundary between sanity and insanity and the expectations of behavior that govern our perceptions of who is sane and who is not.

Somewhat enjoyable to read but immediately forgettable afterwards.