On a beautiful June day in 1965， a dozen girls-classmates at a picturesque Blue Ridge women s college-launched their homemade raft (inspired by Huck Finn s) on a trip down the Mississippi. It s Girls A-Go-Go Down the Mississippi read the headline in the Paducah， Kentucky， paper. Thirty-five years later， four of those "girls" reunite to cruise the river again. This time it s on the luxury steamboat， The Belle of Natchez， and there s no publicity. This time， when they reach New Orleans， they ll give the river the ashes of a fifth rafter-beautiful Margaret ("Baby") Ballou. Revered for her powerful female characters， here Lee Smith tells a brilliantly authoritative story of how college pals who grew up in an era when they were still called "girls" have negotiated life as "women." Harriet Holding is a hesitant teacher who has never married (she can t explain why， even to herself). Courtney Gray struggles to step away from her Southern Living-style life. Catherine Wilson， a sculptor， is suffocating in her happy third marriage. Anna Todd is a world-famous romance novelist escaping her own tragedies through her fiction. And finally there is Baby， the girl they come to bury-along with their memories of her rebellions and betrayals. THE LAST GIRLS is wonderful reading. It s also wonderfully revealing of women s lives-of the idea of romance， of the relevance of past to present， of memory and desire.