Dateline: Paducah, Kentucky July 24, 1966
---Sixteen college seniors begin a journey down the Mississippi River: homage to "Huckleberry Finn" and a farewell to their girlhood. They built their own raft, kept journals and had the time of their young lives. Among the raft riders was Lee Smith, who is now an award-winning novelist.
Smith says, "Since it's always easier for me to tell the truth in fiction, THE LAST GIRLS is a novel. Huck was an American Odysseus off on an archetypal journey … the oldest plot of all. According to the archetype, the traveler learns something about hi