Bryan Aubrey holds a Ph.D. in English and has published many articles on literature. In this essay, he discusses the contrast between Esty and Rebecca and Rebecca's growing spiritual awareness.

In an interview with Robert Birnbaum, Orringer said of her stories: “They tend to be about young women who are in between childhood and adulthood. They are about people who are at a moment of an incredibly difficult transition in their lives.” This statement certainly applies to Rebecca in “The Smoothest Way Is Full of Stones,” a story which captures with great immediacy and perceptiveness the world of adolescence in all its turmoil and uncertainty. In one summer away from home, new experiences, new ideas, and new feelings crowd in on the growing girl, and she must quickly develop ways of understanding and integrating them into her awareness of what life is and how she is...