Amazon.com Review Oprah Book Club® Selection, October 1997: Gibbons's novel, A Virtuous Woman, takes place in the same hardscrabble part of the world as Ellen Foster. The virtuous woman is Ruby Pitt Woodrow, a woman who might have ended up like Ellen Foster's mother if fate, in the shape of Jack Stokes, hadn't crossed her path. The daughter of prosperous farmers, Ruby runs off with a migrant worker who treats her badly, then abandons her far from home. When she meets Jack, a man 20 years her senior, she's working as a cleaning woman in another prosperous farmer's house. Jack is a man women don't look at even once, let alone twice; Ruby is a woman who needs someone to take care of her. Out of this unlikely union grows a quiet kind of love that is no less powerful for being unstated.
Ellen Foster and A Virtuous Woman share more than just location and a few characters in common. Though each is a complete novel in and of itself, taken together the two books resonate one another: Ellen Foster and Ruby Pitt Woodrow are both damaged people who find the kind of love they need to heal. These multilayered novels are tough-minded and resolutely unsentimental, just like their protagonists. Yet like Ellen and Ruby, each contains a nut of sweetness at its core that takes the bitter edge off the hard lives and hard stories Kaye Gibbons has to tell.
Product Description When Blinking Jack Stokes met Ruby Pitt Woodrow, she was 20 and he was 40. She was the daughter of Carolina gentry. He was a skinny tena nt farmer who had never owned anything in his life. They didn't fall in love so much as they simply found each ot her and held on for dear life.
Example of really loving someoneJanuary 25, 2010 Taquoya L. Ruffin(Atlanta, GA) When I began reading this I really didnt know where the author was going with the story. But it didnt take me long to figure it out. The story is a great story of a woman that found two different kinds of love with men. Its a story of strength and was a very detailed read. I think the books answers the question, " Is it better to love hard or to be loved hard".
So what?October 16, 2009 Deborah Collins(Danville, Virginia United States) This is a very slight novel providing a glimpse into the lives of a few people, but no real insight into any of them. I guess the main feature is the unlikely love story between two of the protagonists. None of the characters came to life for me and ultimately the novel is totally forgettable. I was left thinking so what?
Wonderful ReadOctober 8, 2009 Robert McRobert(Florida) I liked the style of writing; it was an involving story. I follow all the pharagraphs. Once you start to read it You just can't stop. This was a quick and fabulous read! I felt as if I knew each of the characters.
Looking other great story, I`d recomend you these:
A Strange Disappearance
The Circular Study: By the woman who inspired Agatha Christie!
The Chief Legatee
The Filigree Ball: By the woman who inspired Agatha Christie!
The Woman in the Alcove
Sad, but SweetSeptember 6, 2009 Sherry Barr(North Carolina) A Virtuous Woman is a quick read about the love between Ruby and Jack, with each telling his/her story through alternating chapters. Often, I feel like a book is longer than necessary, but with this one, I found myself wanting more details about Ruby and Jack's relationship and what it was like for them to face Ruby's terminal diagnosis together. It was a sweet book about two individuals who fit together and met one another's needs while not sacrificing who they were as individuals. It is not a love story infiltrated with passion, but one that left me feeling appreciative of those unspoken quieter moments that define a comfortable, yet special and timeless romance.
MovingMay 9, 2009 LH422(Washington, USA) Gibbons's novel, a novella, really, is the story of a southern woman's relationships and the profound effect she has on those close to her. Born to a privileged family, Ruby Pitt enters first a disastrous, then a profoundly loving marriage. Though these relationships move her squarely into the working class, we see that love triumphs over class, status, and lineage. Told in alternating chapters by Ruby and her husband, Jack, at the time surrounding her early death from cancer, the book relates the history of Ruby and Jack's relationship. This is not a plot-driven, so much as an emotion-driven book. A beautiful, quick read, I couldn't help but feel deeply for Ruby, and especially for Jack.
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