When Blinking Jack Stokes met Ruby Pitt Woodrow, she was twenty and he was forty. She was the carefully raised daughter of Carolina gentry and he w...
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Apr 19, 2008
Dawn
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I should have been wary of this book since Oprah picked it for her book club, and I rarely appreciate her picks. But I had liked Charms for the Easy Life by this same author. I think my problem this time was simply my expectations. It's not a bad book, but not what I hoped for after reading the back cover. I expected a good love story. The main characters did love each other, but the book was mostly descriptions of all the unpleasant things that happened in their lives, culminating with him
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Sep 15, 2008
June
rated it: 
This was a very spare novel about a husband and wife, Ruby and Jack. The author alternates the POV between the two. I found the vernacular a little confusing at first, and the switching between narrators had me flipping back and forth to see who was speaking. The last two or three chapters were told by other narrators, and that was interesting.
The book gives a very intimate look into their lives. You find out early on that Ruby is dying of lung cancer. It reminded me of some of Anni More...
The book gives a very intimate look into their lives. You find out early on that Ruby is dying of lung cancer. It reminded me of some of Anni More...
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Nov 21, 2011
Melinda
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I was hoping that this book would be more engaging instead of being so stark, harsh and at times, simply cruel. Most characters appeared so impaired, exposing themselves to horrible predicaments and struggling to resurge.
I did find one passage particularly hilarious however. When Jack reluctantly agrees to hire a woman to help clean his home, Mavis strolls briefly into his life. Upon her first day at work, she arrives much later than anticipated, then spends the majority of the morning More...
I did find one passage particularly hilarious however. When Jack reluctantly agrees to hire a woman to help clean his home, Mavis strolls briefly into his life. Upon her first day at work, she arrives much later than anticipated, then spends the majority of the morning More...
Sep 26, 2010
Linda
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After reading Ellen Foster, I thought I simply had to read more by this author. I made a special trip to the library to obtain another.
I was disappointed. While I realize it is difficult to follow one superb book with another, this one fell flat, was choppy, was boring and I'm very glad I read Ellen Foster first or I would not have continued to read more.
Ruby Trip is privileged by southern, small-town farm standards. She has loving parents who dote on her and who can affo More...
I was disappointed. While I realize it is difficult to follow one superb book with another, this one fell flat, was choppy, was boring and I'm very glad I read Ellen Foster first or I would not have continued to read more.
Ruby Trip is privileged by southern, small-town farm standards. She has loving parents who dote on her and who can affo More...
Aug 22, 2010
Alli
rated it: 
I listened to this audiobook for Book Club in July because all the copies were out at the library. It's a simple little book, with alternating chapters narrated by husband and wife. The author, Kaye Gibbons read the part of the wife and she has such an appealing Southern drawl! I looked forward to the chapters she read. In a nutshell, this is a book about a relationship between 2 very flawed yet brutally honest people, Ruby and Jack. It's an unlikely relationship, but it works. The book has
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Jul 25, 2009
Drebbles
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Beautifully written, A Virtuous Women, is the quiet love story of Ruby Pitt Woodrow, daughter of a rich farmer, and Jack Stokes, a tenant farmer. At first they seem an unlikely match, Ruby, although 20 years younger than Jack, is already widowed, Jack, unattractive and unsuccessful, has never been married. But both have had tough lives. Ruby is alienated from her parents due to her brief marriage which was a disaster. She is working as a maid when she meets Jack. Jack has never had much, althoug
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Oct 27, 2009
Elissa
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This book was a total universe offering, in a "FREE BOOKS" box at work that also brought me The Kite Runner and several others that I haven't read yet. I opened it during SSR at school because it looked thin and easy to half-concentrate on while keeping an eye on students and (pretending that I am) marking participation points while modeling reading. I was drawn into the voices and the non-traditional chronology. The story itself was supremely quiet--to the point of being dull, honestl
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Jul 18, 2011
J
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(FROM JACKET)...Two unforgettable characters, Jack Ernest Stokes, known as Blinking Jack, and his wife, Ruby Pitt Woodrow Stokes, tell the story of their years together. Weaving this strong, tightly knit love story in alternating chapters, the two richly cadenced Southern voices explore their vastly differing backgrounds, troubled histories, and their unlikely but loving marriage.
Drawing upon the same "honesty of thought and eye and feeling" that Eudora Weltry praised in "El More...
Drawing upon the same "honesty of thought and eye and feeling" that Eudora Weltry praised in "El More...
Dec 04, 2007
Smita
rated it:
Kaye Gibbon's tells a sweet love story about a relationship that seems to be based on circumstance and convenience. It's not the usual torrid and obstacle ridden love affair that usually dictates a good romance novel (ie The Notebook). I found the book to be touching and very sad.
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Nov 29, 2010
Heather
rated it:
Eh.
It was fine enough, interesting enough to listen to, but kind of weirdly so short and the story threads didn't really wrap up at all. Mostly it just kind of floated around - this guy who married a younger woman who had lung cancer, and yet not very sad or detailed or I don't know. Told alternatingly from both of their perspectives. Seemed like it was set in an earlier time period than it was.
Lacking some details that would have set it nicely, and then spending a lot of tim More...
It was fine enough, interesting enough to listen to, but kind of weirdly so short and the story threads didn't really wrap up at all. Mostly it just kind of floated around - this guy who married a younger woman who had lung cancer, and yet not very sad or detailed or I don't know. Told alternatingly from both of their perspectives. Seemed like it was set in an earlier time period than it was.
Lacking some details that would have set it nicely, and then spending a lot of tim More...
Oct 12, 2008
Valerie
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There is a scene in this book that still he haunts me, I won't mention it because its a spoiler moment, but I still remember a friend telling me about his identical experience.
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Aug 06, 2011
The virtuous woman is Ruby Pitt Woodrow. 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 Stokes, 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
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Jan 20, 2010
Deborah
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A simple, easy to read book where we get to know Ruby and Jack and have a glimpse into their lives. The point of view changes between the two and is a bit difficult until the rhythm is established. Then even that rhythm becomes confused at the end and the ending seems incomplete. There was one point in the book that brought tears to my eyes, but in retrospection, it is forgotten. The characters may, as well, be forgotten, but I will think about them for a while. They were solid Southern folks wi
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Dec 15, 2008
Kara
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One of the reviews on this book was from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. Their review states, "So true and so vital I would swear there were moments when A VIRTUOUS WOMAN actually vibrated in my hands." When I read that review, I just knew that this book would be a 'good read.' I was so disappointed with this book. The only vibrating that I experienced while reading this book was when I experienced convulsions from a boredom seizure. I didn't like the characters-- excep
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Nov 29, 2010
Ashley
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So good. I cried a lot, good thing it was short. The story was told from two perspectives alternating every other chapter between Blinking Jack Stokes and his wife Ruby. The story begins by telling us that Jack has recently lost his wife, so his narration is in the present, while Ruby's are right before she passed away. Both chapter gives background of their courtship, love, and unbreakable bond. The story takes place in a rural farming community and is a wonderful mixture of humour, seriousn
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Aug 09, 2009
Katie
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I totally didn't know this was, again, and Oprah's Book Club Book. Anyway....I listened to this book and there is a ton of swearing, but the narrator was a male with an accent so it probably didn't affect me as much as it could've. Swearing always sounds 'safer' with an accent, you know what I mean? I liked this book because most of it was told from the perspective of an elderly man recounting stories of him and his much younger wife from their life together. And he has some really tender, r
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Jun 16, 2009
Anush
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So far, this book is an engaging and emotional portrayal of the happy marriage between Ruby Pitt, a pampered daughter from a well-to-do farming family who made a bad decision to get married to a migrant worker, and Blinking Jack Stokes, a tenant farmer who rescues Ruby after her former husband is killed, leaving her alone with no property or children of her own. Both Jack and Ruby alternately narrate the story, even though in the beginning we learn that Ruby is in the hospital dying from lung ca
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May 25, 2010
Debbie
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I enjoyed the way the story was told in the voice of Jack and Ruby. First Jack...then Ruby… Jack…Ruby…Jack….Ruby….Jack….Ruby…..Jack……then ….at the end...a stranger steps in with a different...jarring voice and it ruins the story. Who is this person? Why haven’t we heard from this person before? I once read that to enjoy fiction, you have to be willing to suspend disbelief....this last voice from out of nowhere takes one completely out of the story. You are left thinking...what the????? Wha
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Jan 25, 2009
Jenn
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I choose to read A Virtuous Woman because Kaye Gibbons is the author of my favorite book of all time, Charms for the Easy Life. I realized that I hadn't explored any of her other books, and that I should. Gibbons writes about two people using separation of chapters to switch narrative voices, from the husband to the wife. Which reminds me interestingly enough of Tanizaki's The Key, one of the best modern Japanese novels. Though A Virtuous Woman was not earth shatteringly good, the characters
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Jan 22, 2009
Laurie
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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 t
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Nov 17, 2010
Louize
rated it:
My interest in this story was initially poked during one of my husband’s daily devotion. That day’s lesson was entitled Greatness written by Brian K. Bauknight and the Bible reference was from Proverbs 31:10-31. That day was my birthday.
A virtuous woman, Ruby was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. Instead of worrying on her dying state, she busied herself preparing food for her husband for the months ahead… when she’s already gone. She was more worried about how Jack will get by with More...
A virtuous woman, Ruby was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. Instead of worrying on her dying state, she busied herself preparing food for her husband for the months ahead… when she’s already gone. She was more worried about how Jack will get by with More...
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Mar 16, 2011
Miss Hope
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This was a pretty slow paced book. I loved the two narrators and you definitely fall in low with Ruby. She truly is A Virtuous Woman. She was abused and terribly treated. I wouldn't say she fell "in love" with Blinking Jack Stokes but he saved her and for that she loved him. Although there is a huge age gap between them, her being 20 and him being 40 it is appropriate because they fit well with each other. It's a shorter book. I would have to say it was good but it was more slow paced
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Jan 25, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
I'm not sure why Oprah even added this to her book list, I'm still trying to figure it out after reading. Maybe she liked their religious views? She found that challenging? I read this fresh after finishing Ellen Foster, and I have to say I was really let down by Kaye Gibbons. Ellen Foster was a breath of fresh air, this......well, it was a stretch. Based on this book, I would only read another Kaye Gibbons book if I found it for less than a $1 somewhere....
Jan 01, 2009
Michelle
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Have you ever read a book and felt so distant from it shocked you when you realized you were actually in tears? This novel, such a quick read that a devoted reader will finish it in one sitting, seems so benign and irrelevant, yet works its way into your heart. By the end I found myself shockingly gulping for air. This may be an Oprah pick, but it's a smart book that I'd recommend to anyone who can appreciate a simple story line and a solid tale.
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Aug 06, 2009
Marvin
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Darlene recommended this because she liked the narrative voices & the relationship between the two main characters. It's set in the rural South, with alternating voices between a tenant farmer a couple of months after the death of his wife, 20 years his junior, & her voice a couple of months before her death. They are indeed unique voices with an interesting and appealing relationship, but I didn't find the overall effect as appealing as she did.
Aug 06, 2011
Cheryl
rated it:
Don't let the title of this one mislead you. Yuck! The cover says it shows two people in love that easily outlasts death, but their love is void of the unconditional love that God holds for us and is crippled by death in my opinion. They openly blaspheme God and the Christian faith is rejected as a source of strength and hope, much less salvation. To me this story is about two people who totally missed the point of living. Very depressing.
Dec 17, 2008
AJ
rated it:
Not as good as Ellen Foster, but if you like realistic, harsh fiction where beauty is mixed with ugliness, you'll really enjoy this. Gibbons is amazing and creating characters that feel like they had a long history before she began writing. She's also a master at writing Southern dialect.
A true love story with no wooing and courting, but where two people face reality and know they other can help them get through this world.
A true love story with no wooing and courting, but where two people face reality and know they other can help them get through this world.
Sep 11, 2011
Kendra
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The story is sweet, the book is short, and the writing is so-so. I had a difficult time getting into the characters and I think a lot of that was because of the switching back and forth between Ruby and Jack with each chapter. The story starts off by telling us that Ruby dies in the end and then the book flips between Ruby’s side of the story and her husband’s…in the time before they met and their life together.
Jan 06, 2009
Callie
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A small book, quick read, describing the lives a married couple. Actually, I can't really say it describes their lives because it seems more to flit across the surface than to delve deep. It read to me like a textbook example of what a short novel should be as far as structure. Told in vernacular language from the view points of husband and wife. A good book, not too exciting. Nothing to write home about.
May 02, 2011
Leanne
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I picked this up at a used book store because it was an Oprah recommended book. Definitely a character driven book--the chapters alternate between the husband's and the wife's point of view. The back cover makes you feel like you'll be reading a love story--which it is--but not the normal escape type of love story. I felt a real fondness for the two flawed main characters and I loved the last chapter.
