3.5 stars

I liked the background of this story of a man who falls in love with a younger woman; I loved the setting and time period (50s maybe?). It's told in alternating chapters between Ruby and Jack. You find out in Chapter 1 that Ruby has died. The chapters that follow tell of Ruby and Jack's background individually and how their paths crossed to find each other leading up to Ruby's death and Jack dealing with his grief.

Jack is forty when he married Ruby who is twenty at the time and had just got out of a toxic marriage with John Woodrow. Although they wouldn't call their marriage as one bonded by love but more of convenience, they learned to love and treasure each other through the years of their marriage.

I actually didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. The voices of the characters were strong. I love the relationship between Jack and Ruby, it wasn't platonic but nor was it romantic either. It stemmed from simple attraction (at least from Jack) and I believe convenience from Ruby. However, the way that they spent their lives together, accompanying and comforting each other, joking and knowing each other deeper than what convenience warrants. And the simpleness of their expectations from each other and from life. I loved it. I especially loved Ruby's chapters because she was more interesting to me and I related to her story.

It was a soft, slow read but it was also entertaining at the same time.

The story of a marriage from its inception through to the premature death of the wife. It is no grand passion, no Romeo and Juliet but the quiet loving relationship between two people jaded by life who, by finding each other, experience more happiness than either feel deserving of.

Ruby has made poor choices in life. Brought up in a comfortable family with a servant and loving parents she throws it aside for the adventure the wild man, John, has to offer. Ruby quickly realises that the romance of the open road is for those who do not live an itinerant lifestyle. He is a seasonal worker and they move from shack to shack. Her pride will not allow her to go back home even when he proves to be abusive and unfaithful (she walks in on him with a teenage girl).

Ruby is trapped until the day John dies from injuries he sustained in a bar brawl. The author does not dwell on the details, maybe to place us in the position of Ruby where she hears what has happened but has little more than a sketchy understanding of events or perhaps to intimate that there was more to it than being reported. In any case Ruby is relieved rather than grieving, much to the disapproval of her community, but still will not return home.

She meets Jack while taking a cigarette break from the maid’s job she has been forced to take. He is a bachelor twenty years her senior (she is still only in her early 20’s) and aesthetically nothing to write home about but they both sense in the other a need to be cared for and although one can’t call it a marriage of convenience there is something of the port in a storm to their union.
After their meeting the book tells the story of these two people who share a deep but quiet love. Together they weather personal tragedies and tragedies inflicted by others. It is a beautiful story of Jack and Ruby growing together, accepting each other in all their rawness and failings and how a simple, fulfilling life can bloom from unlikely beginnings told in uncompromising, unadorned prose.

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 afford food on the table and a roof over their head.

Ruby was pampered to the detrimental extent that when unsupervised she makes very poor choices, including running away to marry a near-do-well migrant worker.

Jack Stokes is a tenant farmer, poor in worldly goods, rich in a loving spirit and gentleness toward ruby. Rescuing Ruby from poverty when her abusive husband dies, Jack shows Ruby respect, patience and a life of kind understanding.

This is the story of Ruby and Jack as they grow to love each other.
A story is one of a loving untraditional relationship, with one chapter told by Ruby and another by Jack.

Couldn't put it down until I was finished. A simple love story between two people who didn't ask for much out of life. Their marriage was based on mutual need from each other. He needed a wife to clean and cook for him and she needed a man who would adored her. This was an unusual book, but I loved it.

I was really ready to like this book. After all, it was it was selected for Oprah's Book Club, so it must have a popular appeal. The dialogue was strong, the story seemed engaging and I started to get invested in the characters --that is, until Gibbons decided to introduce the only African American character in the story, the same shiftless, lazy, overweight Black domestic who has been used as a punchline again and again in literature and popular media (think "Tom and Jerry"). Now, I've read a lot and I am used to putting stories in the context of time and place, but I am exhausted by authors relying on racially offensive tropes to sell books to publishers. (John Grisham.)

Writers are not exempt from critical thinking; it is what they do, presumably. And if writers write about what they know, where are they living that they keep meeting this same woman?

Hard pass on GP.

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 trying to cope with her death. I don't enjoy gritty/sordid reality books. I read for escape, inspiration, education, beauty, entertainment, etc. So this book was a wrong turn for me. At least it was short.

I loved this simple, oft-told story of two down-and-out people who find each under and get pleasure in the duty of caring for one another. The story and setting are not unique, but the voice of both characters, and the collage the story is laid out in, and the insights resonate with me still. OK, and I cried at the end. Not many books can make me do that anymore.

i read this book to fulfil the goal read a celeberity book club pick. Who else but oprah right. it was ok, not great. it reminded me quite a bit of Steinbecks works. a cross between east of eden and grapes of wrath. this is the second oprah book i've read (the first being a mercy by toni morrison) i'm starting to feel you can tell a lot about a person by the sort of books they recommend. i'm beginning to think maybe i don't share oprah's ideals. i wonder what my picks say about me.

This story didn’t really go anywhere—there’s no overwhelming sense of completion or understanding of the characters at the end. I enjoyed the beginning but the story meanders from there, from place to place, never really telling you much except for a series of unfortunate events that befall the main characters. As a character study it wasn’t compelling.

Kaye Gibbons is one hell of a writer. She portrays moments of bliss as well as heartaches in a vivid way. I loved how she throws her lines or should I say punchlines. There's not much of a twist though. Still definitely a good read.

I was a little disappointed in this; I felt like it started off strong enough but the last half of the book was really slow. I kept falling asleep while I was reading. I could've done without 2 mentions of the N-word from a white author, but I'm also trying to keep it in context that this was written in the 1980s when it might've been more acceptable. I loved Ellen Foster, but every other Gibbons novel seems to fall really short--bordering on straight up boring.