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, although his dream is to own a piece of land. Together they find, if not what they were looking for, a sense of completeness.

The book is written in first person narration with both Jack and Ruby narrating alternate chapters (except the last chapter which is written in the third person). This technique helps make both characters seem real. For me, personally, Jack was the character I most cared about, mostly because we know from the very beginning that Ruby dies and we see that Jack is lost without her.

This is one of those simple, quiet kind of books where there is little action or plot, just the story of two people who come to love and care for each other. Yet, it's the kind of story that will stay with you long after you've read it.

4.5 stars. Ebook. 2nd Kaye Gibbons book in three days. Like Ellen Foster, short, powerful, poignant, and in many parts, very funny. (Especially Chapter 13 with Jack and Mavis' interaction)! Alternate chapters in the first-person narratives of Jack and Ruby. Touching, tender, never maudlin, never tedious. What a writer. Exactly the right words and the right number of them. And, as with, Ellen Foster, the ending will catch you completely off guard but will also seem just right.

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-- except for Mavis, and she was nixed from the story so quickly. I guess I was just expecting this great love story, and I got a story written in hillbilly colloquial context. At some points, it was just confusing because I don't speak hillbilly as a 2nd language. It was just WEIRD to read. Then, one of the uneducated characters, like Jack, would use a word like 'accumulate.' I just didn't see how that could be a realistic word within the scope of Jack's vocabulary. Anyway, I'm done ranting. I would not suggest for anybody to waste their time reading this book. Please... for the sake of all mankind.... do not read this book.

“If you want to see a man afraid just put him in a room with a sick woman who was once strong.”
—A Virtuous Woman, 13.

Gibbons followed Ellen Foster and her rise to celebrity with “A Virtuous Woman.” Here we find a mature, measured, and careful author detailing a loving relationship between two unlikely individuals—both in terms of their age gap and socioeconomic upbringing—as they forge a devoted marriage in the world of migrant workers and poverty-stricken Georgia tenant farmers.

Gibbons calls to mind both the canon of Erskine Caldwell and Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” in her subject matter, style, and character dialogues. Transporting the reader to the South in the early 20th century, Gibbons maintains a timeless message of devotion and love. Presented in alternating inner monologues and vignettes told in Jack and Ruby’s perspectives, the novel artfully unfolds a set of complex lives over the course of roughly 20 years of our seemingly simple protagonists.

The Stokes are barren, anti-religious but believing in the externality of their souls, and fully engrossed in the life they have woven together as outsiders among the larger Bible-thumping southern world they inhabit. Both have known and surpassed their own personal tragedies and now, from the very beginning of the plot, must overcome something new and terrifying that will end their imperfect utopia.

This book transports us both temporally and emotionally to new landscapes. It presents neither a fairy tale romance nor a total tragedy, but something more nuanced and intimately real.

While the title references Proverbs 31, the tone of the narrative had, “Better a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife,” running through my mind (NRSV, Proverbs 17:1). This is easily one of my favorite novels both for its style, characters, and carrying on the tradition of the southern novel with such devotion and eloquence.

A very well told tale of few characters very clearly defined. I'd be interested in reading Ellen Foster as I did enjoy Kaye Gibbons writing. It was an almost too quick read and ended quite abruptly.

A Virtuous Woman is a Southern novella told in the split perspective of a husband who has lost his wife and the wife, now dead, looking back on her life.

It was written in the '80s and there were some problematic racial depictions but it was a overall tender story about love and attachment and survival.

I absolutely adored Gibbons book Charms for the Easy Life, a 20th century tale of three generations of women and their no-nonsense approach to female empowerment. Virtuous Woman did not grab me nearly the same way.

Full disclaimer so you can appreciate the sincerity behind my review- I didn't expect to like A Virtuous Woman as much as I ended up liking it! This title has been on my TBR shelf for ages and has a low page count, so I picked it up in a last-ditch attempt to finish my Mount TBR challenge for 2020. The title seemed very 'literary' and 'old-fashioned' and I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep focus long enough for me to finish it. When I ended up near tears toward the end, I was pleasantly surprised.

Gibbons alternates between the points-of-view of Blinking Jack Stokes and his much younger wife Ruby Pitt Woodrow, telling the story of how they met and the struggles each faced throughout their lives, eventually weaving them together to show the love they found in one another. The storytelling is succinct and each voice is distinct, creating a compact love story that packs quite the punch. Somehow you fall in deep and root for this odd couple.

I would recommend for romance fans, though there's no ~steam~ and it's not at all your typical romance. However, it is a beautiful love story that all can appreciate.

Unexpectedly wonderful, I read this in less than 24 hrs. Kaye Gibbons writes in the natural speaking style of southern country people. The narrator is sometimes Jack, sometimes Ruby, a husband and wife preparing for Ruby’s death from lung cancer, looking back to how they met when Ruby’s abusive husband died, and the many years of this marriage. It’s a simple tale of joys and sorrows in life, written in an endearing and sympathetic tone.

Cute, short, sweet, and straight to the point in an unusual way. Each chapter tells a story about a few characters in a way that by the end of the book you understand their simple, pleasurable, if difficult, lives. Endearing, sexist in there a bit, but somehow still relatable. Tells a story without ever getting bogged down in details. Cute!

Conosciuto grazie a quella fantastica trasmissione che è stata Pickwick, condotta da Alessandro Baricco, sono riuscito a recuperare questo romanzo in un mercatino dell'usato, perché è incredibilmente fuori catalogo.
In poco piú di 100 pagine l'autrice riesce a far brillare di una luce del tutto speciale una storia d'amore quotidiana, affidando il racconto a due voci narranti - la moglie e il marito - che si alternano a ogni capitolo. Non accade nulla di straordinario, eppure si ha la netta percezione che tutto sia infinitamente prezioso: per la sua irripetibilità, per la profondità delle emozioni e perché tutto avviene nella piú normale quotidianità.
Al termine della lettura non si può fare a meno di desiderare una vita normale, con le pantofole ai piedi, una casa vicino ai campi, un portico per guardare il tramonto e una persona che dia una senso al nostro breve tempo su questa terra.
Tutto il resto non conta.
Anzi, non c'è.

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Precedente: Madame Bovary
Successivo: La Marchesa di O... e Altri Racconti

This was a book I had started, read a few chapters and then put it on my DNF pile…ready to take it back to the library. In the meantime, I started another book. Something kept nagging at me about A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons…so I picked it up and started it again. This is a story where I had to empty my mind and take on the words of Jack and Ruby Stokes and move into their world. I had to get use to the characters southern dialect of speaking…which I won’t lie…was a challenge at times for me. Their story is told in alternating voices...meaning in some chapters Jack is telling their story and in others, Ruby tells their story. In many instances I could make parallels of their life to mine. One of the chapters in the book had me outright belly laughing…I haven’t done that in ages and can only imagine what my neighbors were thinking (I was sitting outside reading). In another chapter, I was sobbing. While I don’t think this is a book for everyone, it was a 4 star read for me and so happy I picked it up again.

This was an interesting read. It took me a few to catch on to this author's writing style. A simple little story about two people who needed and loved each other in a very tender way. A story of love and loss.