I guarantee that six months from now I won't remember anything I read in this book, and that's why it gets a one-star. I wouldn't say this book is "bad". Most of my dislike stems from the fact that it focused on a whole lot of facets I don't care about and didn't include a lot of things I look for.

But there is no getting around it, it is a BORING book. And I'm someone who likes quiet novels.

The whole time I was reading, I never once felt connected to character. It's not that I just couldn't relate to them (I couldn't), but I didn't feel like the author offered me any substance other than the stereotype of poor white southerners. They were mean, stupid, and struggling. Nothing interesting happened in their day-to-day. They had no deep inner life. It's literally just about two people living their very dull existence and one of them dies. When I finished, I honestly wasn't sure why I should care about this book at all.

The writing style was also very much not for me. The book alternates between two first-person POVs and when you start a chapter, you never know if it's Ruby or Jack talking or when in time they are. The story is not at all linear, and as far as I can tell, there was no purpose to that. Oddly, in the end, the book takes a sharp turn and the final chapter is in third person, where almost all of it is just a variety of characters' inner monologues. I'm not sure what Gibbons was going for here--perhaps she was trying to be artsy and just missed the mark.

My biggest grievance of all is that it felt like an homage to Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and that has been my most hated book of the year so far. So if you aren't a Faulkner fan, I advise skipping over this one, or else you'll just have to disassociate through like I did.

The author does a good job of keeping her characters in voice, and providing the background setting without bogging down with details. At times, the vernacular is difficult to understand, but it fits the characters, and where and how they grew up.

The relationship between Jack and Ruby is gentle and kind, more so than romantic. That being said, there is a depth of caring between them that is lovely.

A Virtuous Woman is a quick read and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something different.

A 40 year old tenant farmer marries a 23 year old girl from the right side of the tracks. Okay, I loved her book "On The Occasion Of My Last Afternoon." This was a good book and a quick read, but not her best.

Ruby and Jack’s love affair is an unlikely one, her being 20 to his 40. Not to mention he is a tenant farmer and she’s from a decent family, but has fallen on hard times after marrying a brutal man. But love each other they do, and this slim novel tells their story, each in their own words, starting with her death of lung cancer at the age of 45. The story is sweet, tender, funny and sad, full of unforgettable characters. Gibbons’ prose takes us into the minds and hearts of Ruby and Jack. A wonderful, quick and enriching read.

This was a quick read, and I'm looking forward to reading a few more Kaye Gibbons' titles. I read Ellen Foster years ago and enjoyed it.

Trigger warning for animal lovers - There is a mule that something bad happens to. I actually skipped those pages.

Overall, this is a heartwarming novella about two people who unexpectedly find love with each other. The setting is the rural South. It is told in a dual first-person point-of-view until the last chapter, which then switches to more of an omniscient POV. That seemed a little odd after going back and forth between the two main characters, but it made sense as a way to wrap up the story.

I gave it three stars because, while I enjoyed reading it and am glad that I did, the actual plot meandered, basically recounting the life of both male and female characters, but the purpose for all it is never that clear.

3,5* well deserved...the story is very simple, the love between a husband and his wife told until the tragic epilogue with the death of the woman for cancer. A tale with no particolar plot.... made of simple events, maybe even banal ( this is the reason for 3,5 stars), but reported in words as very few writers manage to do.
I love Gibbons, her writing is clear, straight and direct... It reminds me a lot of Eudora Welty, but the Gibbons also masterfully manages to use a continuous irony here and there to make your soul laughing.
Fantastic discovery of this writer!!




3,5* meritatissime...la storia è semplicissima, l'amore tra un marito e sua moglie narrata sino al tragico epilogo con la morte per cancro della donna. Un racconto senza nulla di chissà che.... fatto di eventi semplici, forse anche banali ( x questo le 3,5 stelline), ma riportati in parole come ben pochi scrittori riescono a fare.
Adoro la Gibbons, la sua scrittura è limpida ,schietta e diretta.... mi ricorda molto Eudora Welty , ma la Gibbons riesce anche magistralmente ad usare un continua ironia qui e là da farti morire.
Fantastica scoperta questa scrittrice!!

Honestly a little boring, but had a good pace and was a wholesome love story. Just two people with a hard life who found eachother, and were able to be there through the hard times and find comfort in their pain. Loved their two perspectives, and near the end depicted a powerful picture of loss and grief, even through such a small book

I am going to start with something very controversial: I think I am going to be forever done with Oprah's Book Club. I didn't love this book. Parts of it were certainly interesting, and it was a departure from what I have been reading lately. Parts of the book were sad, but parts just seemed to be inserted in at random. For example, at the end of the story, the author decides to use the voice of
June, when we had never heard from her before.

The story seemed disjointed for me: why would Ruby's family just ignore her, even if she had left? Just the way Ruby found her way to Jack didn't really make sense to me.

Parts of the book made me laugh, but parts had me scratching my head. I am glad it was a short book. I am off to read something fun.

20 year old meets a 40 yr old share cropper. She is newly widowed, they didn't actually fall in love. so much as they met.

While this book is relatively short, the depth of the story is significant. Gibbons does a wonderful job of creating a whole cast of vivid characters, and listening to the alternating stories from Ruby and Jack is completely engaging. Two questions were prominent for our book club: what motivated Ruby and Jack to refuse her inheritance, and who is the truly virtuous woman of the title?

I managed to finish this book the second time I tried to read it. While the main charachters, Ruby and Jack's words are simple and raw, the feelings I felt while reading those words were far more complex. This is a story about two very different people from vastly different backgrounds (one wealthy and one poor; one young and one older) who chose to love each other out of need. In making that choice, they found true love. Perhaps not that fireworks and passion sort of love, but real and meaningful love. Passion fades over time. Anyone who has been married for any length of time can generally tel you that, but real love takes time to grow, and it has to be nurtured. This story, told alternatively from Ruby and Jack's perspectives, demonstrates this poignantly, sadly and beautiifully.

A sweet little book that is remarkable for its voice, and how much it packs into a short novel.

This book takes place in the rural South (maybe Georgia?) among tenant farmers. A privileged young woman runs away to get married to a migrant farm worker, ending up widowed and then married with another tenant farmer. The first husband was a beast; the second a prince.

What I found interesting was the way the author very effectively switched narrators, from husband to wife, with every brief chapter. This shows us how two people, close to one another, can have very different perspectives on things.

I also appreciated the author's voice, which felt authentic for poor whites in the South. This isn't a dialect I'm familiar with. However, it brought an immediacy and authenticity to the story, as well as a respect for the dignity of poorer farmers.

My only small peeve with the book was the ending, which didn't seem to fit. It almost felt like the author was ready to end and just wrapped things up too tidily. Still, an enjoyable way to pass a few hours (which I may not remember much of several months down the road).