Rating: 
Summary: Just tell the story and get it over with!
Review: Ordinarily I love a novel I can settle down and read - something really engaging. This book was more frustrating than engaging. The choppy sentences and haphazard storyline were too much to bear past the 6th chapter. For those of you who loved it - I admire your stamina. I just couldn't slog through another page and it's RARE that I don't finish a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book, Superb Audio Cassettes!
Review: The book is a rambling epic that may take months to read and--even if you love the American South--is sometimes too much in love with itself. But Wait--for the first time in my life, I found the cassette tape version BETTER THAN THE BOOK. It distills the very best parts of the book out and gives a perky, quaint, lovable life to 99-year-old Lucy Marsden. Gurganus is a genius, but he needs an editor who can say 'no': The book could lose about 200 pages easily
Rating:
Summary: Say it IS so! Say it IS so!
Review: The only reason that I couldn't give this story the fifth star is that after I got to the end and was completely exhausted of emotion, I did a terrible thing. I turned to the front of the book, looked on the page where copyright information was written and discovered that this amazing story was total, complete, unadulterated FICTION! I was completely mortified!My favorite chapter in the entire book was entitled "Black, White and Lilac." I will not tell you why, so as to not spoil it for you, dear reader to be. This entire story was so very entertaining, that I can forgive the fact that it just isn't true... I read the review of a certain "lkeener" and must strongly disagree with that individual's critique. In fact, if one were to visit the composite listing of "lkeener's" member page, one would likely find that there just isn't a whole lot that person finds too impressive! All that I can say, dear reader is that to each his own, but my vote gives the recommendation that "Confederate Widow" deserves a little reading light and attention.
Rating:
Summary: A good period piece
Review: This book nicely outlines the drama of human interaction against a rich background of relationships and changing times. The friendship between 2 near-adolescent girls is well-explored and quite realistic. The emotions and disillusionment of a very young Civil War soldier are well-expressed and may be applicable to current times. Familial relationships and ties are explored. Its ending will surprise you.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much, too little
Review: This book was a big disappoint and maddening at times. I am not one to not finish a book, so I slugged through. Waste of my time. I hated Lucy. I thought she was a pathetic woman with a sad life. Her horrible grammar was excrutiating to read as well, and the author even wrote an entire (long, like all the others) chapter on it! If people from the south really speak like that then it's no wonder northerners stereotypically think southerns are stupid and ill-educated. The entire book jumps around timewise - one minute Lucy is a 90-some year old in the nursing home (and this part of the story, to me, has no interest and appears at random interludes), next she is a young bride, next the story jumps to the Captain and to a time when Lucy was yet to be born. Information is missing - she had 9 children. Only four are named in the book, little information is given as to how or why they are all dead and if Lucy has any grandchildren. While I did find many of the individual chapters/stories interesting, the author draws them out and unnecessarily makes them last 50 pages when they could have been adequately portrayed in 20-30. I could not wait until Lady burned as I thought that would bring me to the end of the chapter.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining if you are a fast reader...
Review: This book was good because it was very fat and readable, which is important to us speed reader types. Sometimes I could tell the author was a man trying to speak in a woman's voice, but tried to overlook that. The very best chapter took place in Africa, I would like to read a whole book about those characters! Sorry, didn't see the movie, or even know there was one. Another good thing about this book was that you could skip the chapters about the battles, and go back and read them later, so it was like two books for the price of one. Except I checked it out at the library, so it didn't cost me anything.
Rating: 
Summary: A beautifully crafted, disturbing, compelling novel.
Review: This book was the subject of our readers' club, and most found its story line too jumpy. Those who actually finished the book found it masterful and engaging. I think the author's visual use of language and his philisophical insight into human nature make this a truly great book
Rating:
Summary: I called in sick at work 3 times to read this massive book
Review: This book will a) change your life or b) put you into a deep slumber. It's too astounding to describe. There is noother novel in the known universe that handles the subject of making and wearing a mink coat in the South.
Rating:
Summary: Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Review: This is one of the better novels I have read in my lifetime. In his examination of the various characters involved in Lucy Marsden's life, the author gives a glimpse into the lifeways of people of neary every social socio-economic standing within Southern culture--and he does so in a way that is compassionate, convicting and humorous all at once! I have recommended this work to many people and have even read parts of it aloud to others upon occasion. I am only sorry that I bought the paperback and not the hardback edition!
Rating:
Summary: I could never fully explain my hatred of this book
Review: This is one of the worst books I have ever tried to plow through. I wish that Amazon would let me give it no stars because thats all it deserves. I managed to get to page 445 until I went crazy and almost shredded up the book until I remembered it was a library book. I've read plenty of long, rambling books but this one was just the worst. Did he have to tell the life story of every single character in the novel? What was worse is that he went on for pages about nothing. He would take 100 pages to describe a scene that would only have lasted 3 minutes! Also, this was really one of the most unhistoric novels I've ever read. Did people in the early 1900s say stuff like "more power to you?" and that was just one of the small things he got wrong. I also could not see some old woman telling some young guy every single event in her life, talk about a good memory! And some of the things she told him, like her lesbian experiences with that one girl, well I just can't imagine some old woman telling a young guy stuff like that! But what bugged me most about the novel was I found the majority of what I managed to read to be sillly and pointless. It is just not worth reading and none of the characters ever ring true. This is the novel that I judge all other bad novels by but none other yet has reached the evil dephs of this one. I love to read but this book almost got me to quit reading.
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