Rating: 
Summary: On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon
Review: This book was highly recommended to me and it was a big disappointment. I found it difficult to follow the timeline. The writer drifted in the story much like someone distracted in thought; following remotely related tangents and abruptly return to a different part of the story. I felt I barely got to know the characters save the narrator and even then did not feel much connection or empathy for her.
Rating: 
Summary: a different Civil War
Review: This historical novel of the Civil War begins with the protagonist's father having murdered a slave for talking back. We meet Emma Garnet Tate and Clarice immediately following, the former being the aforementioned daughter of a plantation owner; the latter being the support of the book, a strong, wise black woman who is actually the one who holds the family and the plantation together. Emma is narrating in flashback as she rests in bed, pushing off death until she can finish her story. She grew up a girl who identified more with her father's slaves than with her father; more with intellectuals than socialites. Her father's religious, racist rage is a terrifying force, and at times it seems no one around him is going to survive unscathed. But Emma does escape, thanks to Quincy Powell, a Boston doctor whose perfection would be irritating had Emma not needed him so badly (and deserved him so much). After they marry and honeymoon (in Paris, with Clarice along with them), the war begins and Quincy opens a hospital to take care of wounded Confederate soldiers. Emma has to become a caregiver, nurse, and finally an unofficial doctor when the wounded and dying start pouring in. Besides the gory and realistic descriptions of the horror of war, there are also detailed passages regarding the sick carnival of a public hanging and the misguided attempts to heal with leeches and blood-letting. These realistic and uncompromising details cause the book to be fascinating instead of merely a diversion. Emma Garnet has survived much, but at times she seems wishy-washy and irritatingly upper-class. Gibbons might have intended this, because the character who shines through the most is Clarice. She had known Mr. Tate from the time he was a little boy and had rescued him from an unimaginable situation, and is therefore the only person, including those in his own family, who is not afraid of him. She rises to each terrible event with determination and bravery, all the while cooking, cleaning, guiding the many other slaves of the household, and mothering Emma and her sister (they do have a much-beloved mother, but she is often ill). Emma loves Clarice as much as she would love the secret and best part of her own self, which it seems she sometimes mistakes Clarice to be. Kaye Gibbons is a fabulous writer and weaves a story of the Civil War which is unflinching and also non-racist. The voice of the narrator sometimes sounds slightly pompous, but I feel that Emma is entitled due to the sometimes brutal life she led. I believe most readers will feel the same way, and also will probably see, as I do, that Clarice is the real heroine of this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Step back in time.....
Review: This was my first experience with Ms. Gibbons writings. I had the fortunate experience of listening to this book on audio. read by Polly Holliday, better known as "Flo" from the 70's series "Alice". She had a range with all of her voices which allowed characters as Emma Garnet, Clarice and the horrible Samuel P. Tate come to life as I drove down the interstate. I had just returned from a trip touring Civil War Battlefields in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania. This book brought me to those places in my mind as they really were. Gibbons portrays Emma Garnet as a sympathetic, yet strong woman as she ventures further into her life with her beloved Quincy. If I had a criticism of this novel, it would be this. Could Emma Garnet have any MORE people in her life die during the span of the book? As each death occured (if I spoil anything for future readers, I humbly apologize) I thought to myself, "Can anyone survive to keep this woman going?" But all in all, I very much enjoyed the ride. It was portrayed at a brisk pace and I was spellbound the entire 5 hour length of the audio cassette.
Rating: 
Summary: Luscious language, rich details, but somehow unsatisfying
Review: Very similar in scope and outlook to Jane Smiley's "The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton," Ms Gibbons shows off her thorough research and love of dialect and archaic terms. I enjoyed the book on that level. But I'm left unsatisfied and annoyed somehow. It seems as though the book just runs out of steam, as though she intended a much longer (and to my mind a much more satisfying) book, but decided to leave the heroine after the death of her husband. I felt cheated somehow. I was intrigued by the interactions between slaves and slaveholders in this book. Though at times characters like Clarice seemed too good to be true, I think Ms Gibbons has done a good job of showing how slaves and slaveholders were inextricably linked to each other, if only because the one could not exist without the other. That fact may make us uncomfortable, but it was and is the truth. I do think Ms Gibbons stumbles, however, when she backs away from showing too much of the anger of the servants who were not told they were free all along until the War was almost over. That oversight by Emma and Quincy was wrong, and made me like them less. My opinions change like Seattle weather! I'll think about it some more and let you know if I change my mind on any of this.
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