Rating: 
Summary: Something is missing
Review: "Sights Unseen" came as an even greater disappointment to me after having my expectations built up by "Ellen Foster" and "A Virtuous Woman," two terrific novels by the same author, Kaye Gibbons.In those two novels, Gibbons displayed a knack for the perfect turn of phrase, and a deep understanding of the human heart. Both qualities were lacking in this book. Page after page chronicled the mishaps in the life of a manic-depressive woman (weeks in bed, followed by deliberately running into a woman with her car), as told by her daughter. I would rather have heard the story from the woman herself. What was running through her head as she pressed that gas pedal? What, in her mind, was the reason for her seemingly miraculous recovery, and her even more miraculous, instant reconciliation with her daughter? A subplot that seems only somewhat related focuses upon the narrator's grandfather, an overbearing bully who keeps everyone except his daughter at a distance. Overall, a well-meaning book that could have benefited from substantial revision.
Rating: 
Summary: Sharp and heartbreaking....
Review: ....but ultimately not so sad or depressing that you want to put it down. Your heart breaks for Hattie, but in the end she learns that she can rely on herself, even when her own mother lets her down. If you liked this, I'd also recommend Liar's Club, She's Come Undone, An Egg on Three Sticks, and anything by Ellen Gilchrist.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly affecting if somewhat romanticized
Review: As a Southern woman and the daughter of a schizophrenic, I read this book with particular interest. In places I was amazed to find my experiences described exactly, and the book was always affecting and detailed. However, coming from a situation in which the family came to economic ruin, and lives were destroyed by mental illness, I found the book in some ways too comfortable. A lucky family indeed that is gifted with the money, the isolated farmhouse, and the hired help to manage Maggie's illness the way it is managed! And lucky family whose mother's illness --as we are told at the very beginning of the novel -- is cured. Still, I admired the plainness with which Gibbons told her story, and the fact that she was not tempted -- as the author of _The Daughter of the Queen of Sheba_ was -- into pitching a parent's catastrophic mental illness as an empowering experience.
Rating:
Summary: longing
Review: As a woman who is fiercely close with my mother, my heart broke repeatedly for Hattie. She wanted the most basic thing every child craves: Love, and she spends her whole young life trying to understand her mother's illness and in the process she comes to understand herself and later her own children. Hattie is wise beyond her years at times, other times she is like a baby you just want to pick up and carry away from the situation. Hattie is funny and tragic and careful and complex all at once. She longs for what many of us take for granted--a mother to laugh with, shop with, talk about boys with. This was the first book I read in a long time that actually made me cry. Kaye Gibbons is a master of telling stories that are so real you think you are the main character. EVERY word she writes is necessary to the story. I have read every one of her books and I think she is excellent. It's easy reading too. I read Sights Unseen in a day. After reading Sights Unseen I appreciate my mother and the life she gave up for me that much more. In fact, after I read it I wrapped it up and gave it her with a note of thanks on the inside front cover.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story
Review: Great book. Kaye Gibbons is such a good story teller. She can take what could be a difficult topic and makes it very readable and warm, and you don't feel like you've been given a guilt trip or been hit over the head with an agenda, like with some other authors. I've enjoyed all of her books.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story
Review: Great book. Kaye Gibbons is such a good story teller. She can take what could be a difficult topic and makes it very readable and warm, and you don't feel like you've been given a guilt trip or been hit over the head with an agenda, like with some other authors. I've enjoyed all of her books.
Rating:
Summary: Kaye Gibbons scores again with this heartbreaking and
Review: hysterical account of a North Carolina family coping
with manic depression. Unbelievingly moving and piercingly
accurate, Gibbons has a peerless touch when dealing with
home and the ties that bind. Her characters are so true to life that they could be your next door neighbors,
and by the time you finish the book, you are reluctant to
let them go. With her latest triumph, Gibbons secures her
position on the list of noted North Carolina writers. Buy
this one in hardback--it is sure to be added to the list of
modern classics.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read, but not Gibbons' Best Novel
Review: I am a big Kaye Gibbons fan, but I found this book to be a little weaker than the rest. The character development (usually a Gibbons strength) was not great. The book rambled a little bit. All that being said, "mediocre" Kaye Gibbons writing is still phenomenal by any standard.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: I am just sorry that more people didn't enjoy the book as much as I did. Actually, I should not say enjoy...the book hit too close to home to be so enjoyable, as I, too, am a manic depressive. I am 19 years old and even though I have no children of my own, I do know, when my mind allows me to think clearly, the pain and hardship my condition causes my family. I think Gibbons portrayed a person with such an illness in a true and poignant way, as she herself suffers from the condition. It is not an easy life to live and she illustrates that in the book. Some thought the woman's episodes hilarious,however, to live the life is to know, and it's not funny at all. It is a matter of getting up every day and not knowing how you will feel or what you will do. It is a matter of hurting those you love unintentionally on a daily basis, hurting yourself on a daily basis, and never knowing where your life is going. Gibbons's plot may not have seemed as "page-turning" as some would have liked, but the illness, though unpredictable, is not the stuff for an action-adventure novel, except to those who live with it. The book is wonderful, and true to life, and worth every penny.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: I am just sorry that more people didn't enjoy the book as much as I did. Actually, I should not say enjoy...the book hit too close to home to be so enjoyable, as I, too, am a manic depressive. I am 19 years old and even though I have no children of my own, I do know, when my mind allows me to think clearly, the pain and hardship my condition causes my family. I think Gibbons portrayed a person with such an illness in a true and poignant way, as she herself suffers from the condition. It is not an easy life to live and she illustrates that in the book. Some thought the woman's episodes hilarious,however, to live the life is to know, and it's not funny at all. It is a matter of getting up every day and not knowing how you will feel or what you will do. It is a matter of hurting those you love unintentionally on a daily basis, hurting yourself on a daily basis, and never knowing where your life is going. Gibbons's plot may not have seemed as "page-turning" as some would have liked, but the illness, though unpredictable, is not the stuff for an action-adventure novel, except to those who live with it. The book is wonderful, and true to life, and worth every penny.
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