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: 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: 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: unseen is the word
Review: I read this book two years ago and had the opportunity to participate in an interview with the author on National Public Radio. Ms. Gibbons was gracious, of course, but she could not answer the obvious difficulties in this book. The chronology is confused, and while the book reaches for important issues, ie the need for a young girl to have a mother, the treatment of the characters is shallow. The longing is there, and it is expressed well, but ultimately, the miraculous "healing" of the mother and her immediate death after her restoration--undermine whatever strength was in the novel. The one character that the reader has no trouble believing is Pearl, the caring maternal housekeeper. She is a jewel of characterization, much needed and appreciated in this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Sharp and heartbreaking....
Review: I'll read anything written by or about Kaye Gibbons. She's quintessentially southern, lyrical, insightful, etc.
And she suffers herself from bipolar disorder, I've read, so this book must have been written from the bottom of her gut. It's hard to discern where reality gives way to fiction and vice versa.
Heart-wrenching, redeeming, and definitely worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Promising Southern Women Writers: Kaye Gibbons
Review: In the past few years Southern Fiction has exploded into the mainstream. Recognition for Southern writers has risen to new heights and readers, especially Southern readers, are the beneficiaries of some of the best fiction anywhere. Contemporary Southern Fiction has a unique and timeless perspective. One of the most promising new Southern writers is Kaye Gibbons. Ms Gibbons is a shining light and her novels are exceptional. Like the characters she so carefully and precisely creates, her style is compassionate and spirited. She offers an especially unique and fresh portrayal of women in the South. Her most recent novel, Sights Unseen is a haunting story, dealing with the difficult problem of manic depression. Retrospectly told from the point of view of Hattie, the daughter of a manic depressive, this story focuses on one family's struggle for normality. Hattie longs for a mother who will read bedtime stories and bake cookies, but her reality is austere. Young, confused, and excluded Hattie makes painful attempts to understand and accept her mother's illness. While her family tries to protect her, Hattie finds herself the objective center of the situation. While the rest of her family seems immersed in her mother's illness, Hattie watches and absorbs. It is as if she is ghost of sorts, ever-present but uninvolved. Hattie tries desperately to belong. Her nurse and her brother are her only viable connections to the family. However, it is a relationship with her mother for which Hattie longs. Hattie's mother is incapable of such a relationship and as a result Hattie finds that passing her mother in the hall is like passing a stranger on the street. Amazingly, this is a story about depression without being depressing. This novel is a must read for mothers and daughters. In the same way many mothers and daughters flocked to the theater together to see Steel Magnolias, they should read this book together. Undoubtedly, Kaye Gibbons intended to illuminate the ups and downs of all mother-daughter relationships. It is a special bond that even the most extreme circumstances can not break. In Sights Unseen, Ms. Gibbons gracefully confronts a subject that would be difficult for most writers. It is perhaps most remarkable that Ms. Gibbons is able to write about this subject despite her own personal struggle with severe depression. This is Ms. Gibbons' fifth novel. All her novels place women as the central characters, and these women are clearly Southern. What is wonderful about her characters is they are extraordinary in an ordinary way. They are not tragic heroines. They are real women with real problems and real triumphs. They strike an unusual balance between wisdom and imprudence, strength and frailty. Ms. Gibbons' characters are like women we know; they are not Scarlett O'Hara. Ms. Gibbons' portrayal of Southern women deserves praise and recognition. Other books by Kaye Gibbons include: Ellen Foster, A Virtuous Woman, A Cure for Dreams, and Charms for the Easy Life.
Rating: 
Summary: Life with Mother!
Review: Kaye Gibbons has long been one of my favorite writers. Whether it was reading about a young Ellen Foster dealing with her abusive father or a woman who prepares meals for her husband to eat after she dies, it is as if Ms. Gibbons characters have become cherished friends. Unfortunately, as I read the story of the Barnes family about their manic depressive mother and wife, these characters never really got under my skin. Perhaps it is my failing that I found it diffcult to read about this subject matter and that I never felt I came to know the characters but this book left me hungering for another Gibbons' title I can sink my teeth into.
Rating:
Summary: A Sight Better Left Unseen
Review: This book chronicles a few years in the childhood of a young girl named Hattie whose mother is a severe manic depressive. Unlike other children, Hattie and her brother, Freddy, operate more as caretakers than as children. They watch their mother and act according to her state of mind for that specific day. Pearl, the cook and maid, acts as surrogate mother, nurturing the siblings with care and love as they grow older, something their mother has never been able to do. Pearl also acts as guardian to the mother, keeping her from leaving the house in a frenzy when she is manic and from killing herself when she is depressed. Although this book was easily read in a day, it was disappointingly bland and somewhat anti-climactic. I can't place exactly what it was - it just didn't build up to a page-turning "what-will-possibly-happen-next" mindset and I grew bored and apathetic towards the end which is highly unusual for me. I would recommend it as a good, thought-provoking, informative book on manic depression but certainly not as entertaining fiction.
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