A Virtuous Woman

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Summary: The Virtuous Woman
Review: "The Virtuous Woman" written by Kaye Gibbons, is a novel about an unlikely couple. Ruby Pitt Woodrow, the daughter of prosperous farmers and Jack Stokes, an unattractive and unsuccessful tenant farmer. They share the details of their life in alternating chapters. At first the unusual narration appears confusing, but it clarifies what Jack or Ruby is trying to express. In the first chapter Jack is describing his life without Ruby. Knowing that she dies of lung cancer from the beginning of the story weakens the plot. However, it allows you to focus more on the characters and their interaction with each other. The author's reason for revealing Ruby's death becomes more obvious when Ruby starts narrating the second chapter. She begins preparing frozen food for Jack so he can have nourighing meals after she is gone. Her love and concern for his well-being was showing through her selfless acts, therefore strengthening the weak story line. Expecting a religious based book from the title of the novel, the reviewer was hindered by that assumption. It could have been enjoyed more if it was read with an open mind. In the book of Proverbs, chapter thirty-one, verse ten reads, "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." To Jack, Ruby is worth far more than any precious stone. Even though this was not the type of religious story the reader was looking for, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The fact that two people can see past their differences to find a love that is pure, unselfish, and stong is powerful. As a romance nvel it stands out above the rest.



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Summary: Is it love...or not?
Review: A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons is an easy to read book. Ruby Pitt Woodrow is the virtuous woman. She is the kind of woman who needs a husband to take care of her. Throughout her entire life, she has always been taken care of and carefully watched by her parents. Her first marriage does not exactly work out and the second marriage is a bit "off beat." Jack is the man she marries the second time and he is twenty years older than she. He is that sort of guy that a respectable girl has no interest in, but Ruby and Jack form a relationship that they just "found." They really did not "fall in love" and they have been together ever since. This novel did something that was rather creative, yet it got on my nerves. One chapter was told by the wife, and the next chapter was told from the husband's point of view. Also, Ruby and Jack are suppose to have this awsome love, but all they do, as they each tell their story, is tell us the things that they each do that are supposed to prove how much they love each other. I do not think that pre-packaging three months worth of food to store in the freezer for your husband before you die, or bringing your wife candy, is love. The relationship that formed between Jack and Ruby seemed more like a "need" than a "love." It seemed as if one could not live without the other, only because each would not have anyone to take care of them. That is not love either. I remember this one part of the book very well. Ruby talks of her childhood. She mentions that her parents always protect her from bad choices by making those choices for her. This weakens a child and slows down her development. She felt that the reason her parents acted in this manner was because Ruby was the baby girl in her family. So, because of the way Ruby was reared, she ended up in a awful first marriage and she always feels like she needs someone (a man) to constantly take care of her. Bringing up children is one of the most important things a human being can do. Trying to help or protect your children by making decisions for them is definitely more damaging than rewarding. I get pretty angry when Ruby talks about her childhood. Her parents make some major mistakes. Kaye Gibbons based her idea for this book on Proverbs 31:10-25. These lines expressed many things that a woman does to be a good wife to her husband. If you compare the novel to the verses, there are complete examples from the book that are expressed in Proverbs. I found this to be very creative. At first, naturally, I skipped the epigram at the beginning of the book. It was not until later that a friend told me of the connection and I went back to read it. I am glad I was told; otherwise, I might have easily thought the whole book was a waste.

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Summary: A light read.
Review: A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons. Not recommended.

In A Virtuous Woman, Kaye Gibbons tells the story of the daughter of Southern gentry, Ruby Pitt Woodrow Stokes; her tenant farmer second husband, Jack Stokes; and those who affect their lives most�Burr, his wife Tiny Fran, her delinquent son Roland, and their daughter June.

Gibbons uses a technique of alternating chapters, with the first written by Jack, the next by Ruby, and so on, until the last chapter. Chapter sixteen is written in the third person omniscient, with characters' thoughts sprinkled throughout in italics. This method is effective in the beginning, where Jack talks about his reaction to the news that Ruby has been diagnosed with lung cancer and her silent, selfish request for a cigarette, while next she talks about her response to his reaction and her own motivation. Further into the plot, however, this method loses its impact as the reminiscences become more random and less structured.

Although the idea of alternating chapters, most flashbacks except Jack's chapters toward the end, lends itself to a more dynamic approach to time, Gibbons keeps it virtually linear, from Ruby's youth and disastrous first marriage to a drunken, controlling migrant worker named John Woodrow and his death to her marriage to Jack, the notable events of their lives, Ruby's death, and Jack's life after Ruby.

Although A Virtuous Woman is well written and in a few instances somewhat insightful. The characters often seem to lack interest or depth; some, like Woodrow, Tiny Fran, and Roland, are little more than stock rural characters (no-good man, no-good teenaged girl, no-good bastard). They appear primarily to fulfill a standard a role and have little interest�they exist only to explain such things as Ruby's path toward Jack and the Stokes's unusual interest in Burr and Tiny Fran's daughter June. When Woodrow is critically injured in a drunken brawl, the wives of the other migrant workers feel Ruby should "stand by her man" no matter what, which also seems to perpetuate a type rather than offer any real insight.

Above all, A Virtuous Woman feels forced and unnatural. It is out of character for a barely literate man like Jack Stokes to document his memories, including quoted conversations, in such detail and with such care. This would have been a stronger story if presented as an oral history rather than a written one.

The unlikely love story and marriage of Jack Stokes and Ruby Pitt Woodrow Stokes has potential, as do the characters. Unfortunately, Gibbons does not have the depth as an author to uncover it.

Diane L. Schirf, 19 August 2003.

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Summary: Simply a love story, but wow...
Review: Hard to imagine anyone other than Kaye Gibbons writing a story of simple love between two people with troubled histories - and bringing it off with such beautiful panache. Told principally in flashbacks as Jack Stokes is grieving over Ruby's death, the tale of their dissimilar backgrounds, courtship, and improbably successful marriage is written with unsentimental straightforward power.

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Summary: The love a man has for his wife
Review: Here'a wonderful, basic story of heartfelt love. There was something about Ruby from the first day Jack saw her at the picnic table where all the migrant workers met before work. Ruby Pitt was a woman that bore her share of crosses.
This story follows Jack's love for his wife through their marriage, through Ruby's illness and beyond.
It's a sweet story that will pull at your heart strings and I have to say, it had me crying at one point til I couldn't see through the tears.
You will love Ruby and Jack. You'll want to take their hands and help them. And there are some characters that you just won't like at all! Some truely mean people.
This is a quick read and a very enjoyable, hard to put down book. I strongly recommend reading this book. It's just plain old fashioned love and tenderness between two good human beings and the struggles they endure.

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Summary: Do you have the time?
Review: I read a great deal and most all gifts to me are books. Being raised in the south, I love southern literature. This book failed to evoke any response in me except that I felt that I was wasting my time in finishing it. It was sad and hopeless, as am sure it was meant to be, but the characters were under developed and failed to connect with me on any level.

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Summary: This is a wonderful love story
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love how it was narrated by both of the main characters. The way it went back and forth between them made you understand how they felt about each other. Kaye Gibbons beautifully depicted a rare kind of love between a husband and wife. I cannot understand some of the low ratings I have been reading, but everyone has their opinion. I loved the characters and I highly recommend this book.

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Summary: Calm down, everyone!
Review: In my opinion, this book was certainly not a must-read or a "rare gem" or a highly-recommendable book, as the earlier people who reviewed this book wrote. Neither is it a book that is so horrible it can't be finished, or one that damns Oprah's selections forever (though I must say I don't let daytime talk show hosts dictate my book selections), as more recent reviewers leaned.

First of all, I'm shocked by all of the reviewers who seem to be equating a depressing book with one that's not worth reading. Some of the best books ever are quite sad. To all those people, I say: go buy a magazine, a trashy romance novel or a comic book. Furthermore, although I did almost cry a couple of times, I didn't find this book depressing at all. It was a sad story--of Ruby's abuse and then of her dying--but the love between Ruby and Jack made this more of a love story than anything else. I liked the switching back and forth of narrators, and I especially liked that Ruby and Jack were speaking from different time periods, too. I liked reading about Jack's life following Ruby's death in one section, and then reading about Ruby preparing for her death in the next. I found her preparation of months' worth of food for Jack touching, and it was very clear throughout how much the couple loved each other. Whether this was based on true love or on need, as some reviewers suggest, is debatable, but does not speak to the strength of the connection between them, which I felt was very powerful.

I think a lot of Southern literature is tough for readers from other parts of the country/world, and this novel is no different. However, isn't that why people read? To learn about experiences not just of people and surroundings very similar to their own, but of different types of people from different parts of the world, with different lifestyles, perspectives, vocabularies, accents, values, interests and lives?

I'm planning on reading "Ellen Foster," as that seems much better received.........

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Summary: Could Have Been Better-I Give it a "C-"
Review: This book just seemed incomplete and not put together too well.

It starts out with Ruby, Jack's late wife dying of lung cancer, and how he is grieving for her. Then it goes into the real story before this happened, Ruby having overprotective parents, and yet she goes off and marries an abusive husband. Jack is lonely and loves Ruby the first time he sets eyes on her. So when Ruby's unfaithful/abusive husband John dies from an accident, the two get together and marry. They share a few happy years together until Ruby comes down with lung cancer, and dies. Jack is so grief-stricken, he cannot move on with his life, and the book continues that way at the end more or less.

I wouldn't waste my time reading this book when there is much better reading material.

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Summary: Review on "A Virtuous Woman"
Review: This book was a love story about a daughter from Carolina who was brought up carefully and a farmer who never in his life had the chance to own anything. They both came from different backgrounds. The daughter's name was Ruby Pitt Woodrow and the farmer's mane was Blinking Jack Stokes. Ruby first became a widow after a brutal relationship she was in with John Woodrow. She gave her parents and her two brothers a surprise when she ran away with John. John was also a farmer and died in a brawl. Considering she was a brought up well and with proud she didn't ask her parents for help. So, she decided to go work at a wealthy home with the Hoover family. This is where she first meets Jack. When Jack first meets Ruby she was twenty and he was forty and they got married five months later. At first they weren't in love, but then after a while when they started to need each other and became they were there for each other. Ruby become sick with cancer and really needed Jack more then ever. It starts with Jack grieving over the death of Ruby. While the rest oh the chapters gives flashbacks on the past. Both jack and Ruby were very lonely and in the need of wanting at the beginning. They received a lot a support by friends that they had. This book is a very touching novel and gives strong emotions. It shows the different between two lovers who have very different backgrounds and end up falling in love with each other. I recommend this book to others because it is not hard to read and it's easy to understand. This love story make people think about how others don't really miss something or someone until it's gone. People take things for granted when it's there but when it's not there no more then they stop to think about what really just happened.