More Gibbons
Had the chance to read two more Gibbons novels this week: A Virtuous Woman and On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon. Of the two, I liked A Virtuous Woman best.
Remember how I wrote earlier that I'd read Ellen Foster years ago? Now I'm beginning to doubt myself. I must have read A Virtuous Woman. I knew from the first page that I'd read this novel before. But the writing is so fine that I settled in to read it again. (Something I NEVER do. Nev. Er.) But this novel is dang good. It tells the story of a married couple, Ruby and Jack, who meet each other, fall in love, and marry. Ruby later contracts lung cancer. Facing her death, she ruminates on her adventures and tries her best to prepare Jack to live without her. Jack savors the memories of the two of them, even as he knows he must move beyond them to continue his life. Chapters of the novel are alternately narrated by each of the two primary characters, a style which is effective because it lets us see the inner thoughts of both.
I enjoyed how this novel dealt with the definition of love. It is a subject worth considering, and one that can easily become too sentimental. However, Gibbons' characters look at it with a steady, nearly objective eye. The characters know who they are and what they need from a mate. And when they find one another, there is a quiet cherishing that they do of one another. The love Gibbons writes of is a wise love, not young and foolish, not headstrong and impassioned, but matter-of-fact and solid as bedrock. I can appreciate such a story.
On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon tells the story of Emma Garnet, a young girl growing up in the years before the Civil War. Emma chafes under the imposing hand of a tyrannical father, who is newly rich but yearns for the respectability of old money. His war-mongering political opinions, restrictive ideas of a lady's place, and violent nature drive even his family away. Emma is luckly enough to escape to a happy marriage, and the novel follows her throughout raising a family, mourning the loss of those she loves, and weathering the storms of the Civil War.
I thought this was a good novel, and I enjoyed Emma Garnet as a character. However, much was made of her own battles with her father, and of secrets of her father's past that had been kept from her. When these secrets were finally revealed, they were not substantial enough to satisfy the curiousity that Gibbons had stoked in them throughout the book. I was left wanting to know more about him to justify his role in the story. How did he come by his fortune? How did he espy Emma Garnet's mother and mark her for his own? Simply, the secrets (or "secret," as it turned out to be only one) did not live up to more than 225 pages of anticipation.
While a good read, it was not as good as A Virtuous Woman (or Charms for the Easy Life, for that matter). I plan on checking out Ellen Foster next.
Remember how I wrote earlier that I'd read Ellen Foster years ago? Now I'm beginning to doubt myself. I must have read A Virtuous Woman. I knew from the first page that I'd read this novel before. But the writing is so fine that I settled in to read it again. (Something I NEVER do. Nev. Er.) But this novel is dang good. It tells the story of a married couple, Ruby and Jack, who meet each other, fall in love, and marry. Ruby later contracts lung cancer. Facing her death, she ruminates on her adventures and tries her best to prepare Jack to live without her. Jack savors the memories of the two of them, even as he knows he must move beyond them to continue his life. Chapters of the novel are alternately narrated by each of the two primary characters, a style which is effective because it lets us see the inner thoughts of both.
I enjoyed how this novel dealt with the definition of love. It is a subject worth considering, and one that can easily become too sentimental. However, Gibbons' characters look at it with a steady, nearly objective eye. The characters know who they are and what they need from a mate. And when they find one another, there is a quiet cherishing that they do of one another. The love Gibbons writes of is a wise love, not young and foolish, not headstrong and impassioned, but matter-of-fact and solid as bedrock. I can appreciate such a story.
On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon tells the story of Emma Garnet, a young girl growing up in the years before the Civil War. Emma chafes under the imposing hand of a tyrannical father, who is newly rich but yearns for the respectability of old money. His war-mongering political opinions, restrictive ideas of a lady's place, and violent nature drive even his family away. Emma is luckly enough to escape to a happy marriage, and the novel follows her throughout raising a family, mourning the loss of those she loves, and weathering the storms of the Civil War.
I thought this was a good novel, and I enjoyed Emma Garnet as a character. However, much was made of her own battles with her father, and of secrets of her father's past that had been kept from her. When these secrets were finally revealed, they were not substantial enough to satisfy the curiousity that Gibbons had stoked in them throughout the book. I was left wanting to know more about him to justify his role in the story. How did he come by his fortune? How did he espy Emma Garnet's mother and mark her for his own? Simply, the secrets (or "secret," as it turned out to be only one) did not live up to more than 225 pages of anticipation.
While a good read, it was not as good as A Virtuous Woman (or Charms for the Easy Life, for that matter). I plan on checking out Ellen Foster next.
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