Category Archives: Gibbons, Kaye

Kaye Gibbons. The Life All Around Me By Ellen Foster. New York: Harcourt, 2005.

Ellen Foster, returning eight years after the acclaimed novel in which she first appeared, is now fifteen and driven to succeed. She is an excellent student, a budding poet, and is applying for early admission to Harvard. Perhaps more important for readers, she is still a lively and distinctive narrator. This sequel finds Ellen returning to North Carolina and attending the State Fair in Raleigh.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2005, Gibbons, Kaye, Piedmont, Wake

Kaye Gibbons. A Virtuous Woman. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1989.

Ruby Pitt Woodrow and Blinking Jack Stokes tell, in alternating chapters, the stories of their lives. Ruby’s chapters are told from her perspective as she is dying of cancer at age 45, while Jack’s reminiscences are set during the period just after Ruby’s death. These stories are set largely on tobacco farms in eastern North Carolina and describe a fondly remembered marriage, which stands in contrast to the characters’ otherwise difficult lives.

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Filed under 1980-1989, 1989, Coastal Plain, Gibbons, Kaye

Kaye Gibbons. Divining Women. New York: Putnam, 2004.

Mary Oliver travels from Washington, D.C. to her hometown, the fictional Elm City, N.C., to spend time with her aunt Maureen in the fall of 1918 with the nation at war and a deadly flu pandemic sweeping the country. Maureen’s troubles, it turns out, are much more immediate. Her cold and cruel husband has reduced her to a quiet and cowering existence and Mary takes it upon herself to save her aunt. Drawing from the example of strong women in the family’s history, and with the help of caring relatives, Mary and Maureen plan their escape.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Kaye Gibbons. Divining Women. New York: Putnam, 2004.

Filed under 2000-2009, 2004, Coastal Plain, Gibbons, Kaye, Historical, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Wilson