A terrible title as I don't see how it relates to this little bittersweet tale at all.
It is a love story that can be read in a few consecutive hours, but should haunt you for days, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps the Southern tone...I'm a sucker there. Or that it is half told by an old man reminiscing...I'm a sucker there, too. And told somewhat from the grave...
In thinking about this, and trying to write out the plot here without looking it up on amazon, I can't. I don't know what the plot is. And I don't care.
I highly recommend this little book.

Bought it because it was an Oprah Book and looked interesting.. Very sweet yet sad story of a broken man that finds comfort only to have it all change on him. Definately a different kind of read. you were in just about every characters thought at some point in the story.

An Oprah book club book by the author of Ellen Foster. A Virtous Woman has wonderful characters, who are very well written. A quote from the back of the book: "THey didn't fall in love so much as they simply found each other and held on for dear life."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Oprah Book Club® Selection, October 1997: Gibbons's novel, A Virtuous Woman, takes place in the same hardscrabble part of the world as Ellen Foster. The virtuous woman is Ruby Pitt Woodrow, a woman who might have ended up like Ellen Foster's mother if fate, in the shape of Jack Stokes, hadn't crossed her path. The daughter of prosperous farmers, Ruby runs off with a migrant worker who treats her badly, then abandons her far from home. When she meets Jack, a man 20 years her senior, she's working as a cleaning woman in another prosperous farmer's house. Jack is a man women don't look at even once, let alone twice; Ruby is a woman who needs someone to take care of her. Out of this unlikely union grows a quiet kind of love that is no less powerful for being unstated.
Ellen Foster and A Virtuous Woman share more than just location and a few characters in common. Though each is a complete novel in and of itself, taken together the two books resonate one another: Ellen Foster and Ruby Pitt Woodrow are both damaged people who find the kind of love they need to heal. These multilayered novels are tough-minded and resolutely unsentimental, just like their protagonists. Yet like Ellen and Ruby, each contains a nut of sweetness at its core that takes the bitter edge off the hard lives and hard stories Kaye Gibbons has to tell.

I have yet to be disappointed by an Oprah's Book Club selection - this book was no exception.

Alovely, simple tale of a marriage.

A love story of an unusual marriage. Sweet, but sad, characters.

A multi-layered and convincing depiction of two seemingly mis-matched people who find each other and marry.

I absolutely love Kaye Gibbons and her ability to use voice in her writing. This novel is no exception. As usual, she examines the point of view of southern female characters and Ruby Pitt Woodrow does not dissappoint. Her background would lead one to expect that she would marry up in society, but reality has another course for her to follow. Very readable and relatable. I highly recommend this novel.

Complex, compact...one thinks of a Lillian Hellman play...The architecture of this novel is remarkable. New York Times Book Review

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I read this book several years ago and honestly, I don't remember much about it. It wasn't terrible or I wouldn't have finished. It wasn't great either, since I can't remember it.

very good

Another wonderful book by Kaye Gibbons

A quick but very enjoyable read with a bittersweet ending.

A great quick read from Kaye

Good book. Sweet story.

A short, bittersweet story...

An Oprah's Book Club edition.

An Oprah's Book Club Book

Cover has a crease across the front. Few marks, one on first page. Otherwise pages are good to read.

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