This is my first foray into a Kaye Gibbons book. Gibbons portrayal of an elderly woman's musing about her life stuck all the right chords with me. The tone is muted, reflective in nature but there are no rose-coloured glasses at work here. The Tate family, under the rule of Emma's bigoted, self-made father is dysfunctional, so it comes as no surprise that Emma seeks escape in a marriage to a doctor from a well-to-do Boston family. Gibbons may have been a bit extreme in her portrayal of Emma's tyrannical father (a man Emma's sister tries to explain by saying "''You know he thinks he himself is the South,'') and her mother's quiet acquiescence to his raving demands, but even that effect is dulled down by the portrayal of the ravages the Civil War inflicted on everything and everyone in its path. Through it all, Clarice is the skilled navigator of choppy waters and it is her wisdom that shines through in this story:

"We knew what she believed to be moral, and while at the top of her list was eliminating slavery, she did not interfere in its flourishing. Her mission was not to change history but to help both white and black prevail over the circumstances of living in that place, the South, in our time. She worked with the consequences dealt her by others, in the travails of her race. She was not merely dignified, and to label her such would be not an error of judgement but one of degree. No, she was dignity herself."

As summarized by one reviewer, this novel is "above all, a story of how Southern women suffered and endured the deprivations of the home front during the Civil War. But it is so much more." A worthy read, IMO. ( )

Gibbons grabs you at the first sentence: "I did not mean to kill the nigger!"
Here she tells the tale of the daughter of a plantation owner from the Civil war to early 20th century.

Gibbons captures the reader, who lets go ever so reluctantly at the end of each novel. Her writing is to be treasured. Read ALL you can of her! ( )

My first book finished in 2016 and my first 5-star rating. A wonderful account of life in the South in the time leading up to and through the horrible Civil War. Not a battle view look - but a look through a flawed family's eyes. Poignant and sad, and a little hard to follow at times, I admire the writing and will soon read more by this uber-talented writer. ( )

Loved the title, liked the book. ( )

The Civil War from a different perspective..that of a privileged child who realized how wrong the life she led really was. The father, unbelievably brutal, got his just desserts and not from fate. The descriptions of the carnage and brutality of war, and the change in circumstances are given in the delicate voice of the lady who tells of her life before, during and after the war.

I would say, informative and believable.