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Sights Unseen: A Novel by Kaye Gibbons
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Sights Unseen: A Novel (original 1995; edition 2005)

by Kaye Gibbons

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
6141337,941 (3.72)32
The bestselling author of Charms for the Easy Life delivers "her best novel since Ellen Foster." Kaye Gibbons' award-winning novels of Southern family life have won rave reviews coast to coast. To the people of Bend of the River Road, Maggie Barnes is "the Barnes woman with all the problems." To her family, she is the unpredictable wife, elusive mother, and adored daughter-in-law, and to her maid, Pearl, she is the mistress who must be cared for like a child. Between the suicidal lows and delirious highs, young Hattie Barnes struggles to find a place in her mother's heart. She observes her mother's vain attempts at normalcy, and then watches as she is driven off to the hospital psychiatric ward. Only later will Hattie discover the deep-seated hopes and fears of the woman she loves unconditionally, and her inevitable connection to her family's past. In heartfelt and potent prose, through Hattie's hushed voice, Sights Unseen tells the story of a troubled relationship and the courage it takes to see it through.… (more)
Member:StaffPicks
Title:Sights Unseen: A Novel
Authors:Kaye Gibbons
Info:Harper Perennial (2005), Paperback, 240 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:Pam's Picks

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Sights Unseen by Kaye Gibbons (1995)

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» See also 32 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 13 (next | show all)
Couldn't put this book down. Such wonderful characters and a very moving story. ( )
  Jinjer | Jul 19, 2021 |
Couldn't put this book down. Such wonderful characters and a very moving story. ( )
  Jinjer.Hundley | Mar 24, 2018 |
The first sentence draws you in. Gibbons explores the effects of a mother's mental illness on her family. She's a talented writer; she captures the reader who lets go ever so reluctantly at the end of each novel. Her writing is to be treasured.

I had read this book earlier, but the date shown is when my book club discussed it.

UPDATED 16May2012
Opening paragraph: Had I known my mother was being given electroconvulsive therapy while I was dressing for school on eight consecutive Monday mornings, I do not think I could have buttoned my blouses or tied my shoes or located my homework. I see myself fumbling with the snap on my skirt, trying to connect the sides, turning around in a circle like a cat chasing its tail. I was twelve, deemed too young to be told what was happening to her and in fact too innocent to surmise it.

Hattie narrates this story, which takes place in the late 1950s to mid 1960s, in a small community in North Carolina, where her grandfather is a prominent citizen who can fix just about anything by opening his wallet. There is much in this culture that is left unseen. In deference to his power, no one refers to Maggie (Hattie’s mother) as a “lunatic” but as “the woman with all those problems.” But more than her mother’s mental illness is unseen in this household. People choose not to see the prejudice and hatred regularly displayed by Mr Barnes. Nor do they acknowledge how he spoils Maggie, practically courting her, while ignoring his own son. No one seems to notice how the children are isolated by their mother’s illness. In fact, it seems that no one sees anyone else’s emotional needs and reactions.

I’ve read nearly all Gibbons’s works. She is a talented writer, who is, herself, bi-polar. Her works capture the reader who escapes ever so reluctantly at the end of each novel. Her writing is to be treasured. ( )
  BookConcierge | Feb 9, 2016 |
Excellent look at the affect of bipolar disorder on a family. Well written, with memorable characters and wit ( )
  lucybrown | Sep 27, 2015 |
Excellent look at the affect of bipolar disorder on a family. Well written, with memorable characters and wit ( )
  lucybrown | Sep 27, 2015 |
Showing 1-5 of 13 (next | show all)
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For there are dark streams in this dark world, lady, Gulf Streams and Arctic currents of the soul. -Conrad Aiken, Preludes for Memnon
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For Frank
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Had I known my mother was being given electroconvulsive therapy while I was dressing for school on eight consecutive Monday mornings, I do not think I could have buttoned my blouses or tied my shoes or located my homework.
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The bestselling author of Charms for the Easy Life delivers "her best novel since Ellen Foster." Kaye Gibbons' award-winning novels of Southern family life have won rave reviews coast to coast. To the people of Bend of the River Road, Maggie Barnes is "the Barnes woman with all the problems." To her family, she is the unpredictable wife, elusive mother, and adored daughter-in-law, and to her maid, Pearl, she is the mistress who must be cared for like a child. Between the suicidal lows and delirious highs, young Hattie Barnes struggles to find a place in her mother's heart. She observes her mother's vain attempts at normalcy, and then watches as she is driven off to the hospital psychiatric ward. Only later will Hattie discover the deep-seated hopes and fears of the woman she loves unconditionally, and her inevitable connection to her family's past. In heartfelt and potent prose, through Hattie's hushed voice, Sights Unseen tells the story of a troubled relationship and the courage it takes to see it through.

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Book description
VIRAGO EDITION:
To the good citizens of Bend of the River, North Carolina, the exotic Maggie Barnes is 'not right', 'flighty' or, more politely, 'the Barnes woman with all her problems'. To her family, and most particularly her growing daughter Hattie, Maggie is a maddening and beloved paradox: quite clearly depressive, yet a beautiful, generous, satin-clad siren, vivacious and captivating, infuriating, violent and heartless.
Through Hattie's eyes a profoundly original and devastating portrait of her mother unfolds. Wry, irresistibly comic yet unsparing in its depiction of a child's despairing love, Sights Unseen is also the story of the marvellous extended Barnes family. With their separate strategies for dealing with the impossible Maggie, all are drawn with tenderness and humour and suffuse this extraordinary novel finally not with pain but with redemptive joy.
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