A good book! ( )

Just a LOVELY read: set in 30s/40s N Carolina, three generations of women live together. Grandmother Charlie Kate ...a healer/ self-taught doctor - a tough-minded woman, devoted to her career; her daughter Sophia, who assists her mother but still has romantic dreams after a failed marriage. And narrator Margaret, the granddaughter, pondering whether to pursue an education or remain with her beloved family...but then, War is declared..

Brings to life the impoverished world of rural N Carolina, the primitive medical facilities.....
Although it follows the lives of all three, the stand-out character is Charlie Kate, and it's really the story of her life. Loved it. ( )

This is a delightful story - kind of Cold Sassy Tree meets Bailey White's Momma. ( )

There's not one thing Kaye Gibbons has written that I didn't love. I read this book years ago, yet re-reading seemed just as fresh and new as before. You can't help but love all three of the women in this story - particularly the grandmother who was plain spoken, sharp witted, and a total riot. She's the relative every family has, the one person who minces no words, and commands respect even when she insults you up one side and down the other. ( )

Charlie Kate, Sophia and Margaret are grandmother, mother and daughter, living in North Carolina in the first half of the 20th century. The book is told from Margaret's perspective as she introduces the reader to her magnificent grandmother who practiced as a doctor, though without any formal training or licensure and was revered by established medical professionals as well as those mostly poor and rural folks for whom she cared. All three women are well-versed in Charlie Kate's peculiar and holistic, brand of healing, which is also quite progressive for her time, as she responds to a hospital administrator who invites her to witness a new technique that she's "been doing that for years."
All three women also have encounters and relationships with men, though after her disastrous initial marriage Charlie Kate has no use for any man in her life and Sophia is all too ready to go head over heels in spite of her own abandonment and divorce. Margaret is cautious, not wanting to follow in those footsteps.
All three are lovely, progressive, intelligent and independent. I very much enjoyed the characters and though there wasn't much plot, it was quite enjoyable to become acquainted with them. ( )