A Cure for Dreams

This very short and spare novel features Betty Davies Randolph telling the story of her mother, and of her own childhood and young adulthood, marriage, and her daughter's birth. Betty and her mother Lottie were both strong women who led their lives as they saw fit (though they weren't necessarily happy in the end--are these stories meant to be the cure for her own daughter's dreams?). As usual, I would have liked more--especially more from Marjorie.

I definitely want to read Gibbons' better-known works.

A Cure for dreams is set during the Depression in back-country Virginia and Kentucky. Betty Davies Randolph reveals her childhood and her mother's life along Milk Farm Road, capturing a bits of old-school South; it seems like bad things are bubbling just under the surface, waiting to burst free. She recounts a world where human passions are often dark and where salvation is not often forthcoming. Gibbons has not written a dark novel. The ameliorating effects of resilient women and family relationships bring a sense of the continuation of life, of birth and love and the land.
This book made me think about the relationships between generations and the effect they have on our lives. It also made me feel sad for the current generation of show more young parents. Due to the transient nature of our country, many, including my own, are far from home places and family. They do not get to know the sense of place that comes from having several generations within an easy commute. I think their lives are poorer for it. show less

Gibbons' writing is excellent, and she provides just enough details. The book provided an illuminating picture of people I was not very knowledgeable about. The story was very interesting, and I'm glad I read it, but in the end, it did not amount to too much. I am conflicted; maybe I should just accept it for what it was.

Once I'd read [Ellen Foster] I couldn't' get enough of Kaye Gibbons, and devoured all the books by her I could find. This one is set in the small towns of Virginia and Kentucky and celebrates strong women who survive within their rural communities.

Like Erskine Caldwell, Irene Nemirovsky, Kaye Gibbons is an author who writes books that appeal to me, this one is no exception. A