Charms for the Easy Life

Hot damn, I loved this. My only gripe with this book is that the Grandmother's superheroine grit unbalances her into a fairy tale by the end (sort of a cranky, older MPDG) but by then you don't really care because you like everyone so much.

Three generations of southern women. The relationships between mother (Charlie Kate), daughter (Sophia), and granddaughter (Margaret) are tangled and complicated. Like all relationships, they are rich in drama, tough-love, grace, and unspoken courage. Complicated by pride and fierce independence. Only these are no ordinary women. Granddaughter Margaret is no exception. She assists her grandmother with unconventional medical practices on military patients and encourages her mother's second-time-around love life. The three generations can read the same book and discuss and argue like best friends and yet, they can also carry dark secrets strategically kept from one another, hold on to old grudges like a mean snapping turtle, and parse out show more the silent treatment to one another like professionals. Strong without menfolk to provide for them, the Birch women support each other through everything. This is an age when grandmothers could orchestrate the love lives of their granddaughters. Wise beyond her years, Margaret listens to her grandmother's advice. As an aside, my favorite was when Charlie Kate gave Margaret her easy-life charm, telling Margaret that it worked...depending on the definition of easy.
Confessional: I couldn't help but be reminded of Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris. show less

The book is set in North Carolina in the early 1900s through World War II. The grandma, Charlie Kate Birch, is a no-nonsense, frugal woman whose husband has abandoned her (she gets her revenge eventually!) who practices medicine without a license but is almost famous for how well she does it. Her daughter Sophia is headstrong and beautiful, marries in haste and has lots of regrets. Her daughter Margaret is the star of the book, and this is really the story of her coming of age. She is also strong and no-nonsense just like her grandmother. Quirky and wonderful book.

Even though this is a novel I will most likely not read again, I liked it so much that I will add all of this author's books to my TBR list. I enjoyed this book very much. The strong female characters spoke to me. They were strong, loving, sensitive, flawed and very believable.

The writing style was just my style. It was smart, funny, poignant and became a real voice as I read. The characters shared similarities, but were very different. They were each sympathetic, frustrating and full-bodied. I loved each one.

The book ended in a very nice and realistic way: it just ended. Much like life goes from one chapter to the next. Readers have become so used to every mystery being solved, every identity being revealed and every rock being show more overturned. In "Charms" there were unanswered questions, loose threads and every bit of realism that day-to-day life holds. I closed this book feeling very satisfied, and that is the best review a book can receive. show less

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.

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 show more 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. show less