A Virtuous Woman

April 30, 1989
Jack Stokes and Ruby Pitt weave this strong, tightly knit love story in alternating chapters that begin when Jack, grieving over Ruby's death four months earlier, evokes the past. In flashbacks, the two richly cadenced Southern voices explore their vastly differing backgrounds, troubled histories and their unlikely but loving marriage. Born into a proud, prominent country family, coddled and adored, Ruby stuns her parents and two brothers by inexplicably running off with John Woodrow, a migrant worker who savagely abuses her. When John is killed in a brawl, Ruby, too proud to ask her family for help, begins doing housework for the wealthy Hoover family, where she meets Jack, a laconic, immensely capable tenant farmer on the Hoover land. He is 40; she is 20. Both lonely and vulnerable, they regard each other cautiously, carry on a wary courtship and embark on a firmly grounded marriage. The union is enriched by a small, supportive circle of friends, who, like the couple's landlord, Burr, are sharply etched and convincingly drawn. Gibbons, author of the critically praised Ellen Foster , has written a vivid, unsentimental, powerful novel. Literary Guild and Double day Book Club alternates.

Diplomatic Ruby, 45, and her unrestrained husband, Jack, 65, speak a few months apart, she before and he after her death from lung cancer. They tell their touching story in alternating chapters (except the last). The two readers take full advantage of this innovative format. Ruth Ann Phimister's style is mostly calm and reflective. Tom Stechschulte's tone is conversational and animated, a style that works especially well with Jack's offbeat witticisms. Since his characters language is so colorful, Stechschulte's performance shines more, but the contrast works piquantly, like plain rice setting off a spicy dish. The characters do right by one another, and, similarly, the narrators enhance what each has to offer. D.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine