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Fiction, Teen Fiction
Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons β€” book cover

Charms for the Easy Life

by Kaye Gibbons
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Overview

A family without men, the Birches live gloriously offbeat lives in the lush, green backwoods of North Carolina. Radiant, headstrong Sophia and her shy, brilliant daughter, Margaret, possess powerful charms to ward off loneliness, despair, and the human misery that often beats a path to their door. And they are protected by the eccentric wisdom and muscular love of the remarkable matriarch Charlie Kate, a solid, uncompromising, self-taught healer who treats everything from boils to broken bones to broken hearts.

Sophia, Margaret, and Charlie Kate find strength in a time when women almost always depended on men, and their bond deepens as each one experiences love and loss during World War II. Charms for the Easy Life is a passionate, luminous, and exhilarating story about embracing what life has to offer ... even if it means finding it in unconventional ways.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

In the verdant backwoods of North Carolina, in the sad and singular 1940s, the Birches are unique among women of their time. Charlie Kate is a self-proclaimed doctor who treats everything from leprosy to malaria with herbs and roots, much to the chagrin of her strong-willed daughter Sophia. Shy, brilliant Margaret narrates the tale, as she struggles with the homefront demands of World War II.

Synopsis

A family without men, the Birches live gloriously offbeat lives in the lush, green backwoods of North Carolina. Radiant, headstrong Sophia and her shy, brilliant daughter, Margaret, possess powerful charms to ward off loneliness, despair, and the human misery that often beats a path to their door. And they are protected by the eccentric wisdom and muscular love of the remarkable matriarch Charlie Kate, a solid, uncompromising, self-taught healer who treats everything from boils to broken bones to broken hearts.

Sophia, Margaret, and Charlie Kate find strength in a time when women almost always depended on men, and their bond deepens as each one experiences love and loss during World War II. Charms for the Easy Life is a passionate, luminous, and exhilarating story about embracing what life has to offer ... even if it means finding it in unconventional ways.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

San Diego Union-Trihune

Extraordinary ... Kaye Gibbons has a voicethat will loll comfortably in a reader's mind longafter her tales have been told.

About the Author, Kaye Gibbons

Kaye Gibbons shot to literary stardom with the 1987 publication of Ellen Foster, her debut novel in which she introduced the tough, love-starved little girl who earned her legions of fans (Oprah among them). A big fan herself of everything from Diet Coke to rap music, Gibbons continues to enchant readers with The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster.

Reviews

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Editorials

Chicago Tribune

Charming ... delightful ... wonderfully peculiar.

Raleigh News & Observer

Dazzling ... a marvel ... a splendid achievement.

San Diego Union-Trihune

Extraordinary ... Kaye Gibbons has a voicethat will loll comfortably in a reader's mind longafter her tales have been told.

Dallas Morning News

Intelligent and extraordinary...to read this perfect novel is to feel its power as a charm against despair.

New York Times

An evocative and gracious novel...Ms. Gibbons has a natural gift for telling stories . .Charms for the Easy Life is a worthy addition to her impressive body of work.

Southern Living

A masterful job...Marvelous ... Colorful ...Engaging ... Unforgettable.

Boston Globe

Wonderfully visual...Gibbons's latest will delight fans who never askedher to change a thing, and attract new ones whoweren't heretofore at home in the rural Southof these pages ... Pull up a chair and smile.

Chicago Tribune

Charming ... delightful ... wonderfully peculiar.

Raleigh News & Observer

Dazzling ... a marvel ... a splendid achievement.

New York Times

An evocative and gracious novel...Ms. Gibbons has a natural gift for telling stories . .Charms for the Easy Life is a worthy addition to her impressive body of work.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Begining with her debut novel, Ellen Foster , Gibbons' work has been heartwarming and addictively readable. In this, her fourth novel, she creates a touching picture of female bonding and solidarity. Related with the simple, tart economy of a folktale, the narrative brims with wisdom and superstition, with Southern manners and insights into human nature. Like the heroines of Gibbons's previous novels, indomitable country doctor Charlie Kate and her daughter, Sophia, have been disappointed by men. Supported by Charlie Kate's homeopathic medical practice, which she pursues without the benefit of a degree but with the respect of the community of Raleigh, N.C., they live with Margaret, Sophia's daughter the novel's narrator, in a relatively harmonious if decidedly eccentric household. All are feminists before the word was coined; all are avid readers ``When a good book was in the house, the place fairly vibrated'' and all are capable of defying conventions when urgency dictates. Gibbons' picture of the South during the Depression and WW II is satisfyingly full of period references. But her triumph is the character of Charlie Kate: strong-minded, arbitrary and opinionated, a crusader for the underdog, and the grumpy but benign ruler of her offspring's lives. Though at times she veers dangerously toward the saccharine, Gibson rescues the fairy-tale ending with a bittersweet twist, having solidly orchestrated its inevitability. Author tour. Mar.

Library Journal

Like its predecessors, Ellen Foster LJ 4/15/87, A Virtuous Woman LJ 4/1/89, and A Cure for Dreams LJ 2/15/91, this new novel depicts three generations of Southern women living together during World War II. Unworthy men marry into this formidable tribe, but they cannot break the women's circle of strength and grace. Margaret, the narrator, gently and humorously regales readers with the adventures of her grandmother, Charlie Kate, as a respectable yet unlicensed physician. Without losing her rural sensibility, Gibbons moves from her previous country settings to Raleigh, the capital of her native North Carolina. Her characters remain quirky without being quaint. Recommended for most libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/92.-- Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia

Book Details

Published
July 1, 2005
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Pages
272
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780060760250

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