Looking Back - A Cure for Dreams

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

A Cure for Dreams by Kaye Gibbons
Fiction
1992 Vintage Books (first published in 1991)
Finished in May 1997
Rating: 2/5 (Fair)

Publisher's Blurb:

In her novels Ellen Foster and A Virtuous Woman, Kaye Gibbons has compiled what one critic has called "a fictional oral history of female wishes [and] hopes." That tradition continues in A Cure for Dreams, a richly woven story that traces the bonds between four generations of Southern women through stories passed from mother to daughter to granddaughter. Gibbons shows us shrewd, resourceful women prevailing over hard times and heartless men and finding unexpected pleasures along the way: gossip, gambling, and the quiet satisfaction of knowing more than they're supposed to.

My Original Notes (1997):

Not nearly as good as her other books. Same sort of plot, too. (Strong women and men that leave them.) It didn't grab me like Charms for the Easy Life. A quick read, though. So-so.

My Current Thoughts:

After reading Charms for the Easy Life and Ellen Foster (both of which I loved), I was eager to read all of Gibbons' backlist and went on to read A Virtuous Woman and A Cure for Dreams. I read all four within one month and now I wonder if that's why I wasn't as impressed with this particular novel -- too much of the same sort of stories too close together. I guess I'll never know, since I only plan to reread my all-time favorites.