Announced on October 27, 1997
About the Book
Two unforgettable characters, Jack Ernest Stokes, known as Blinking Jack, and his wife, Ruby Pitt Woodrow Stokes, tell the story of their years together. Weaving this strong, tightly knit love story in alternating chapters, the two richly cadenced Southern voices explore their vastly differing backgrounds, troubled histories, and their unlikely but loving marriage.

Drawing upon the same "honesty of thought and eye and feeling" that Eudora Welty praised in Ellen Foster, Kaye Gibbons has written a tale of a woman who shocks her well-to-do family by running off with a migrant worker who abuses her; after he is killed in a brawl, she meets Jack, a quiet, uneducated, but highly capable tenant farmer.

Other memorable characters—Jack's landlord and friend, Burr, Burr's spoiled and demanding wife, Tiny Fran, their daughter, June who becomes for Ruby and Jack the child they could not have—people the pages of this beautifully crafted story.

NEXT STORY

Next Story