Tending to Virginia

by Jill McCorkle

"A profound picture of the legacies of families, one that will stay in the reader's mind."
--The Memphis Commercial Appeal

Virginia Suzanne Ballard is going home to Saxapaw, North Carolina, to sort things out--and to have the people she loves best help her through a difficult pregnancy.

The reunion is bittersweet. For as three generations of marvelous women tend to Virginia, long-held secrets are revealed, half-hidden truths confessed, and precious wisdom gained--of letting go and moving on. . . .

"Celebrates human connection, not the sort of passionate and exotic connection that all these women imagine, fear and desire, so much as the steady comfort of the familiar, the known, the reliable, which is perhaps synonymous with family."
--Atlanta Journal & Constitution

Genres: Fiction, Southern, Literary Fiction, Female Authors

328 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1987

About the author

Five of Jill McCorkle's seven previous books have been named New York Times Notables. Winner of the New England Booksellers Award, the Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, and the North Carolina Award for Literature, she has taught writing at the University of North Carolina, Bennington College, Tufts University, and Harvard. She lives near Boston with her husband, their two children, several dogs, and a collection of toads.

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd have to say this was my least favorite of all Ms. McCorkle's novels. I absolutely loved Carolina Moon and consider it to be in my top 20 novels, so perhaps my expectations were too high. The storytelling itself is genius in the build up of suspense of secrets revealed as the storm rages outside and characters are well developed. I think what didn't appeal was the almost stream-of-consciousness telling of the stories. The approach is effective in show casing the chism between reality and perception, and the varying degrees of dementia of Emily and Lena in the retelling of some of the stories. I give high marks to the crafting of the novel and I'd maybe bump my rating by half a star. For whatever reason, the story just didn't sppeal.

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book hard to keep up with. I couldn't keep track of who was who's mother, daughter, etc.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It may be my favorite ever. I've read it at least twice but it has been awhile.

[Marietta]

This was a terrible book. Very difficult to follow, disjointed.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hard book for me to get into. Maybe it was my general exhaustion and reading slump, but also the story follows a family of characters that I struggled to keep straight. Generations of women, and the time hopped back and forth too. AND a couple of them were elderly and pretty senile so the memory vs. reality threw me sometimes as well. It took until the very last Part to feel like I really knew any of them well enough, to know their story enough, to tell them apart and actually care about them. So in a sense, the ending was redeeming despite the rest just kind of dragging by.

[Susan Katz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this one because I know the author AND I have read other books by her, which I have enjoyed immensely. I gave up after 50 pages. Too much whining, and no one I could care about. And too hard to keep track of all the characters.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

A strange, unsatisfactory book with strange, unsatisfactory characters. I had to finish it, kept waiting for it to develop into something, and it just never did.

[Pamela Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went to high school with this author!

[Carolyn F. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audiobook.

Virginia is not sure her husband really loves her when he says while she's pregnant with his child that his first wife aborted their child and that he never would have left her but she was the one who wanted to end the marriage. Now she's angry and bitter with him and wants to go home. She does take off with only the clothes on her back and when she gets to her grandmother's house, she's started bleeding so she has to have bed rest. The problem is almost all the ladies in her family are nuts! Her grandmother and great aunt have Alzheimers, her cousin's counselor wanted her committed, her second cousin killed her husband and it seems only her mother is normal.

The book is told by everyone's point of view, lots of flipping. And the nutty family members throw out odd statements that go into a memory. I was just bored out of my mind and have no idea why I even finished this book. The ending was stupid too. Virginia who had painted a bloody animal scene in the baby's room repainted it more soothing but this is a rented place and she and her husband are moving. She's just going to have to paint over it again! The author must have never lived in a rental.

[Dorrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book for my book club. I hated it. We ALL hated it. There wasn't a single likable character in the whole book. I had to force myself to finish reading it. Many of the ladies in my book club did not bother. It is the story of whiny Virginia (Ginny Sue) who is 8 months pregnant and has a coniption fit because she discovers that her husband had not actually wanted to divorce his first wife, like Ginny Sue has always believed. As a result, she decides to leave him and their home in Virginia and run home to her mother (who has always been emotionally distant from Ginny Sue) in North Carolina. Ginny gets sepsis during a bad storm, and her perpetually jealous and out-of-control cousin Cindy, grandmother, and great-aunt come to see her at her mother's home. The elderly women of her family are all suffering from dementia, so their memories are not reliable. The group of women share grievances from their past, and it turns out that each thought the other had always led a charmed life, which hadn't been the case at all. What a drag.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for some more Southern Women Writers when I found Jill McCorkle. Tending to Virginia is an interesting book. It is the story of Virginia who is suffering from pregnancy complications. As she lies delirious,and her family is tending to her needs, we learn about the generations of her family in a series of vignettes. She had some pretty quirky relatives, including a nutty grandmother and a friend, Cyndi, who thinks all there is to life is finding a man. (She has already found 3 to marry) A pretty good story even though it jumps from 1 narrator to another.

Poor Virginia suffers throught her "tending to" with a lot of grace and a few ruffled feathers. She survives the experience, thank goodness.

[Debbie Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This starts out very slow, and I almost gave up. But Jill Mccorkle is such an amazing writer, so gifted with voice and wit, that I kept on. Once you get to know the MILLION characters, it is fine. Lots of voices, lots of characters and interrelationships. Drink coffee, stay alert, and, then go on a very interesting ride backwards. It is a backwards story. All backstory, but very well done. Also, very very southern. So, be prepared for a lot of southern humor and charm, no action and backstory. That's the book. But she sure can write!

[Peg · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my new favorite Southern authors. See my review of Ferris Beach for details re author.
"This is the story of Virgina Turner Ballard, known to NC relatives as Ginny Sue. It is also the story of her mother, grandmother, great aunts, her closest cousin - three generations of women who gather around Virgina to help her at the end of her hard pregnancy, to tend to her, to help her prepare for the fourth generation. This kind of family attendance, this tending to, is Southern to the core, offering the occasion for reviving and trading entwined family stories."

[Amy Kitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I read one of McCorkle's books I am blown away from her gorgeous prose. Through flashbacks and details down to the smallest grain of sand, she brings her characters to life in Tending to Virginia, and not just simply breathing life into these fictional people, but making the reader believe they are out there somewhere truly living. And then those characters--and not just in this book, but her others as well--continue to live in the mind of the reader long after the book is placed back on the shelf.

[Regina Buttner · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorite books. It's a realistic depiction of the awkwardness of a young marriage, the anxiety of impending motherhood, the teeth-gritting frustration of dealing with an old granny and a wacky senile auntie, and the childhood rivalries that inevitably follow us into adulthood. It's a poignant story about family ties that's also very, very funny. Love this book.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a frightening way this is like reading about my family, I loved this book, I feel like I know these people. A great piece of southern fiction.

[Britt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found Virginia insipid. The book on the whole was boring and cliche. Couldn't bring myself to finish.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one a long time ago and loved it. I can't count it for this year's reading, but others might enjoy it too.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another re-read. The story is complicated and messy, and the writing style is reminiscent of Faulkner (i.e. confusing), but I love me some southern women and this book has some good ones.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Jill's best books-I laughed, cried- this was MY family. Took a writer's workshop under Jill in Boston several years ago-taught me so much. Became friends. She is so talented!

[Marlene Debo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm on page 3 & I'm hooked. Love me some Southern fiction! Do people who aren't from the South enjoy this genre? I think I read this in the 1980s, but I can't wait till lunch so I can read some more!

[Mimi V]

zero stars. didn't finish it.

i'm going to see this author at a book signing soon, and i'll have to keep my mouth shut and just listen, i guess. too bad. i really did try

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

McCorkle writes in a way that is funny and charming, without being even the tiniest bit mawkish. I love her to bits.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it a long time ago, but I remember I loved this book. A tender & funny read.

[Ig-88 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Micha]

A tale of generational trauma and the relationships that women have or don’t have. Remarkably real. I feel like everyone knows these people which is what I enjoy most about McCorkle’s books.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

She's one of my fave authors and I love this story. I'd call it Southern Chick-Lit.