Reviews for The social economics of poverty

The average rating for The social economics of poverty based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-10-26 00:00:00 Sandra Fenton-Goss Charms is a family saga. The narrator, Margaret Birch, tells of her mother, Sophia, her grandmother, Charlie Kate, her no-good father, her failed grandfather and a broad cast of characters that inhabit the southern towns of her upbringing. It oozes warmth. I was reminded of The Secret Life of Bees. They are of a cloth. The women of this tale, like the men in Lake Wobegon are all strong. The matriarch, Charlie Kate, becomes a local legend with her broad knowledge of healing and her tenacity at getting the right things done. She is an icon of courage. Sophia is not quite the legend that Charlie Kate is, but she does well enough, surviving a bad, impulsive marriage to make a life and raise her daughter, the narrator, Margaret. Kaye Gibbons -from WN.com The language of this novel is lush. Gibbons breathes life into her characters, and is able to structure a plot. However, I found the male characters thin, which I suppose is understandable in a novel that has such a focus on women. Charlie Kate's husband is a willow next to her oak. Sophia's husband is a cad, quickly disposed of. Her boyfriend, Mister Baines, never felt to me to be more than a shadow, and on the other end of the spectrum, the man of Margaret's dreams, Tom, is such a dream, rich, brave, handsome, cool, as to make one wonder if there might be a large S on his underclothing. But that's quibbling. This is a great novel. An interesting piece on Gibbons - Novelist Gibbons Continues Uphill Battle by Martha Waggoner

Review # 2 was written on 2013-07-07 00:00:00 Lynne Villalba It's amazingly easy to read and grabs you right away. In fact, it feels so effortless (but it's the kind of writing that you know was slaved over, honed and perfected), that I questioned how I could have gotten quite so much from it. Two lovely ideas from this book: The grandmother, when she's young, gets this lucky charm, that's supposed to bring her an easy life. Her husband leaves her, tries to con her, she works as a doctor in the early 1900's when infection and poverty are rampant--but she is blessed with a wonderful daughter and granddaughter---they're all three smart, good-looking, admirable, love each other deeply and admired. The grandmother gives the charm to her granddaughter (fully believing in its worth as a lucky charm) as a gift to her granddaughter's future husband and tells her to tell him "It's a charm for an easy life. Just depends what your definition of easy is." I love that. The relativity of life and the difference perspective makes about how you feel about your life. There's another line I really like too where the grandaughter says of her grandmother "I admired her energetic mind and her muscular soul." Isn't that a great thing to have--a muscular soul? One that's strong, flexible, resilient?