Tending to Virginia (1987) by Jill McCorkle

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Tending to Virginia (1987)

by Jill McCorkle

Lumberton, North Carolina

North Carolina: 12/20

  Tidewater Tales and Oldest Living Confederate War Widow Tells All really cramped my style in November/December 2024.  I spent almost a month and a half just reading those two physical books.  It created backlog on my physical reading list that I'm only clearing out now.  Tending to Virginia is one of those titles, a book that only exists as a hardback check out from the library.  I'd never heard of McCorkle before the 1,001 Novels project but it looks like she has a decent sized regional footprint with some national recognition- 74 returns in the New York Times search index and some minor prizes spread out over 20 years.   Her last book was in 2013, which makes me think she is semi-retired.  Tending to Virginia was her third book and it made the New York Times Notable Book list in 1987.  The original review pointed to her "skillful use of voice" and that was something I noticed. She also uses many types of modernist tricks to keep the reader off-balance, specifically, she doesn't sign-post her shifts in time as the three generations of women bedsit one of their number (Virginia) who is in the last stages of a difficult pregnancy.

   There are, as one might expect, deeply held family secrets which are exposed during Tending to Virginia.  Tending to Virginia is also an example of American literary fiction where the characters exists solely within the confines of a domestic setting and have no educational or professional experiences to speak of between the group of them.   The result of this situation is that "family" is the only subject of conversation that can sustain them in a literary fashion, so that is all they talk about. Ever.  In books like Tending to Virginia I yearn for scenes where the characters just go outside and describe the world around them, but that rarely happens in this book or any that shares its characteristics.  Family is everything to these women, and to abandon family is almost unthinkable.  Sounds boring to me.