On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, Kaye Gibbons
On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, Kaye Gibbons
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On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon

Author: Kaye Gibbons

Narrator: Polly Holliday

Abridged: 5 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/01/1998

Synopsis

Like America in the mid-nineteenth century, Emma Garnet Tate is a woman at war with herself. Born to privilege on a James River plantation, she grows up increasingly aware that her family's prosperity is inextricably linked to the institution of slavery.

As she tells her story in 1900, she is still prey to her childhood, to the memories of a life that was made bearable in the main by the indomitable family servant Clarice. She secedes from the control of her overbearing father to marry Quincy Lowell, a member of the distinguished Boston family. Living in Raleigh on the eve of the Civil War, Emma Garnet and Quincy, with Clarice's constant help, create the ideal happy home.

When war destroys the rhythm of their days, Emma Garnet works alongside Quincy, an accomplished surgeon. As she assists him in the treatment of wounded soldiers, she comes to see the war as a "conflict perpetrated by rich men and fought by poor boys against hungry women and babies." After Appomattox, Emma Garnet sets out to take the exhausted Quincy home to Boston, where she begins the journey of her own reconstruction.

As in her five previous novels, Kaye Gibbons demonstrates her subtle mastery of detail and her unmistakable voice. Told in graceful cadences, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoonis a shimmering meditation on the divisions of the human heart.

About Kaye Gibbons

Kaye Gibbons was born in 1960 in Nash County, North Carolina, on Bend of the River Road. She attended North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying American and English literature. At twenty-six years old, she wrote her first novel, Ellen Foster. She is also the author of A Virtuous Woman, Charms for the Easy Life, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, A Cure for Dreams, Sights Unseen, and Divining Women.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dennis on December 02, 2020

This is a story told in vignettes and memories of episodes of the protagonist's life and I really fell in love with the wistful memories of what was and what could have been, a dreamily-romantic, melancholy journey through time. Who hasn't indulged themselves in something like this? Life, even as yo......more

Goodreads review by Julie on January 24, 2009

We read this one for book club and everyone was excited because they have really liked the author in the past. I found the book to have a very strange style of writing. It was very unclear… sort of a cross between stream of consciousness and flashback. It is about a Southern plantation girl who marr......more

Goodreads review by Sherri on June 07, 2013

I picked this book up 2nd hand. I have read Kaye's books before and I thought it sounded like an interesting story. After reading some of the reviews here I was worried but I really did enjoy this book. I always enjoy reading about people who lived through difficulties but come out better for them a......more

Goodreads review by Susan on May 15, 2018

On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon has sat on my to-read pile for a while. Our library has an adult summer reading program, and one of the "rewards" we can earn is a free book. A summer or so ago, I was browsing the offerings and not finding anything that really rang my bell. Daughter #1 came acro......more

Goodreads review by Martha on August 01, 2020

This was an interesting read. The premise is a woman who is about to die is writing down what happened in her life as it comes to her. In that respect, this is a brilliant book. As you're reading it, it is very much the flow and ebb of the disordered thoughts of memory that hold a common thread and......more

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