Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons (1994)

Kaye Gibbons Charms for the Easy Life tracks three generations of tough-minded women from the beginning of the twentieth century up to World War Two. Charlie Kate is the larger-than-life character, an Ubermensch. Charlie delivers babies, heals with herbs, reads two books a week, and directs the lives of her daughter, Sophia, and Margaret (Charlie s granddaughter). Since the impressionable Margaret is the narrator, it stands to reason hero worship takes precedence over a more reliable picture of the family s history of the first half of the twentieth century. She recites events before her...