Clearly I have to have a book to accompany a William Faulkner book. I need something to let me escape the Faulkner incomprehensibility. So I found this Ellen Gilchrist on my shelf. I cannot remember it right off but see that it is a used book of short stories by a Southern woman. All categories that I can easily imagine myself acquiring at some past point. I get on short story jags regularly. So this just might be a perfect choice to balance Faulkner.I looked up The Age of Miracles on GR to check a few reviews and see if I could jog my memory more exactly about why I once selected this 1995 book. The first review I scan begins like this: The short stories had a string connecting them: the locations of Arkansas, New Orleans; women characters with a strong interest in sex; drinking and drugs; and artists of various types. Right away I wondered if the author was clearly a writer who likes to drink, likes men, likes to go party in New Orleans. I read the first story about a divorced writer in her 50s who hasn’t had sex in fourteen months because of the AIDS scare. It is 1986. She had written an article for Southern Living about “how we used to sit on porches at night and tell stories.” She is invited by the head of obstetrics of Emory University Hospital to speak at a fancy cultural enrichment dinner for hospital staff. He has fallen in love with her because of the article and she figures, ‘Why not?’ and that sex with a doctor would be safe. Spoiler: It doesn’t go well. But there is some humor.So I think: this slumming is an interesting diversion from Faulkner. I wonder how it will work out? I’ll tell you that it worked out just fine as random selections go! Faulkner can drive one to extremes. I expected to alternate reading this book with Faulkner but got wrapped up enough in the Gilchrist characters that I found them preferable to Faulkner’s!I have once again found a book that is apparently “for” women to read. I mean, just look at who has read this book: almost all women. I read that the author has skill “depicting female characters who embody refreshing, usually positive strategies for coping with oppression.” Although Gilchrist is a new author for me, she won a National Book Award for Fiction in 1984 when she was 49 years old. She was evidently something of a late bloomer, getting her college degree when she was in her 30s. My curiosity about her biography was mostly unrewarded as an internet search yielded only limited information. Gilchrist was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and spent part of her childhood on a plantation owned by her maternal grandparents. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and studied creative writing under renowned writer Eudora Welty at Millsaps College. Later in life, Gilchrist enrolled in the creative writing program at the University of Arkansas, but she never completed her MFA. Gilchrist has been married and divorced four times (two marriages and divorces were with the same man) and has three children, fourteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Ocean Springs, Mississippi. She is currently a professor of creative writing and contemporary fiction at the University of Arkansas. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Gi... I found a certain comfortable depth to the stories that featured repeating characters, some of whom appear throughout Gilchrist’s collection of novels and short stories. She leans to the professional, country club set who are generally comfortably well off and spoiled, not my favorite class. She does have a soft spot for New Orleans and drifts there regularly as an escape from Fayetteville, Arkansas.I found this 1995 Ellen Gilchrist three star offering stirred my interest in exploring her earlier work which I understand may be better than her later work. Her award winning book of short stories Victory Over Japan from 1984 is a prime candidate.
"Meh" is the best word to describe what I think of this book. I am astonished by the amount of 4 & 5 star reviews on this. I don't always tend to agree with the majority on most books, but at least I find the reviews and opinions understandable and valid. Even if I don't agree with other people, I can usually at least understand why they like or dislike something when I read their opinions. I have no idea how anyone could rate this boring, drag-on book 5 stars, and have actually enjoyed it. I only finished it because I hate starting a book and not finishing it, and it wasn't completely awful. At times it was decent. Yet, at no-time did I marvel at the writing, or get really drawn in to any of the scenes. I just made it through. About 2/3rds of the way through the book I was just trying to get through with it by thinking about how much more I will enjoy the next book I read simply because it has to be better than this.It was more of a disjointed novel than a book of short stories. Everytime I read Rhoda Manning's name again, I groaned inside. I didn't find her a particularly fascinating character to begin with, so as she popped up in almost every single story as the main character, it became too much of a not-that-great-to-begin-with thing.
What do You think about The Age Of Miracles (2005)?
I just love the way that Ellen Gilchrist writes. It is so smooth and creamy; it's like drinking a mug of hot chocolate. I have read several of her books in the past. The topics are not always fun and light but the writing is just superb. This is a book of short stories, which I normally don't read. The reason is that if I'm enjoying a story, I want it to continue; I'm not ready for it to end. That was the case with this book. It was almost frustrating but I got over it as soon as I started the next story. I also like that Gilchrist often writes short stories about the characters in her novels.
—Keri
