The Age of Miracles: Stories - Hardcover

Back in top form after several books that seemed self-indulgent, Gilchrist offers 16 stories that shine with tolerance for the vagaries of human nature. Set mainly in Fayetteville, Ark., and New Orleans, the tales here have both substance and subtext, and are artfully fashioned. Most are told in an easy conversational style, as though Gilchrist and the listener were on a porch settee sipping glasses of Scotch. Marked by wit as well as a weathered view of the battle of the sexes, they feature unconventional, strong-willed, impetuous women who hurt those they love, innocent children bewildered by their elders' behavior and one or two shining examples of human beings. The narrators are often middle-aged women who indulge in acerbic apercus fueled by an undercurrent of pain. Feisty, sexy Rhoda Manning, whom we met in Victory Over Japan and later books, appears in half of the stories here, learning to be a writer, endeavoring to be a good mother, fighting the lure of the bottle or succumbing to yet another flirtation that leads to "fucking without mercy." Standouts among the stories, which intertwine, include the wise and poignant "Love of My Life" and "Joyce," and the larky "Divorce." Gilchrist is outspoken about abortion rights, rueful about the effect of AIDS, irreverent about the insurance industry (in a lightweight but funny epistolary story). "The massive tentacles of... family" continue to haunt her characters, but they cope with what life brings them, crazy survivors in an imperfect world.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gilchrist's reputation was built in great part on her short story collections, including In the Land of the Dreamy Dreams (1985). Now, after a string of novels ending with Starcarbon (1994), she has returned to stories, a form she handles with aplomb. A marvelously energetic storyteller, Gilchrist infuses her perfectly sculpted tales with the power of personality and the dichotomy of emotions, and her women are a riot: willful, unapologetic, and outspoken. Each new story is acute and captivating, but those starring her recurrent heroine, Rhoda Katherine Manning, are priceless. Elegant, independent, and successful, Rhoda is approaching 60 with unwavering nerve, delighted with the freedom age brings. When Gilchrist isn't occupied with Rhoda, she's telling tales about male New Orleans poets and the rich women who pursue them, the aftermath of a suicide, or how a woman reacts when her grown children kidnap her to save her from the horrors of a face-lift. As Gilchrist chronicles her characters' struggle to get what they need out of life in spite of setbacks and tragedies, she warms us with her flinty humor and then leaves us breathless with her insights into sadness and the knotted bonds of love. Donna Seaman