The Fiction of Ellen Gilchrist

Brad Hooper is the Adult Books Editor at Booklist. Before coming to Booklist, he was a reference librarian at Cleveland Public Library. He is the author of The Short-Story Readers' Advisory (2000), The Fiction of Ellen Gilchrist (Praeger, 2005), and Read On.Historical Fiction (2006).

Winner of the National Book Award for her short story collection Victory Over Japan, Ellen Gilchrist has entertained audiences with her vivid fictional portraits of strong women, eccentric lives, and the difficulties of love and life. Known both for her short fiction and her novels, Gilchrist has been awarded several honors throughout her career, and her work continues to receive both critical and popular acclaim. This book examines her fiction, book by book, and offers an appreciation of her craft through a careful analysis of the stories themselves, their critical reception, and their lasting effect on the reader. Hooper offers the first complete evaluation of Gilchrist's entire fiction oeuvre.Author of such works as In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, The Annunciation , Go Hunting with My Daddy, and several other novels and collections of short stories, Ellen Gilchrist has transcended the bounds of Southern writing, appealing to audiences in all corners of the nation. Here, Hooper celebrates her fiction, focusing on the strong, feisty female characters that populate her works, exerting their will and independence regardless of traditional restraints on their activities. In addition, he pays special attention to her strengths and weaknesses as both a short fiction writer and a novelist, arguing that while her novels may entertain, her lasting contribution to American letters can more easily be found in her short fiction.

Offers an appreciation of Ellen Gilchrist's fiction through an examination of common themes, techniques, and ideas.

Introducing Ellen GilchristGilchrist's Short Story Debut (In the Land of Dreamy Dreams)Gilchrists First Novel (The Anunciation)Short Story Smashes (Victor Over Japan, Drunk with Love)Slight of Hand (The Anna Papers, I Cannot Get You Close Enough)More Visits with Recurrent Characters (Light Can Be Both Wave and Particle)Two Hits and a Miss (Net of Jewels, Starcarbon, Anabasis)Hitting Her Stride in Stories in Novels (Age of Miracles, Rhoda, Courts of Love, Sarah Conley)Even More Story Collections (Flights of Angels, The Cabal and other stories)A Testament to Her Contribution and Further Evidence of Her Talent (Collected Stories; I, Rhoda Manning, Go Hunting with My Daddy)Conclusion