The Age of Miracles: Stories [Hardcover]

Ellen Gilchrist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1995

Featuring many familiar characters, a collection of short stories focuses on hopeful, humorous themes and includes the story of three children who travel to New York and kidnap their mother to keep her from getting a face lift. 30,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.

From Library Journal

This collection of stories hops about in the life of Rhoda Manning. An alcoholic, anorexic housewife who dreams of becoming a writer, Rhoda goes to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to attend the University of Arkansas writing program. There she meets with success, finds her muse, and becomes a famous writer. Her wild personal life provides material for her stories, which interweave associated family members, neighbors, and friends to create a chaotic picture of her existence. The stories are not presented in chronological order, and each seems to focus on evoking a different response, ranging from hilarity to despair. The language seesaws from rude to elegant. Gilchrist shows great versatility and finesse in this her 11th book. Recommended for fiction collections.
Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316314420
• ISBN-13: 978-0316314428
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,443,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic, June 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Age of Miracles (Paperback)

I've read all of Ellen Gilchrist's work, and THE AGE OF MIRACLES is my favorite. The subjects of the short stories vacillate between serious and quirky, but each one is intriguing in its own way. Gilchrist lends a distinct personality to her writing that few authors have the capacity to exude. I also recommend FLIGHTS OF ANGELS.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easily her Best Short Story Collection, March 28, 2001

By 

C. M. Dempsey "avid reader" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Age of Miracles (Paperback)

I'm not normally a short story reader, but I love most of Ellen Gilchrist's short stories -- especially her characters Rhoda Manning, Miss Crystal and Miss Crystal's maid Traceleen. This particular collection of Gilchrist's work is, in my opinion, her best and the easiest to lose yourself in. All in all, it's a fine representative sampling of her work if you've never encountered it before.

Other short story collections by Gilchrist I'd recommend are "Rhoda: A Life in Stories", and "Drunk with Love".

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Old Bag of Tricks, September 25, 2001

By 

Sai Li - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Age of Miracles (Paperback)

Nobody should read this book, unless you're a lonely woman who enjoys harlequin romance and wants to make yourself feel worse. This collection of stories are about the same main character, Rhoda, a wanna-be writer with loose morals. This prose is not innovative at all, but rather a desperate attempt to make sense of something I'm not interested in. The book suffers from the flaws of both bad novels and bad short story collections. The stories are about the same person but not ordered chronologically. Skip this author and read the true masters of modern fiction like Morrison or Proulx.