The Cabal and Other Stories [Hardcover]

Ellen Gilchrist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

New and familiar characters mix, match, and clash in Gilchrist's most inventive collection of stories since "Victory Over Japan."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ellen Gilchrist, who bottomed out with the ghastly 1997 novel Sarah Conley, returns to form with a collection celebrating the South, extended families, and romantic love. Die-hard fans who've hunkered down with tattered copies of the author's early-'80s treasures such as Victory over Japan and In the Land of Dreamy Dreams can come up and breath the fresh air and easy humor of The Cabal. In the opening novella, a group of influential Jackson, Mississippi, men and women all go to the same psychiatrist. "This is the story," Gilchrist begins, "of a group of people who had a bizarre and unexpected thing happen to them. Their psychiatrist went crazy and started injecting himself with drugs." It's worse than drugs, though: Jim Jaspers has become infected with the truth, and has begun spouting the secrets of his wealthy power-broker clients. This would be bad enough, but the special prosecutor has been haunting the town, looking for dirt on Clinton. Needless to say, as Gilchrist lays bare the anxieties of the town elders, she creates a hothouse of gossip that's as dishy as E.F. Benson's Lucia novels. In the resulting paranoia and ass-covering, Gilchrist has found a new métier: the comedy of middle age. She has always had an undercurrent of waspishness; here she brandishes it and it makes a fine foil to her sweet and lazy love of love.

One of Gilchrist's finer comic creations has been Traceleen, maid to the imperious alcoholic-turned-yoga-enthusiast Miss Crystal. This incomparable duo returns here in "The Big Cleanup," which accompanies the novella along with a few tales of California exile, lost love, and chatty funerals. Gilchrist maintains her wholly unique, almost flat-footed voice, one full of wonder and utterly lacking in concern about sounding brainy. A couple of cousins are "a marvelous-looking pair of mourners, travelers, young women of the contemporary world." And, sometimes, she gets her characterizations dead-on in just a single throwaway sentence: "Lauren Gail was a true Yankee, raised in New England and educated in experimental schools." Gilchrist is once again writing as if she enjoys it, and it's an irresistible spectacle. --Claire Dederer

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran fiction writer Gilchrist (Flights of Angels) is in fine form in another group of short stories that display her distinctive voice and eccentric characters. Featuring the title novella, about a social clique that "runs the town" of Jackson, Miss., this wry and breezy collection touches on all things Southern, from makeovers for aging belles to plantation hijinks, and reverence for ancestors and the Delta itself. When Caroline Jones, a down-on-her-luck poet, accepts a post in the English department of Millsaps College, she also is unwittingly stepping into a social morass. On her first day in town, her old friend Augustus Hailey, the most glamorous gay man in the South, drags her to the funeral of local benefactor Jean Andry Lyles. Then Jim Jaspers, psychiatrist to most of Jackson's elite, suddenly goes mad and reveals publicly the secrets and deceptions of his patients. Some characters in this novella reappear in the five short stories that follow. "The Sanguine Blood of Men" tells of Jones's earlier adventures in San Francisco, where she tries to sell a script to a lecherous old movie mogul. In "Hearts of Dixie," Jean Lyles's typist discovers that her recently deceased employer has left 36 tempting gold Krugerrands in an office safety deposit box. There's a humorous tale about Darwinian theory and people who don't know they're funny, and a happy one about an extended family's get-together. And because no Gilchrist collection would be complete without appearances from Miss Crystal and Traceleen, the author offers a bittersweet reprise of their affectionate relationship. Throughout, there's enjoyment of casual sex, and casual talk about it--and if the talk does often threaten to bury the substance in Gilchrist's fictions, there's giddy pleasure in her characters' endearing antics. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316314919
• ISBN-13: 978-0316314916
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,559,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern Southern Gothic at its Best, June 21, 2000

By 

Mary G. Longorio "Texasbookgirl" (Eagle Mountain, UT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cabal and Other Stories (Hardcover)

What do you do when the town psychiatrist, the one man you and many other of the town's elite, have trusted with you deepest darkest secrets ...suddenly shows signs of going off the deep end? You gather at the funeral of the town's great lady and conspire. You watch as the family of the deceased wait to divide the spoils and you pray that Dr. Jim Jaspers doesn't open his mouth about you. This novella and collection of short stories center on a tight knit community that revolves around the local theatre and university. Almost all may have something to hide. The death of a leading townsperson and the turmoil that ensues is perfect backdrop for the unwinding of Dr. Jasperson's mind. There is enough deceit and truth finding to go around. This is southern storytelling at its best

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Gilchrist, April 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cabal and Other Stories (Hardcover)

As a long-time devoted Ellen Gilchrist fan, I rushed out to purchase The Cabal as soon as it hit the shelves, and was not disappointed. The title novella introduces a new set of characters based in Jackson, Mississippi, all coping with the typical Gilchristian themes of love, sex, death, and, most importantly, life here on earth. The short stories that follow are equally entertaining, particularly the latest installment from Miss Crystal's maid Traceleen. This title is a must-have, both for those familiar to Gilchrist's work and for newcomers to her fiction.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The South Rises, Again, April 27, 2000

By 

Cortney Wagner (Windermere, Fl) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cabal and Other Stories (Hardcover)

I had goose-bumps just reaching out to pluck the latest Gilchrist collection from the shelves! I relished each page, drinking in these new additions to the Southern family. THE CABAL was Ellen at her finest and the stories that followed pure delight. Even if this is your first Gilchrist experience you feel like a part of the family. You know these people. What a treat to find the latest installment in Crystal and Traceleen's lives at the very end. I could not have been more delighted with this latest colection and have sent it to every friend I know!