Customer Reviews

Rhoda, a Life In Stories

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Rhoda Manning is easily my favorite Gilchrist character and this book contains all the Rhoda stories from all Gilchrist's other published short story collections. That makes this the book to own for Rhoda fans, in my opinion.

The author has written before how she is/is not like Rhoda, but regardless of how much Rhoda's character may be autobiographical, Rhoda sparkles and comes to life in these stories.

Recommended also is "Net of Jewels", a novel starring Rhoda, but Gilchrist does much better at short stories than novels, in my opinion.

The first few stories in this book, which chronicle the character Rhoda as she goes through adolescence, are captivating. However, Rhoda`s character dims slightly as she enters adulthood. She gets married, divorces, and has sex; all for a couple hundred pages that aren`t particularly inspired. The last two stories, however, make up for the lapse, as we see Rhoda finally matured.
Overall, I reccomend this book. It is a page turner, and the complex character of Rhoda is enchanting and memorable.

I zipped through Rhoda yesterday and
today and ended up liking Rhoda even
more than my earlier Gilchrist read,
Dreamy Dreams. Linked stories,
with the same main character, almost a novel
but not quite, is a fun idea. Even the little
discrepancies between the stories
(Just how old was Rhoda when she first got
married, anyway? She is said to be twenty
and nineteen and seventeen in various stories)
add a feeling of authenticity to the book
(Do you always remember just how old you
were when you got married? I sometimes tell
different people different ages.)
Gilchrist's writing has a Hemingway-ish feel
to it, especially when she has Rhoda begin to
write and when she has Rhoda fall in love.
I loved Rhoda when she was a fearless child,
was saddened by her in her twenties as she
seemed to let life carry her along, but
fell back in love with this character when
she hit her fifties and began to be courageous
again (I really really wanted her to meet up
with the bullfighter...oh well.) Wonderful book.

"Rhoda: A Life in Stories" is one of the most entertaining collections of stories Ellen Gilchrist has ever produced. It collects all of the stories about Rhoda Manning, one of Gilchrist's ongoing and favorite characters who has featured in many novels and stories through her writing career. Gilchrist's talent in this collection is to make the compactness and humor of her tightly-written stories seem easy. In fact, Gilchrist accomplishes some of the most difficult tasks a short story writer faces with great technical skill and authority. The earlier stories are my favorites, when Rhoda is young and growing up with her brother, Dudley, during World War II in the heartland of America. It is impossible to forget Rhoda and her many adventures in this most entertaining and wonderful book. Kudos to Ellen Gilchrist for giving us a timeless, worthwhile collection.

I first discovered Rhoda Manning in Gilchrist's book, Net of Jewels, from there I was captivated. What happened to Rhoda...what made Rhoda the complex character that she is? This book explains it all from when she was a small child to her adult years.

I was particulary impressed with her teenage years leading up to her tumultuous, first marriage. Gilchrist has vivid and colorful descriptions for all of her characters, and will not leave you disapointed.