I first read this book at the suggestion of a friend, and it was the first time I ever read anything by this author. I much prefer her short stories, and some of her other characters over Amanda. Amanda can be over-the-top in some ways, and at times I felt like I just wanted to slap her!

But, I found I couldn't put the book down and I loved Gilchrist's skill in evoking a sense of place -- both New Orleans and Fayetteville, Arkansas. I've been to both places and Gilchrist manages to capture the "feel" of both towns.

The ending is sad, but interestingly, in one of her later short story collections -- I think it's "The Age of Miracles" -- Gilchrist writes a short story that is a different ending to this book. And that ending I would have liked better!

A great book. The first I have read of Gilchrist. I found it strange that I didn't really get attached to any one character and felt anger toward Amanda, the main character for many of the BAD choices she made again and again. If you don't want to know the ending before you read it, don't read the next review . . . she gives it all away!!!

A great story, albiet a bit dark.

I started reading the book about a week ago, because I'm visiting New Orleans in a week, and I like to get into the mood and feel of a city or a place I'm going to visit. Once I started reading it, it just swept me away, it was a fast read, the characters were interesting and I got hooked right away into the story and what would happen to Amanda. I put it down for a week, and then I picked it up on the train home from downtown Miami, and I got wrapped up again, and its like the Buffalo River, it just takes you where its going to take you. I could relate to Amanda because I would like to be a writer, myself, and right now I'm studying Spanish, but not to become a translator like Amanda. I could relate to Amanda, and her feelings and her passions and her guilt and her freedom, wanting to be free and to find out who she is and make her own unique contribution to the world. I love that about Amanda. I like her sense of adventure and survival, going in that canoe down the Buffalo River. I was sad at the way it ended, Will dying in a car accident in a snow storm. Will had gifts too, but he couldn't seem to focus on them and was not as determined as Amanda to do his thing in music as she did hers in writing and translating. I liked the descriptions, the beauty of thought and place and honesty of emotion. I liked hearing the thoughts of the men when they were in love with Amanda and their emotional struggles. I've been in love this summer and I know a man who struggles with this heart and his passion for me. I liked all the people in the book, the masseuse, the doctor, the professor, the potter, the lawyer, all their struggles and feelings. I have two more of her collections of short stories I bought years ago, I am going to read, now, better late than never, Victory Over Japan and In the Land of Dreamy Dreams. I felt like a hooked fish, when I started to read her book, and I couldn't get off the line. My dad felt the way Amanda did about the Catholic religion. The book reminded me of a book my dad liked Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe. I hope to write a book, someday, that good, something that grabs your heart and your emotions.

I didn't enjoy the collection of short stories as much as some of her others (particularly Age of Miracles and Victory Over Japan), but any Ellen Gilchrist is fun and engaging. This book features familiar feisty characters like Rhoda, Nora Jane, and (my favorites) Traceleen and Crystal, while introducing some new ones. It also includes two companion pieces to The Annunciation (Ellen's first novel). The collection is rich with humor and description. It's an essential read for Gilchrist devotees, but if you're just starting out, go for Age of Miracles.

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.

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".

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.

Each of the short stories in VICTORY OVER JAPAN is broken into shorter segments, which makes the book easy to put down. Trouble is, you might not bother to pick it up again.

In the first story, 3rd-grader Rhoda chooses as her partner for the war defense paper drive, a classmate who has been bitten by a rabid squirrel. The second story is about a young woman who, unable to find the lover she came to California to join, robs a bookstore and finds adventure. Another story, told by a maid, is of her mistress's revenge on her brother. Unfortunately, all the stories are disjointed, dull and senseless. It's a shame -- this author has done better. Much better.

Ellen Gilchrist spoke to me directly in these stories - and I've read every word she's written ever since. The emotions and pain that her "southern belles" go through are incredibly real to me, who has never even been to Fayetteville, Arkansas or Mississippi, or even the southern Illinois of the 40's of which she writes so poignantly. Sometimes she's a little too much of a mother in some of her work, but I thought these stories were perfect.

OK. I'm an Ellen Gilchrist fan, so there's some bias here, but no, I do not think the judges wrong to give this book laurels. One story, "Rhoda, A Fable" I've seen in other anthologies.

I think there's some risk in collections of short stories. Some may hit you. They're fabulous. Then they are over. Sigh. Others may not hit you. Sigh. However in this collection there are many more fine stories than average ones.

Sorry, but I thought this book [wasn't very good],and I will never read another Ellen Gilchrist novel. If I wanted a book full of descriptions of clothes and furnishings, I'd buy a magazine. Felt nothing for the characters,who I thought were all shallow.

Ellen Gilchrist is a talented & really sensitive author. I've been reading her books for years, & my favorite characters are Anna, Rhoda & Olivia. The "Anna Papers" is a book about Anna Hand, a character that comes up again & again in Gilchrist's novels. Anna is an author, a sensitive woman living between extremes- happiness & depression, love & loneliness...I think the whole series is very good -especially "I cannot get you close enough" & "Net of Jewels". But this book is also not a disappointment.

Don't miss a single Anna book! I just hate that she was "killed off"!

Isn't it about time for Gilchrist to do a Companion? A Gilchristian Companion for the Hand Family, Miss Crystal, Nora Jane, and (last but not least) Rhoda?

How this book was published is beyond me. Nothing happens in the stories (that are about depressed boring people) and I had to force myself to finish it. A complete waste of time!

I have got all of her books but I couldn't read this one. It failed to engage me and I gave it 100 pages. I tried to read it five or six times and finally had to stick it back on the shelf. Her work, like most authors, seems to be unpredictable. A good book will be followed by a mediocre collection of stories. Go figure. I loved the cover.

Utterly disappointing. Reads as though Ms. Gilchrist has become a paycheck writer, turning out product with no interest in quality. Where has the exceptional author of "The Anna Papers" gone?

First of all, there are so many errors in this book, such as: Sarah takes 10mg of xanax when the usual dosage is between .5 and 2 mg.
Secondly, the dialogue is pitiful. Just plain horrible.
Thirdly, the characters are unreal. Sarah fails as a likeable protagonist--she is self-centered, cruel, and basically despicable. Her attitude towards Elise certaintly does not add to her charm--why does she repeatedly refer to Elise as "ugly" and blame Elise for the initial failed relationship with Jack?
I cringed my way through this book wondering how it managed to get published in the first place.

While Sarah was comtemplating her past and current life, she was called to visit her childhood and dying friend. Would there be explanation and redemption for both women's lives? Would there be growth for this woman, someone who the author repeatedly referred as a "survivor", finally acquire some understanding and acceptance for other people's weaknesses? At that point of the novel, it was full of mystery and wonderment as Sarah embarked on her journey to visit her friend.

Unfortunately, her friend immediately died after a brief meeting; Sarah picked up her love affair with the friend's husband; the only thorn to their happiness was that she had to go to Paris to write a script for a large sum of money. All of sudden, we are reading a romance novel where the hero and heroine were enjoying the wonderful scenes in and outside of Paris. I couldn't help but feel the author wanted to enjoy a trip to Paris while she worked on the book; so she conveniently developed her story in that direction.

Disappointing book. One the other hand, I picked up the book from the deep discount pile. So it's my own fault to waste money and time on this book.

I have read earlier books by Ellen Gilchrist with pleasure, and, recently bereaved myself, came across the latest novel on the remainder table with some anticipation. Although I enjoyed learning about Sarah, the "heroine", I was struck by the lack of characterisation in some of the other main characters, especially Jack, whose wife dies early in the novel. Jack shows (or is allowed to show) no grieving at all. As someone in Jack's position in real life, I found this strange and unfortunate. Timothy was even less filled out. Jimmy and Elise, in their sadness, are more human, but the scenes in Paris seem to be Ellen Gilchrist's attempt to interest Hollywood in this novel. Better than The Bridges of Madison County, will it make a worse movie? Disappointing -- Ellen can do better.

I read about half-way through this book and found that I just did not have the desire to finish it. I feel the author did not work hard enough at interpolating appropriate details to create an atmosphere. She probably put a lot of work in, but not enough for me.

Omg... no you did not find some one to publish this tripe!
Well it did have some non- vague aspects... the third chapter was wonderful and I found my self almost staying awake..