Critical Praise

"Every story is a gem. "

——Joan Mellen, Baltimore Sun

"A satisfying collection....Gilchrist brings to each story an engaging sense of compassion and a saving sense of humor. "

——Merle Rubin, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"It's the women who shine here, as they cope with dying patriarchs, aging playboys, children and drugs, racial violence, afternoon affairs, and holiday flings....Gilchrist's characters are blessed with very human faults and an irrepressible exuberance for life. "

——Daneet Steffens, Entertainment Weekly

"With these 19 stories Gilchrist ventures further into the morally ambiguous landscape of contemporary America than she has perhaps ever ventured before....Readers will find the penetrating intellect, deep compassion, and dark sense of humor that mark Gilchrist's best work and place it among the best writing coming out of the South-or anywhere else, for that matter-today. "

——Ron Carter, Richmond Times—Dispatch

"Gilchrist is funny, forgiving, and lyric. "

——Miami Herald

"Few pleasures can match the satisfaction of a collection of short stories by Ellen Gilchrist. "

——Chicago Tribune

"Gilchrist is more the literary soul-mate of Anne Sexton than Eudora Welty, and her prose style is quick-witted and urbane and as gossipy as Vanity Fair. Quite simply there is no Southern writer quite like her. "

——Raleigh News & Observer

" Ellen Gilchrist should be declared a national cultural treasure. "

——Washington Post

"Ms. Gilchrist possesses a distinctive voice, and.... blends a sense of poignancy with an often outrageous Gothic humor. "

——New York Times Book Review