Acts of God

These simple, elegant stories at first seemed prosaic to me. The quiet days of just ordinary people somehow struck me as mined for a trick of perception. The elderly couple who still loves each other deeply seem almost fairy tale in their glee. But the story stuck. What happened that the force of their own love overcomes obvious reasons for them to fail. Must be a poorly perceived freshman story. Yet the imagery stuck. By the end of this slim volume, the respect for acts of God has been shown to be the basis of great resonance and resilience. In the end, the reader guides quietly to those final acts we cannot know as life goes to another world. There is a quiet charm that took me very closely by surprise. Gilchrist's prior work enticed me, but these stories delivered the promise.

This book of short stories is top notch. Ellen Gilchrist is a master of the short story. Since she began writing stories (and a few novels) as young, sassy, irreverent (Southern) woman - she is now 70-something, she has presented a cast of characters that are beloved to her readers. This new collection carries on in that tradition. Every one of these stories has a twist: something almost supernatural happens to each of the protagonists, and they all receive wisdom or insight. Very much recommended. I have been waiting for a new book of stories from her for several years, and this one truly delivers.

I have bought every book Ellen Gilchrist has ever written. I discovered her on NPR when I was driving to the school where I taught. I heard this joyous voice saying that she had seen her cousin and yelled that she had written a story. I immediately the next day went to the book store and asked for her book. They had to order it for it was not yet in the Stores. The book was Victory over Japan.I fell in love with all her characters and they seemed like people I knew. But, in this book, I missed all those people as only Rhoda appeared. The first two stories lacked her lyrical writing. But, I was thrilled to see that she is writing again and return to her wonderful southern characters as I always want to know what is going on with them.

This could be an enjoyable, light read for those who enjoy snippets of life from the American South. Unfortunately, I found the writing and the characters to be shallow. Some of the stories are interesting and have unexpected twists, but for the most part they weren't meaty enough to hold my attention.

I've loved the many seasons of life Gilchrist has treated us to see through her lens. This collection is vying to become my favorite! A person of any age will be schooled by her several stories that feature more senior characters. I have continued to think of these swiftly related characters months now after concluding the reading.

I love all of Ellen Gilchrist's work. She is a natural story teller and her characters are both over the top and very believable. The women are all smart, wealthy and beautiful-- original thinkers who have their men eating out of their hands. Hilarious and so cleverly written-- her books always tickle me, and this is no exception.

This selection of short stories did not appeal to me. Just an opinion. I have read other things by Ellen Gilchrist and in the short story format I felt the stories were not developed enough for my taste. As an author I like her but not in the short story. Her writing seemed rough and simplistic and only got smooth and more readable toward the end of the stories.I didn't relate to most of the story lines.Again just an opinion and I bought the Kindle version as I typically read short stories for summer light reading. The story on the house bound seniors was poignant but I could not relate even though they were characters which could have been developed to be folks most of us could have really felt some empathy with.

Ellen Gilchrist is one of my favorite authors. Her prose is spare but complete, and her characters feel like people I know. In this book she refers to some characters, now older and in other stages of life, from previous works, adding depth and recognition to those of us who have read her books over the years. Humor and love of life combine with heartbreak and even terror in these stories.