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Ellen Gilchrist has done more for the short story than any other writer since Flannery O'Connor. Her special blend of grit, humor, and everyday insanity has kept up with the times and brought America's changing lifestyle in direct contact with the continuing characters about whom she has written over the years. COLLECTED STORIES is a fabulous book, a must for all short-story lovers.
Gilchrist is a southern writer of the first degree. In stories like "1944" (which has such a great opening sentence: "When I was eight years old, I had a piano made of martini glasses") and "The Famous Poll at Jody's Bar," she finds the individual voices of wonderfully droll and naturalistic characters and converges them into a great and powerful roar of humanity. This collection is made up of gems from seven different books, and it is a great tribute to her power as a writer that she is able to meld together, throughout the years, various characters and story lines. There is a real consistency here that you rarely find in a story collection --- it is made even more remarkable by the fact that, even as her craft has improved, her heart-and-soul approach to storytelling has always been front and center in all her works.
I usually get sick of short stories after a while and never have the ability to finish a collection, but that was not a problem here. Gilchrist is a star of American literature, and this only serves to certify that fact for the 21st century. I can't wait to see what she does next.
--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
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