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Title: Acts of God
Author: Ellen Gilchrist
Narrator: Caroline Shaffer
Format: Unabridged
Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
Language: English
Release date: 04-08-14
Publisher: Audible Studios
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 10 votes
Genres: Fiction, Literary
Publisher's Summary:
The human race. You have to love it and wish it well and not preach or think you have any reason to think you are better than anyone else. Amen. Good-bye. Peace...
Master short story writer Ellen Gilchrist, winner of the National Book Award, returns with her first story collection in over eight years. In Acts of God, she has crafted 10 different scenarios in which people dealing with forces beyond their control somehow manage to survive, persevere, and triumph, even if it is only a triumph of the will. For Marie James, a teenager from Fayetteville, Arkansas, the future changes when she joins a group of friends in their effort to find survivors among the debris left when a tornado destroys a neighboring town.
For Philipa, a woman blessed with beauty and love and a life without care, the decision she makes to take control of her fate is perhaps the easiest she has ever made. As she writes to Charles, her husband and lifetime partner, "Nothing is of value except to have lived well and to die without pain."
For Eli Naylor, left orphaned by a flood, there comes an understanding that sometimes out of tragedy can come the greatest good, as he finds a life and a future in a most unexpected place.
In one way or another, all of these people are fighters and believers, survivors who find the strength to go on when faced with the truth of their mortality, and they are given vivid life in these stories, told with Ellen Gilchrists clear-eyed optimism and salty sense of humor.
As a critic in the Washington Post wrote in reviewing one of the authors earlier works, "To say that Ellen Gilchrist can write is to say that Placido Domingo can sing. All you have to do is listen."
Members Reviews:
She is one of my favorite writers. I buy everything she writes
She is one of my favorite writers. I buy everything she writes. If you are a short story lover, give this a try. I was a reading teacher for 30 years and I never had a student who didn't enjoy this writer.
Acts of God
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.
light read for those who enjoy snippets of life from the American South
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.
My Favorite Author is an Arkansas Girl Like Me
Ellen Gilchrist is my favorite author. I have purchased all of her books. I was first introduced to her books in 1990 by the owner of That Book Store in Blytheville (Blytheville, Arkansas).
