Nora Jane

August 22, 2005
Gilchrist (I, Rhoda Manning, Go Hunting With My Daddy) gathers 14 moving, lightly humorous short stories (previously published) and a novella (new) starring Nora Jane Whittington, as she robs a New Orleans old-boys bar with icy aplomb and sets off, "like a woman in a dream," to meet her faithless lover in San Francisco. Rising above a tragic upbringing, Nora Jane becomes a "self-taught anarchist and quick-change artist" set to scam her way out of the South. But when she pulls her gun on wealthy bookstore owner Freddy Harwood, her steely edge melts in his all-consuming adoration. Then Nora Jane must learn to accept the blessings that rain down upon her, starting when Freddy marries her and raises her gifted twin girls of dubious paternity as if they were his own. Gilchrist finds a font of inspiration in Nora Jane, an intriguing blend of magnolia charm and iron will, and in her circle of friends, whose fierce love and faith invites serendipity at every turn. With insightful, illuminating prose, Gilchrist nimbly slips into their lives, story after story, to meditate on the miracles that see them through dark days. The Berkeley milieu, with its giant Buddha statue that captures Nora Jane's fancy, inspires Gilchrist to spike her writing with a heady optimism, mingling science with mysticism and dabbles of magical realism. Even Freddy's illness brings out the wonders of Gilchrist's world. Frequent overlap between stories cause a few narrative bumps, but that's a minor quibble. Taken together, the stories amount to a stirring saga of a charmed life.

August 15, 2005
Gilchrist ("In the Land of Dreamy Dreams") here offers a collection of old stories plus a new novella, "Fault Lines," all centered on the colorful life of Nora Jane Harwood. Born to an alcoholic mother in New Orleans, granddaughter of an opera singer, and blessed with a wonderful, although unused, singing voice, Nora Jane begins her adventures by leaving for California. Despite her seedy and sometimes criminal background, the intrepid heroine manages to marry wealthy Freddy Harwood and settle in to the good life in San Francisco. Freddy is besotted enough to forgive the fact that, biologically, he is father to just one of Nora Jane's twin daughters, the other sired by a lover from her past who tends to pop up unexpectedly. The stories are upbeat and lively, Nora Jane herself perhaps too much a fantasy to believe in, but Gilchrist's many fans will be pleasantly amused; recommended for larger collections. -Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., VA

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2005
Good news here for Gilchrist's avid fans. Finally gathered into one book are all the short stories featuring one of her best-loved recurrent characters, Nora Jane Whittington. The Nora Jane stories have appeared sporadically over the years in various of the author's previous collections, and pulled together, they make a delightful companion to " Rhoda: A Life in Stories" (1995), a compilation about another of Gilchrist's popular recurrent characters, Rhoda Manning. From New Orleans to Berkeley, California, Nora Jane's journey from the child of an alcoholic mother to a middle-aged mother herself and the devoted wife of a truly heroic, equally devoted husband is now laid out in one place. Nora Jane is an admirable character, and Gilchrist's creation of her is a literary triumph. No fiction writer understands his or her own characters better than Gilchrist, which, of course, she always renders in her trademark limpid, humorous, and warm voice; these writerly traits are nowhere more obvious than in a new, previously unpublished novella, which has been included here, called "Fault Lines." It is a crisp-edged, deep-hearted tale about Nora Jane's husband Freddy's bout with cancer. This collection is a major contribution to Gilchrist's oeuvre.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)