I Cannot Get You Close Enough

September 30, 1991
Readers of Gilchrist's short story collections ( Victory over Japan ; I Cannot Get You Close Enough ) have watched headstrong Rhoda Manning grow into an intelligent, independent yet spoiled and self-destructive adult. In making her the protagonist of this compelling novel, Gilchrist has broadened and deepened her portrayal to create a fascinating portrait of a young woman's difficult coming-of-age in the Deep South of the 1950s. Eschewing the prettified characteristics of a conventional heroine, Gilchrist candidly depicts Rhoda's racial and class prejudices and essential disinterest in civil rights until growing maturity deepens her understanding and involves her in a personal way. Meanwhile, we gain insight into her family's dynamics--her domineering, hot-tempered father and class-obsessed mother--and the influences that make her conform not only to the image of the Southern party girl but also to abuse alcohol and rely on habit-forming drugs. Not surprisingly, Rhoda is drawn to a man who resembles her father; her marriage to Malcolm Martin, an ``ice cold Georgia aristocrat with a fierce libido,'' is disastrous. Gracefully evoking a time and place--with the cruelty of social injustice subsumed beneath the daily routines of a rich life--Gilchrist surrounds Rhoda with other characters of appealing vitality.

May 1, 1992
YA- -Another example of Gilchrist's remarkable ability to create a complex character who stamps her unforgettable persona onto readers. Rhoda is a precocious, intellectual young woman who has just completed her freshman year at Vanderbilt. A southern daddy's girl with an Electra complex, she is constantly protected from want by her family's wealth and power, while she repeatedly rejects their efforts to protect her, cover up her mistakes, and even raise her children when she abdicates this duty. Through Gilchrist's skillful portrait of this insecure, yet enigmatic and fascinating woman, readers understand what it is to repeat destructive patterns because of a basic need to be loved. This need becomes a strangling obsession and an endless cycle of alcoholic binges that bring her to the brink of disaster. Readers will want Rhoda to shake loose her demons, while they know she will not. Although the book deals with subjects that require maturity, adolescents can learn a great deal about family relationships. A sobering and absorbing look at self-destructive behavior that comes from an unhealthy dependency on others and an inability to take responsibility for one's actions.- Barbette Timperlake, R.E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA