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Rating: 
Summary: Bad Prose, No Plot
Review: Another example that the judges for the National Book Award are illiterate homemakers. This is one of the most boring books I've ever read. Boring introspection of demented southern belles and feminist wanna-be's. There is no innovative prose in this book, and almost no plot. The stories are mostly about one person, Rhoda, but the tone of the protagonist changes constantly. It seems like a desperate attempt on Gilchrist's part to put together a full length book. A failure for America.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing stories
Review: Each of the short stories in VICTORY OVER JAPAN is broken into shorter segments, which makes the book easy to put down. Trouble is, you might not bother to pick it up again.In the first story, 3rd-grader Rhoda chooses as her partner for the war defense paper drive, a classmate who has been bitten by a rabid squirrel. The second story is about a young woman who, unable to find the lover she came to California to join, robs a bookstore and finds adventure. Another story, told by a maid, is of her mistress's revenge on her brother. Unfortunately, all the stories are disjointed, dull and senseless. It's a shame -- this author has done better. Much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Beauty and Pain
Review: Ellen Gilchrist spoke to me directly in these stories - and I've read every word she's written ever since. The emotions and pain that her "southern belles" go through are incredibly real to me, who has never even been to Fayetteville, Arkansas or Mississippi, or even the southern Illinois of the 40's of which she writes so poignantly. Sometimes she's a little too much of a mother in some of her work, but I thought these stories were perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty and Pain
Review: Ellen Gilchrist spoke to me directly in these stories - and I've read every word she's written ever since. The emotions and pain that her "southern belles" go through are incredibly real to me, who has never even been to Fayetteville, Arkansas or Mississippi, or even the southern Illinois of the 40's of which she writes so poignantly. Sometimes she's a little too much of a mother in some of her work, but I thought these stories were perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful stories!
Review: OK. I'm an Ellen Gilchrist fan, so there's some bias here, but no, I do not think the judges wrong to give this book laurels. One story, "Rhoda, A Fable" I've seen in other anthologies. I think there's some risk in collections of short stories. Some may hit you. They're fabulous. Then they are over. Sigh. Others may not hit you. Sigh. However in this collection there are many more fine stories than average ones.
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