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Summary: Ellen Gilchrist's Stories are Spun from the Heart
Review: Rhoda Manning is five years old when readers meet this recurring character in this collection of short stories by award-winning author Ellen Gilchrist. Rhoda Manning owns the stories and reveals them as a five year old child in the title story. She also reveals herself as a mature adult and divorced mother of three and as an elderly woman clinging to all that is good from the past. Parents of teens will have no problem identifying with Rhoda's tale of woe as she parents three teenage boys who are wreckless and wild, spending their days crafting ways to defy their mother and their authoritarian grandfather. It is a tale of pot and lies and the overwhelming job of parenting in the 70's. The brash and bold Rhoda is almost equaled by another Gilchrist regular, Nora Jane Harwood. In this tale written prior to September 11, the protagonist finds herself in the locker room of an athletic club in Berkley, Ca when an earthquake jolts Nora and her two year old, Little Freddy. ... ...This is a story that ends too soon with characters so real you want them to live on. Another story, "The Abortion", Gilchrist's characters reveal their courage and character ... Gilchrist's stories and characters are above all else real. Their trials and tribulations are woven loosely in some cases, but always with an echo of familiarity.
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