Rhoda: A Life in Stories

by Ellen Gilchrist

Over the past ten years, Gilchrist fans have enjoyed glimpses of headstrong, redheaded Rhoda in five previous collections. Here, for the first time, are the collected Rhoda stories - including two new ones - offering a full-blown portrait of a woman worth waiting for: one of contemporary literature's most enchanting characters, in all her wicked glory.

With a high libido and reckless courage to match, Rhoda is one of those irresistible people who never hold back or take convention too seriously. In these twenty-three stories, arranged chronologically, we follow Rhoda from a precocious kid with a movie-star complex to a coed who makes love to a fraternity boy, and the next week elopes with him, to a middle-aged writer looking for a fling in the age of AIDS.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Southern, Literary Fiction, Womens Fiction, American

432 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

A writer of poems, short stories, novels, and nonfiction commentaries, Ellen Gilchrist is a diverse writer whom critics have praised repeatedly for her subtle perceptions, unique characters, and sure command of the writer’s voice, as well as her innovative plotlines set in her native Mississippi.

As Sabine Durrant commented in the London Times, her writing “swings between the familiar and the shocking, the everyday and the traumatic.... She writes about ordinary happenings in out of the way places, of meetings between recognizable characters from her other fiction and strangers, above all of domestic routine disrupted by violence.” The world of her fiction is awry; the surprise ending, although characteristic of her works, can still shock the reader. “It is disorienting stuff,” noted Durrant, “but controlled always by Gilchrist’s wry tone and gentle insight.”

She earned her B.A. from Millsaps College in 1967, and later did postgraduate study at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

She has worked as an author and journalist, as a contributing editor for the Vieux Carre Courier from 1976-1979, and as a commentator on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition from 1984-1985. Her NPR commentaries have been published in her book Falling Through Space.

She won a National Book Award for her 1984 collection of short stories, Victory Over Japan.

Reviews

[Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ellen Gilchrist. Her characters are all sexy, funny, and generally unrealistic in a number of ways, but so fun to read about. I adore Rhoda; she is witty, promiscuous, and downright hilarious. Nothing too deep her, but a lot of fun to read.

[Nicole]

I dont even want to give this book a star. If half a star was a option I would select that. I was ready to meet a exciting redhead southern firecracker bad girl with personality and sass and someone you want to be. Disappointing is not the correct word. First I didnt like that this is pieces of the "Rhoda" character from youth to old age so the story doesnt flow. Then the actual character is someone I simply do not care for, at all. I remember repeatly saying I dont like this woman, I still dont like this person, I would not want to be around this one. The character was self centered, immature, and Ill stop right there. It took me twice as long to finish this book because I was not engaged. Toward the end there was some small parts that were borderline OK but Im surprised I didnt give up in the beginning like I wanted to. She wasnt even so bad that she fell into the "love to hate" category. If you ask me, dont waste your time with this one. Good thing I got it from a free swap of I would get a refund.

[Nf · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book, short stories, my favorite. I was about to donate until I came to "The Uninsured" at the end of the book. These letters were way before Obamacare and health care reformation(1993). I'm not keeping the entire book, but I am taking these pages out for some noble purpose, not sure what yet. She kind of said FU to the insurance companies until Medicare kicks in. Kind of brave until you realize, she has some money and is very healthy. Of course, her pre-existing condition of psychotherapy does give her insurance companies cause to ponder. That is one thing we no longer have to fear, at leats until 2018.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellen Gilchrist has skillfully interwoven stories that chronicle the life of Rhoda Manning from early adolescence to late middle age. Rhoda is the very definition of a narcissistic personality thrroughout her self-absorbed life, leaving in her wake bewilderment and harm to her husbands and children in her quest for immediate gratification. This book is very well written with a main character who is memorable for her lack of any redeeming qualities.

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this anthology, readers are for the first time able to read all of the Rhoda stories by Ellen Gilchrist. Before this, the stories have been released at various times and in various media but are finally all collected in one volume. Rhoda is one of this author's favorite characters. We see Rhoda starting out as an indulged child, a tomboy who is the only daughter in a family of boys and the apple of her millionaire father's eye. She feels she is ugly with her red hair, freckles and chunky body.

Later, we see Rhoda as a teenager. She has slimmed down and discovered boys. She is desperate to try sex and has it with the first boy she can. At college, she goes to another college for a football weekend, meets and sleeps with a man, and soon impulsively marries him. The babies start arriving, one quickly after the other until Rhoda has three boys and is tired of her husband.

We follow Rhoda over the years. In her twenties and thirties, she has several husbands and lovers. She is never an attentive mother, feeling that the children keep her from what she needs to do with her life, although she isn't sure what that is. The love of her life is a former sports star, a man whose records remain long after he leaves the field. They have an affair that lasts years, but he is married and has no plans to leave his wife and children.

Rhoda decides to become a writer and goes to a small college where she writes short stories and starts to get published. She becomes a novelist and has success but as she ages, she longs for the days when she turned men's' heads. As she ages, she starts to value her family again and to spend more time with them. Rhoda is a character readers will remember for a long time. This anthology is recommended for readers who like short stories.

[Lukie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 18 years of working in a public library I only read one novel by Ellen Gilchrist, but I'd always pause when I walked down the aisle with her books, knowing that I'd have to satisfy the itch and read more someday. The cover of Rhoda, A Life in Stories was particularly seductive and now that I have finally read it I will not be able to wait nearly so long to read another one. Everything the critics have written about this title is true and perfect and I have little to add. If you read nothing else, read the first story, Revenge. And the ending of The Tree Fort is tremendous. A Wedding in Jackson is another favorite. In her introduction, Gilchrist writes:
. . . I have written many stories about Rhoda. Some of them are blatantly autobiographical and
some are made up. Many are true to the real essence of the Rhoda I created on that fall morning.
Others miss the mark. If I was in a bad mood or out of sorts with myself, I would savage Rhoda.
This is helpful information if you're looking for a consistency of character. In some stories, Rhoda is a bit much--careless, narcissistic--but she's always powerfully, intriguingly her zestful self, and her author's writing is always brilliant as well.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rhoda is the type of character that you know, want to know, want to be, hope not to be. She’s who your mom and grandma told stories about from high school and who they maybe could have been if not for you. How does she do that? I thought the stories with Rhoda as narrator worked so much better than third person narrator, bc maybe Rhoda is Gilchrist, is the woman she is and wants to be and hates and knows so well. The last four stories really didn’t do it for me until I got to the last page. I felt that she had lost her mojo and as Rhoda got older Gilchrist hadn’t been able to stick with her character — low and behold Rhoda defined herself at age 64 as she did at 8. Fabulous read, fabulous character, fabulous person.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like linked short stories and this did not disappoint. Rhoda is a unique character, feisty, difficult, funny story and fearless. Covering from the age of 8 to her 60’s. Rhoda makes no apologies for her life which is filled with sex, selfishness and ultimately poetry.

[Elizabeth Sulzby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I re-read Rhoda after many years. I chose it for my book club because they wanted lighter reading than the heavy ones we usually read. We all liked the young Rhoda much more than the adult Rhoda. I like the adult Rhoda DIFFERENTLY. Reading this book led me to read the collection of Anna stories.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish Rhoda would reappear in the 2000s; I’d love to catch up with her.

[Sarah Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be this woman.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories. Each of them makes you think.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I think I would like it better if i had read these stories mixed with others. It was too much Rhoda all in one place.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I zipped through Rhoda yesterday and
today and ended up liking Rhoda even
more than Dreamy Dreams. Linked stories,
with the same main character, almost a novel
but not quite, is a fun idea. Even the little
discrepancies between the stories
(Just how old was Rhoda when she first got
married, anyway? She is said to be twenty
and nineteen and seventeen in various stories)
add a feeling of authenticity to the book
(Do you always remember just how old you
were when you got married? I sometimes tell
different people different ages.)
Gilchrist's writing has a Hemingwayish feel
to it, especially when she has Rhoda begin to
write and when she has Rhoda fall in love.
I loved Rhoda when she was a fearless child,
was saddened by her in her twenties as she
seemed to let life carry her along, but
fell back in love with this character when
she hit her fifties and began to be courageous
again (I really really wanted her to meet up
with the bullfighter...oh well.) Wonderful book.

[Kristy · Rating 1 out of 5]

How in God's name do so many people find Rhoda to be such a wonderful character?! How have so many people rated this book so high? I hated Rhoda. I kept trying to like her, but with each story I just hated her more and more. I wanted to slap her...or for SOMEONE to slap her. I didn't like the writing style either. It was choppy and not just because of the format of the book. This was given to me by a friend who loved it and I had high expectations, but it sure was a hard one to get to the end of.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a letdown for me. The first story was one of the best things I have read ever. Rhoda is a totally hilarious, spunky, and unapologetic 8 year old with a serious ax to grind. I had such high hopes. But this collection of short stories goes quickly downhill from there. As an adult Rhoda is whiny, irritating, and crass, with believable but thoroughly unentertaining arrested development issues. With all of the ridiculous talk about her sex life (and accompanying crass vocabulary) I would expect this book to have been written by a man. I just have a few stories left but I'm struggling to finish it. My one hope is that she dies some kind of hilarious and wittily narrated death, which would be the only way Rhoda could redeem herself to me.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read almost all of Ellen Gilchrist's books and this one is my favorite. Starcarbon was the most powerful, but her Rhoda character is by far the best and this is a whole book of Rhoda. I met Ms. Gilchrist a few times in Fayetteville and she is so charming. I also love Drunk with Love and In the Land of Dreamy Dreams.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of short stories about Rhoda-- a narcissistic, wild, complicated, feisty woman whom you can't help but like most of the time. Though by the last 100 pages or so I was ready to see how it would all end. I also found it a little disconcerting in the short story format--the flow of it all I guess you might say.

[Christopher Dionesotes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a marvelous character study done short stories. Rhoda was truly a cantankerous, almost hateful little girl. She grew into adolescence as someone who needed to be the center of things. Everything was all about her. In her adulthood, Rhoda became a tamed, yet accomplished, woman who managed to tie together all the past-life episodes into one person. Rhoda is a very fun read.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Rhoda Manning! Her life is full of surprises and excitement. Her sense of humor hits me on many levels. This book of short stories about Rhoda's life is one I will keep on my bookshelf to pull out whenever I want to experience the inexplicable life of Rhoda. Thank you to Ellen Gilchrist for telling Rhoda's life.

[Aime Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book much more in the 2nd half than I did the first. While Rhoda is pretty crazy, I like the message that she finally gets to...which is to be happy with yourself.

3 stars because I wasn't in love with the format. While the stories were chronological, there were too many gaps and I'm left with all kinds of questions about the people in Rhoda's life.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ellen Gilchrist is the author that brought me back to reading for pleasure after college. Reading her short stories makes you feel smarter, funnier, and sexier, and Rhoda is her most alluring character.

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of my favorite of ALL TIME!!!!! She is the woman that I identify with in my mind. I do not have the ability to be her but at times, even through all the crap, i wish to be her. To live as she lived. God I love this book!!!!

[Jaimy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't say enough good things about Ellen Gilchrist. Her books are like candy to me....I have read all of them, most of them at least twice. Her characters are vain and self-absorbed, and I can't get enough of them!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of her books. She interweaves the characters in all her stories, at different ages, so you really get the long view. plus I read that she didn't start to write until age 40! If that's true, she's my hero.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed Net of Jewels when I was in my early 20's and came across a cheap copy of this recently and had to reacquaint myself with the selfish, impetuous, but completely adorable Rhoda. A woman who truly lives not matter the cost to herself or anyone else.

[Valissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Rhoda didn't actually read books. She inhabited them. She moved into the page and across the barriers of space and time."

"He was counting the months he might live. He thought it would be twenty-four but it turned out to be a lifetime after all."

[Cheryl DeFranceschi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellen Gilchrist is a joy to read. There were moments that I was so attuned to Rhoda's wavelength that I was utterly transported from my here and now. Such keenly felt character studies are rare, and this one was a true pleasure.

[Catie · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4.5 Stars**
Real Readers Book Club - January 2024

[carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My whole family loves Rhoda (and Ellen Gilchrist)! That's why we're all going to the Book-It Repertory Theater to see a play based on her character. She's sassy.