The Courts of Love: Stories

by Ellen Gilchrist

This celebrated collection opens with "Nora Jane and Company", a series of nine stories featuring one of the most popular characters in the Gilchrist galaxy: a former teenage runaway who once robbed a bar in New Orleans dressed as a nun. Now living happily in Berkeley, married and the mother of twins, Nora Jane is back in college, pregnant again, launching a new career, and facing circumstances that imperil her domestic bliss.

The nine stories that follow explore the hazards of recapturing and reviving old affairs. Featuring both new and familiar Gilchrist characters, all of these stories shed brilliant new light on the oldest emotion.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Southern, Literature

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

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

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am going to go ahead and freely admit that probably the only reason I didn't like this book is that I am an asshole and most of the stories were about happy people.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning of this book is a novella about a hippy-dippy intellectual family. The second half is a collection of short stories. I enjoyed the short stories the most. They each had a clear, distinct voice and interesting plots.

[Sarah Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gilchrist is a great storyteller, and, based on two collections, this the second I have read, has amazing talent at intertwining narratives. Unlikely coincidence is a plot device, and never seems forced. Furthermore she succeeds in bringing off an unsolved murder (we know who the bad guys are, but nobody else does) and just abandoning it for a successive narrative, and this takes amazing skill I think. By the time we realize she has carried it off Leonardo da Vinci (THE Leonardo) has visited a character, for real, and left his cloak, which both preserves someone in a severe wilderness accident and causes two children in an orphanage run by nuns to be adopted by rich and loving parents. And helps the elder girl to endure the flight to a wedding in which she and her friend will be bridesmaids--endure it for the most part. When her friend gets her to look out the window she throws up.
It is a very engaging montage, and Gilchrist has a great deal of courage to put the grim part at the beginning.

[Lori Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never read anything by Ellen gilchrist before so was unfamiliar with the back story of Nora Jane. This short story collection is about happiness and love. Definitely different types of love. I enjoyed the stories but found myself being annoyed with the simple sentences. I guess they didn't bother me enough not to finish the book. I may, at some point, read her initial Nora Jane book.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories aren't bad, and, in fact, some are quite good. Collectively, however, they are just OK. A few characters were memorable, but mostly I just took from this book that Ellen Gilchrist is a fan of Rilke.

[Daniella · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 90s were a lifetime ago and I'm just old enough to understand them.

[Courtney Cooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was a little hard to get into at first glance. i almost decided to put it back on my shelf in fact, but it wasn't that long of a book so i pulled through. it turned out being OK. i liked how many of the stories connected the characters to one another.

not anything amazing in my mind though. i probably won't read another of her books if it's like this one.

[Kassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued but then lost interest in part II. I thought the Nora Jane stories were moving towards something greater but then they just fell flat. I wish there were more reviews of it on goodreads I'd curious to know what other people thought about it.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great series of stories, really fun to read. Some are great-5 stars and some only okay-3 stars--but they make a solid group. A good escape, nicely written. I admired how well they worked together and yet stood alone as short stories.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling writing. There were aspects of this book that troubled me. For example: every middle easterner who appear in the book was connected to terrorism...I wish she hadn't done that; it really marred an otherwise very well-written book.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read 'In the Land of Dreamy Dreams' I thought I'd found a Southern writer I really liked but BOY did I sell her short. Ellen Gilchrist is wonderful. I want to fall asleep with a stack of her stories as my pillow.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Need to read again.....

[Dianne]

currently reading...short stories that weave together.

[Jo Ann Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just found one of the most achingly beautiful short stories I've ever read: "You Must Change Your Life." I was in tears and full of hope for the human condition. Write on, Ellen.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellen Gilchrist only disappoints by not writing more, fortunately I have a few more of her waiting for me on my bookshelves.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely lucky book sale find of a writer who has never let me down. Need to read more of her because it's always good. Short stories but bonus of a lot of them tied together through characters.

[Lisa]

The Courts of Love: Stories Tag: Winner of National Book Award by Ellen Gilchrist (1996)