Net of Jewels (1992) by Ellen Gilchrist

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Net of Jewels (1992)

by Ellen Gilchrist

Dunleith, Alabama

Alabama: 5/18

   Ellen Gilchrist figuratively burst upon the national literary scene from an unlikely source: the world of university publishing (her first publisher was the University of Arkansas press).  She solidified her national reputation in 1984, when she won the National Book Award (which had briefly been renamed the American Book Award) for her short-story collection, Victory Over Tokyo.  That was enough to secure the notice of the New York Times for the rest of her career, though the reviews are frequently dismissive and condescending towards her preferred subject matter:  the lost and winsome damsels of the mid 20th century landed gentry.   

  If she had written twenty years later, she would likely be known as a practitioner of "auto-fiction"- honestly, the tone of this book mostly reminded me of the warts-and-all confessional style of Karl Ove Knausgård and his "My Struggle" series.   The frequent and prolific abuse of prescription medication- the south of that period must have been the epicenter for speed/diet pills being prescribed for young women, goes unanalyzed in the book, and in the criticism, which I found refreshing.  In fact, I'd rate Gilchrist, who is badly out of fashion, a minor discovery within the context of this project.  Not sure I'd tackle another Gilchrist title, but I wouldn't rule it out.