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Size: 5.50 x 8.50
Pages: 184
Illustrations:

Fiction & Folklore
Southern Revivals
paperback
Books
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In the Land of Dreamy Dreams

Stories

Ellen Gilchrist

Paperback
978-1-61117-661-2
Published: May 10 2016

$17.99

Hardcover

Published:

Ebook

Published:

OA Ebook

Published:

$0.00

The inclusion of this book in the Open Carolina collection is made possible by the generous funding of

A new edition of the author's first published short story collection

In her 1981 collection of stories, In the Land of Dreamy Dreams, Ellen Gilchrist writes about New Orleans as no other writer. Laced with envy, greed, lust, terror, and self-deceit, her stories will shock and compel readers. Gilchrist's characters, women who dream of independent lives beyond the shadows of their husbands and fathers, resort to outrageous schemes in pursuit of freedom and fulfillment, despite the consequences. The range of emotions and realities encompassed by Gilchrist's work is suggested by the story titles: "Rich," "There's a Garden of Eden," "The Famous Poll at Jody's Bar," "In the Land of Dreamy Dreams," "Suicides," "1957, a Romance," "Generous Pieces," "Indignities," "Revenge," "Perils of the Nile," "Traveler," and "Summer, an Elegy."




Ellen Gilchrist is the award-winning author of more than twenty books, including novels, short story collections, essays, and poetry. Her latest collection of stories is Acts of God. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and teaches creative writing and contemporary fiction at the University of Arkansas.

"Gilchrist possess a distinctive voice, and blends a sense of poignancy with an often outrageously Gothic humor."—New York Times Book Review

"Witty, concise, and wonderfully varied."—Literary Review

"Women's fiction par excellence."—Harper's Magazine

"A remarkable collection of tough, funny, surprising short stories."—Washington Post

"I read all fourteen in one sitting and was only sorry to be finished. They are 'traditional' stories, full of real people to whom things really happen. . . . Reading In the Land of Dreamy Dreams reminds me that the short story at its best can be the most satisfying of genres. . . . [Gilchrist] takes us down a luminous and precarious path. . . . Gilchrist may serve as prime evidence for the optimists among us who continue to believe that few truly gifted writers remain unknown forever. And Gilchrist is the real thing alright. In fact, it's difficult to review a first book as good as this without resorting to every known superlative cliché—there are, after all, just so many ways to say 'auspicious debut.'"—Washington Post Book World

"Her stories are perceptive, her manner stylish and idiomatic—a rare and potent combination."—London Times Literary Supplement

"Her prose is quick-witted and urbane and as gossipy as Vanity Fair. Quite simply there is no Southern writer quite like her."—Raleigh News & Observer

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