SOURCE: Seaman, Donna. Review of The Age of Miracles, by Ellen Gilchrist. Booklist 91, no. 15 (1 April 1995): 1377.

In the following favorable assessment of The Age of Miracles, Seaman finds Gilchrist to be a “marvelously energetic storyteller.”

Gilchrist's reputation was built in great part on her short story collections, including In the Land of the Dreamy Dreams (1985). Now, after a string of novels ending with Starcarbon (1994), she has returned to stories [in The Age of Miracles], a form she handles with aplomb. A marvelously energetic storyteller, Gilchrist infuses her perfectly sculpted tales with the power of personality and the dichotomy of emotions, and her women are a riot: willful, unapologetic, and outspoken. Each new story is acute and captivating, but those starring her recurrent heroine, Rhoda Katherine Manning, are priceless. Elegant, independent, and successful, Rhoda is approaching 60 with unwavering nerve, delighted with the freedom age brings. When Gilchrist isn't occupied with...