SOURCE: Williams, Hart. Review of The Courts of Love, by Ellen Gilchrist. Book World—The Washington Post 27 (16 February 1997): 4.

In the following positive assessment of The Courts of Love, Williams deems Gilchrist “a national cultural treasure.”

The Courts of Love lies somewhere between a novel and a story collection. Two-thirds of the narrative consists of a cycle of interlinked tales focusing on recurring characters: Nora Jane and Freddy Harwood, their fraternal-twin daughters, Freddy's best friend, Nieman, and their families. This is the sort of writing that almost invariably seems to end up much as a canvas painted completely black does in our art museums: seldom understood and endlessly praised just in case the critic didn't “get” it.

Gilchrist suffers not a whit of this: The language and style are nearly transparent; the characters live and breathe. One cannot seem to shake the feeling that they are alive, that their...