SOURCE: Knapp, Mona. Review of The Rest of Life, by Mary Gordon. World Literature Today 69, no. 1 (winter 1995): 139.

In the following review of The Rest of Life, Knapp praises the stories as powerful narratives exploring each heroine's existential aloneness.

Mary Gordon's books are like favorite desserts—long awaited, they are gone too soon, no matter how well savored. Her works to date, which include short stories, essays, and novels, are now joined by The Rest of Life, her seventh volume. It is made up of three novellas.

United by their female perspective, the novellas each explore a different narrator's consciousness as captured in a complex web of lovers, husbands, and children. “Immaculate Man,” narrated by a woman whose much-younger lover is a Catholic priest, treats a plot with plenty of tabloid potential, given the recent number of popularized scandals involving Catholic priests worldwide. Still, (not surprisingly for this author...