In the following excerpt, Fowler analyzes the characters of Rhoda, Nora Jane, and Crystal, contending that they "are not only willful, they are also warmhearted, brave, and generous."

In one of the stories in Ellen Gilchrist's Victory Over Japan. a wealthy woman barricades herself in her bedroom and combs through newspapers and magazines cutting out words and gluing them to the walls, the chair, the bed. It is, she says, "her work"—"I have to find the words, when I find the right words I will expose them. You'll see. I will have it all out in the open where everyone can see. Then they will not be able to deny it. Then everyone will know." When a friend comes to visit, she whispers urgently, "Bring me words."

For Southern author Ellen Gilchrist too, words are important. In her new collection of stories, Victory Over Japan...