In the following excerpt, Lowry provides an overview of the female characters in "Victory over Japan," praising Gilchrist's portrayal of racy Southern women.

Ellen Gilchrist is a very nervy writer. That fact ought, first off, to be given its due. Nerve won't suffice to get a tightrope walker across the wire, but it provides the initial boost: without nerve, no circus. In the same way, nerve urges a fiction writer to go ahead and shoot whatever moon it is he has been given to aim at, without caution or respect for current fashion, a boon for the reader to be sure.

In her new collection of stories, Victory Over Japan, Miss Gilchrist once again demonstrates not only her willingness to take risks, but her generosity as a writer as well. Without much authorial manicuring or explanation, she allows her characters to emerge whole, in full possession of...