BOOKS
Review:
Victory Over Japan
Short Stories by Ellen Gilchrist.
Published by Little, Brown and Com
pany, 1984.
Author Ellen Gilchrist intro
duces us to some delightfully ec
and
centric
unforgettable
Southern women in this fine col
lection of 14 short stories.
In the first group of three stories
we encounter Rhoda, first as a de
termined third grader, then as an
incorrigible cigarette-smoking
14-year-old, and finally as a soon
to-be-divorced young woman,
glad to be rid of the husband she
married for his money.
In the next bunch of stories,
"Crazy, Crazy Now Showing
Everywhere," we follow the for
tunes and misfortunes in New Or
leans of Lady Margaret who be
lieves people aren't even supposed
to look at her unless she tells them
to. We also meet King, who ran
away to a commune in Texas
when he was a teenager and now
lives at the family beach house
and feeds funny mushrooms to his
unsuspecting uncle. Later it turns
out that King is the son of Miss
Crystal, the irrepressible spoiled
heroine of the final group of
stories.
In the next two stories we get to
know a 20-year-old who pulls off
a little robbery in New Orleans to
buy a ticket to join her lover in
California. She writes him a poig
nant love letter:
"I want to go to that chocolate
place in San Francisco the minute I
get there. And lie down toith you
in the dark for a million years. Or
in the daylight. I love you. Nora
lane."
But he doesn't meet her; and
when Nora Jane gets to his ad
dress, he's not there. On her own
in a strange city, she finds a rich
r
new lover whose bookstore she
first tries to rob. Later on she has a
brief fling with her old boyfriend.
In 'The Double Happiness Bun"
Nora Jane discovers she is preg
nant with twins and joyously un
sure of who is the father.
The last five stories in the col
lection begin with "Miss Crystal's
Maid Name Traceleen, She's Talk
ing, She's Telling Everything She
Knows." Traceleen takes care of
3-year-old Crystal Anne and
works for Miss Crystal who is as
good to her as her own sister.
Traceleen's auntee Mae worked
for the family for years and has
prepared Traceleen for life with
these rich spoiled white folks
whose money does not make them
happy. In the last story Crystal
shares with Traceleen her deepest
memory from childhood when she
was eight and her 12-year-old
brother fooled her into trading all
her best possessions for a card
board plane he made.
"There were foot pedals for his
feet and a steering wheel and a
dashboard with all sorts of dials on
it. It was a special kind of plane
where the pilot is also the bom
bardier and Phelan was flying over
Japan, dropping bombs on cities
and ammunition dumps. ... I
almost fainted with envy when I
saw him. It drove me crazy. Final
ly, I went over and asked him if I
could fly it and he said no, it was
against the law because I wasn’t a
pilot. So I went to my room and
got my new Monopoly set and
brought it out and offered to trade.
'No,' he said. . . All day I kept ad
ding to the things . . . and still Phe
lan flew on and on as if I wasn't
even there. . . . Finally ... he got
up from the pilot's seat and took
the . . . things that interested him
and we shook hands on the deal.
So Phelan took my stuff and I sat
down at the plane and reached for
I
Weekly Eye Opener
by Larry Deckman
(Taken from the book, Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts): 'The
Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic that, more
than a hundred miles at sea, off the mouth of the river, one can
dip fresh water out of the ocean and drink it."
GENESs
apple US apple blends
honey lemonade
nut nectar
smoothie
orang
carrot
carrot blends
DELIVERED FRESH NILY
AVAILABLE AT LOCAL
QUALITY FOOD STORES
CRYSTALSDIETEeRcy
i FEALNG7NTUUTTON
FINDHORN
JoyK DS Zovi N G
PHISM
OM
AXATOr SCIENCE,
A5ToLoGYBuv __ _
(NDHORN GROWTH FeALNG/NTtrON
“oy KIDs LovNG MONEY Y.L.R
o^o^y QABALAHPELAXATON SCIENCE / AROT
VeRSEVISUA HZATION VoMeXTRAORD’NAY
2 * Peralandra
/ 1^0 EAST11t (Ar ALDER)
/2 OPEN MON-SA1,10-6485-4848
0OKS k MUSIC FOR THE WHOLE PERSON
the steering wheel. It was only an
old piece of cardboard he had
painted. I put my feet down on the
pedals. They were two old shoe
boxes with cardboard springs."
"Traceleen, are you listening?
Can you hear me? This is every
thing I know about love I'm telling
you. Everything I know about
everything."
Ellen Gilchrist lives in New
Orleans and speaks Southern flu
ently and with idiomatic familiar
ity. She judiciously uses child
hood recollections to add an emo
tionally satisfying depth to her
of those
characterizations
fascinating child-women, these
modern Scarlet O'Haras who em
bark on distinctly 20th century es
capades and live idiosyncratic life
styles. Gilchrist is the rare writer
who makes me laugh out loud.
Victory Over Japan is fun reading
from a new Southern voice who
has all the classic story telling
forms down pat and who makes
you glad to spend a few hours
reading her wonderful stories.
—Lois Wadsworth
NEW
YORK
SY’S PIZZA
FREE DELIVERY * {
and Store Take-Out l
Coupon
I
I
Order any size regular or extra- thick crust
or deep-dish Sicilian pizza and receive... I
2 free toppings!
plus 2 free large drinks J
(Coupon good Mon-Sun, ’til midnight)
1211 Alder on campus 686-9598 "in our area
I
I
COUPON I •
. •* » 3
OTa/c Owners
Winterization/Preventive Maintenance
***
SPECIAL
Al
Import
EPL C SAFETY
•P-— inspection .
/ /Service 110 Fo
, TheVOINO .P1U.U
e
Specialist. 3
located at 12th
Oil CHANGE;
include, oil and filter”
__ ... & Main in Springfield
■ Call 726-1808 for appt.
■ or just drop by
AK
(sae . ALL WORK GUARANTEED
e
*
_LE , J
ndate
0
Featuring:
Over 50 Sandwich Selections.
DRIharan
0
Orders to Go Welcomed.
Fifth & Pearl
Eugene 484-0686
“s”
NOdrmentfor
syER"Orhoqpes
reNe-tectons:
. IC 199 ‘
virus 1
crerraeee
zilcCs
Finally there is
an answer!
if your local pharmacy is out of Zilactin, ask them to order it for you
from their wholesaler, or send a check or money order for $7.95 to:
Zila Pharmaceutical, Inc. 777 E. Thomas Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85014