A fine book. Set in the modern day, and dealing with the "homefront" for the Iraq war, the main characters behave a little more like something out of World War II which can be charming or off putting at turns. ( )

A fine book. Set in the modern day, and dealing with the "homefront" for the Iraq war, the main characters behave a little more like something out of World War II which can be charming or off putting at turns. ( )

A fine book. Set in the modern day, and dealing with the "homefront" for the Iraq war, the main characters behave a little more like something out of World War II which can be charming or off putting at turns. ( )

I've put off this review for so long because I was so disappointed in the book that I had to go back and re-read her previous works. My, did this suffer in comparison. Despite its use of 9-11 and the war in Iraq as devices for plot and character development, it felt inconsequential, a strange combination of fluffy and trying too hard. I wept on that September morning, and I have deep feelings that we should never have started the war in Iraq, and yet I felt almost offended by Gilchrist's use of these events in what I felt wound up being obvious and almost patronizing ways. It's as if her own strong anti-war feelings overrode her ability to write about them in a way that would persuade rather than badger, or that could show war's horrors and homefront tragedies without shouting about how horrible and tragic they are. Worse, I knew where each character's plot was going before it got there, thanks to what felt like blatant telegraphing. When I finished it, I heaved a great sigh and I returned to The Anna Papers, Victory Over Japan, The Writing Life, and I, Rhoda Manning, Go Hunting With My Daddy, glad to find there the Ellen Gilchrist whose lovely prose was engaging rather than exhorting, intimate rather than irritating, and who let the reader find her way through, line by line, rather than flashing signpost after signpost to force me to the conclusion that war is bad and life will be forever changed by our losses. That's not a bad conclusion to come to, but it's not a good conclusion to be pushed to. ( )

This is a tale of privileged North Carolina cousins, young, modern, working women with brains and spunk looking for love. But be careful; don’t presume this book into the genre of young, modern, working women looking for love. A Dangerous Age isn’t something you’ll read lazily by the pool. In the Hand cousins, Gilchrist has created round and complicated women whose everyday lives are hit hard. And the rock that’s thrown? The War on Terror. Be careful again; don’t presume it’s one of those preachy anti-war rants. And don’t presume it’s a send-up to Bush’s doctrine. It’s both and neither.

Gilchrist is a writer of extreme talent. The story reads tight and matter-of-fact, accompanied by a subtle crescendo-rising force just waiting for the mallet to sound. From the moment the first plane hits on 9/11, our hearts hear the war drums ever presently beating in the background of the women’s lives. Each cousin’s individual story unfolds in as complicated a manner as the war itself, with no easy exit strategies and unanswered questions. This individualization of such a far-reaching topic, along with excellent writing, supplies depth into the human implications of nightly sound bytes. A brilliant, gut wrenching and thought-provoking book, I highly recommend A Dangerous Age for readers looking for more than fluff.

Review first published on Many A Quaint & Curious Volume ( )