The Annunciation

I have twenty pages left to the end of the book and I'm savoring every last page. She creates such vivid characters and the story draws you in immeadiately. Great writer and great read.

I first read this book at the suggestion of a friend, and it was the first time I ever read anything by this author. I much prefer her short stories, and some of her other characters over Amanda. Amanda can be over-the-top in some ways, and at times I felt like I just wanted to slap her!But, I found I couldn't put the book down and I loved Gilchrist's skill in evoking a sense of place -- both New Orleans and Fayetteville, Arkansas. I've been to both places and Gilchrist manages to capture the "feel" of both towns.The ending is sad, but interestingly, in one of her later short story collections -- I think it's "The Age of Miracles" -- Gilchrist writes a short story that is a different ending to this book. And that ending I would have liked better!

A great book. The first I have read of Gilchrist. I found it strange that I didn't really get attached to any one character and felt anger toward Amanda, the main character for many of the BAD choices she made again and again. If you don't want to know the ending before you read it, don't read the next review . . . she gives it all away!!!A great story, albiet a bit dark.

I started reading the book about a week ago, because I'm visiting New Orleans in a week, and I like to get into the mood and feel of a city or a place I'm going to visit. Once I started reading it, it just swept me away, it was a fast read, the characters were interesting and I got hooked right away into the story and what would happen to Amanda. I put it down for a week, and then I picked it up on the train home from downtown Miami, and I got wrapped up again, and its like the Buffalo River, it just takes you where its going to take you. I could relate to Amanda because I would like to be a writer, myself, and right now I'm studying Spanish, but not to become a translator like Amanda. I could relate to Amanda, and her feelings and her passions and her guilt and her freedom, wanting to be free and to find out who she is and make her own unique contribution to the world. I love that about Amanda. I like her sense of adventure and survival, going in that canoe down the Buffalo River. I was sad at the way it ended, Will dying in a car accident in a snow storm. Will had gifts too, but he couldn't seem to focus on them and was not as determined as Amanda to do his thing in music as she did hers in writing and translating. I liked the descriptions, the beauty of thought and place and honesty of emotion. I liked hearing the thoughts of the men when they were in love with Amanda and their emotional struggles. I've been in love this summer and I know a man who struggles with this heart and his passion for me. I liked all the people in the book, the masseuse, the doctor, the professor, the potter, the lawyer, all their struggles and feelings. I have two more of her collections of short stories I bought years ago, I am going to read, now, better late than never, Victory Over Japan and In the Land of Dreamy Dreams. I felt like a hooked fish, when I started to read her book, and I couldn't get off the line. My dad felt the way Amanda did about the Catholic religion. The book reminded me of a book my dad liked Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe. I hope to write a book, someday, that good, something that grabs your heart and your emotions.

I had never heard of Ellen Gilchrist but was given a tattered copy of "The Annuciation" by a friend. After the first page I was hooked. The writing is sharp and descriptive and the characters are intriguing. The story begins with the lead character, Amanda, as a little girl and follows her life through middle age as she searches for herself, her child and her passions. There's much to connect with for women and while there were one or two times when I thought things were a little far-fetched, overall it was a great read.