Stern Men (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
- First Published: 2000
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1950’s through the 1980’s
- Setting: Two islands off the Maine coast; Concord, New Hampshire
- Principal Characters: Ruth Thomas, Stanley Thomas, Mary Smith-Ellis Thomas, Ricky Thomas, Lanford Ellis, Vera Ellis, Toby Wishnell, Owney Wishnell
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, United States or Americans, Mothers, Parents and children, Twentieth century, 1980’s, New England, New Hampshire, Islands, Illegitimacy, Fishing or fishermen, Lobsters, Feuds, Maine
- Locales: Concord, NH, Maine
The title story of Elizabeth Gilbert’s short-story collection Pilgrims (1997) is about a city girl’s abortive romance with a Wyoming ranch hand; in “Elks,” another story from the same collection, relatives from the city visit a woman who has made her home in the rural West and who now seems as foreign to them as they do to her. Stern Men, too, is about people, place, and commitment. It is also about how a determined, intelligent woman can transform an entire community.
When he first sees her shortly after her birth in 1958, the aging bachelor Senator Simon...
[The entire page is 1872 words long]
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