SOURCE: Hooper, Brad. Review of The Cabal and Other Stories, by Ellen Gilchrist. Booklist 96, no. 7 (1 December 1999): 661.

In the following review, Hooper offers a favorable assessment of The Cabal and Other Stories.

Gilchrist demonstrates in her latest collection of short fiction [The Cabal and Other Stories] not only that she is a remarkably adept storyteller but also that the novella, particularly in her hands, is a highly effective literary form—one that offers a more involved and involving plot and more complete character development than one finds in short fiction while at the same time more tightly structured than most full-length novels. Half of this book is taken up with a novella titled The Cabal. Brimming with Gilchrist's trademark charming characters, it takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, upon Caroline Jones' arrival in town to begin a college teaching job. It just so happens that Caroline's arrival coincides with the...