Literary Fiction · LightStories about Rhoda Manning, a willful girl in the last months of World War II, and the women who follow
Victory Over Japan
Stories about Rhoda Manning, who is a third-grader in the final months of World War II
In the title story, Rhoda Manning is a third-grader in the last months of World War II. She tries to use a classmate, Billy Monday, who is getting rabies shots after a squirrel bite, to get an interview for the school paper. The story ends as news arrives of the atomic bombings and of Japan's surrender. Other stories follow Rhoda as a rebellious teenager and as a divorced adult, and others center on Nora Jane Whittington and Crystal Manning.
More about this book
Who
Rhoda Manning, willful and aggressive, who narrates several stories, along with Nora Jane Whittington and Crystal Manning.
World
A small Midwestern town with a Southern feel, and the later lives of the same characters.
What makes it different
The first-person voice is deliberately naive and colloquial. Reviewers called it deceptively simple.
Feel
Funny and sharp-edged. It won the 1984 National Book Award for Fiction.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Ellen GilchristWikipedia