Match BookI Cannot Get You Close Enough: Three Novellas
Ellen Gilchrist
1990 · 391 pages · Literary fiction
How it reads
I Cannot Get You Close Enough: Three Novellas is literary fiction (literary novellas, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.
It's set in several locations, in no single period, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are family, love and loss and grief. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 391 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you want something to chew on
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- literary fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- prolific veteran
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- timeless or multiple
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- moderate
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- family, love, loss and grief
- Ending style
- bittersweet
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Drunk with Love: A Book of StoriesEllen GilchristShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
White OleanderJanet FitchShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
Station ElevenEmily St. John MandelShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace- The Gap of TimeJeanette WintersonShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace
The ice stormRick MoodyShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, moderate pace- The OverstoryRichard PowersShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, bittersweet ending
Appears in
Find a copy
Reviews on Goodreads ↗Match Book earns a commission on purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, Match Book earns from qualifying purchases.