Pilgrims by Elizabeth Gilbert

Gilbert opens her collection with an epigraph from Chaucer's prologue from the Canterbury Tales, preparing the reader for 200 quick-turning pages of individual American pilgrimages. With poise and humor, Gilbert explores the revelations of her various journeying characters. Each world her characters inhabit, whether the Western Ranchlands or the Bronx Terminal vegetable market, is authentic and vividly described. Oddly, her stories do not finish with clever twists or perfect endings.