This collection gets an 'A' for craft and technique, but it doesn't generate much interest in me, the reader. There is a good selection of lengths, ranging from short short story to short novel. Take the first story, for instance. A woman kills her husbands lover, and her husband helps her cover up the crime. It's told in such a detached manner that I had no reaction at all - no attempt is really made to examine motive or feelings of either the wife or the husband.
Another example is the short novel "Old Mortality". It seems to be an examination of how children view adults as they grow up, but it is about as boring as commuting to work. The child finally grows up at the end and commits some of the same mistakes as her elders, yet the author doesn't examine any of that.
But it is much better than the Stafford collection. Maybe you just have to be in the right mood to appreciate it.
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