Death in the Woods and Other Stories--A Book Review

The front cover of my copy begins with a quote from Malcolm Cowley (a lead literary critic of the 30's-60's) and after reading these 16 stories you will understand:

"The only storyteller of his generation who left his mark on the style that followed.....Hemingway, Faulkner, Wolfe, Steinbeck, Miller...each of those owes an unmistakable debt to Anderson."


    Reading Sherwood Anderson in these 16 stories and in general is like listening to a young boy describe his experiences at his first pro/college sporting event. He will tell you about everything, but may never tell you who won and really may not know, or even care. He will tell you about the fat man in front of him, the loud lady who drank too much, the weird old man who kept looking at him while he ate, how much the food was, how his dad treated the ticket people, how his dad interacted with the pretty lady at dinner, how much his dad paid for parking (or didn't), etc. He will tell you a multitude of things, but may never end up telling you the final score. Anderson writes like this. And listening to young boy's story or when you read Anderson is better than knowing who won or the simple formulaic version of an event. It is what really happened at the game or a situation. And I would rather hear all of this information than a quick reply of who won or lost or a bullet point version of an event. I like details and Anderson provides them for me.

   However, you must not write Anderson off because his stories are easy to read or that his sentence and story structure appear simple because that would greatly limit what Anderson did for American literature and it would limit the depth of each of these stories. Anderson writes with what has been called a, "second simplicity", where he turns the everyday, the mundane, the most common of occurrences and he makes these things shine with a new depth and meaning. He writes about the common man and women and the little things they do, encounter: the small moments. He writes with a knowledge that life, real life, is not filled with dire emergency and life changing event after event, but is filled rather with small choices and daily obligations that in the end define who a person is. Anderson makes the small moments seem to be as important as they are, but he does not write about them with an artificial air of importance as is sometimes the case. He unpretentiously writes simply about the simple things. He does not downplay their importance nor does he magnify them in their lowly stature. They remain what they are and where they are.

Some of the example of this "second simplicity" are:

                                   "...I know too much and not enough..."
and
                                   "....Being alone doesn't mean being where there are no people. It means being where people are all strangers to you....."

and

                                "...The Butcher-like man has taken his sister's arm. That is a gesture of tenderness. Such people make such gestures when someone in the family is dead..."



   No, not every sentence is gold (Please read this sentence again channeling Kenny Bania from Seinfeld, That's gold, Jerry, pure gold...) And not every story is wonderful. There are a couple that are not even kind of good, but out of the 16, most are good, and several are very good. And one, Brother Death, just may be one of the finest short stories I have read in awhile. To me, the best stories in this collection are: The Return, In a Strange Town, A Sentimental Journey, and A Meeting South. The most under-rated story for me was, The Jury Case, I didn't understand it and didn't like, but then reread it and found out that I did like it and it was much more that it appeared to be.

    I would suggest this collection to anyone who likes a good story and who is interested in seeing who laid the foundation for those who came after him. I would not suggest this book to those who hate reading about common events and people or for those who need closure at the end of each story they read. Many of these stories are just brief glimpses into the lives of people most of us pass by and continue on our own way.

Read and Enjoy,

   David