Old Wives' Tales

This collection of short stories won the Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction. I found the stories wonderful. Of special note are the following: 1) Rue - A woman in her fifties hires a detective to trace her husband who deserted her after three months of marriage around thirty years ago. She wants him to give her a legal divorce, for him to look her in the eye and provide her with reason. She wants to try and understand. 2) Coelostat - This story is about a young girl whose mother is institutionalized and whose father is quite different from her. "My mother earned her first and last American currency as a stenographer at the Nuremberg trials. She spent most of the next 23 years at Maplecrest Psychiatric Hospital interpreting atrocities in four languages". 3) Berkie - About a teen-age suicide. 4) Browsing - " 'How are you' he asks me. I recall the grounds of our divorce: Irreconcilable courtesy. He started it. I retaliated, viciously civil." This is a brilliant collection of short stories, one that I have read three times.

The stories in 'Old Wives Tales' are notable for their depth, attention to detail, and variety. Dodd's characters are real and her writing is rich and difficult to put down. One of the best collections of short stories I've read