A review by jtellis
The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams

4.0

I almost abandoned this book because I barely could get through the first two lackluster entries ("Mind and Body" and "Old Doc Rivers"). Everything following those, however, is great. Williams' writing is beautiful, insightful, and poignant, and his stories are, at times, both devastatingly sad and tinged with humor. I'm not a doctor, but I feel like I've glimpsed into what it's like (or at least, what it was like in a poverty-stricken part of northern New Jersey in the first half of the 20th century) by reading this collection.

"Let the successful carry off their blue ribbons; I have known the unsuccessful, far better persons than their more lucky brothers."