A review by maedo
Death in the Woods and Other Stories by Sherwood Anderson

1.0

I think that Sherwood Anderson at his best is an incredible writer. Check out Winesburg, Ohio, the title story in this collection, or any of his stories on the topic of women for proof of this, especially "There She Is -- Taking Her Bath". But aside from the title story and all of his other stories of womanhood -- full of that Jazz Age combination of charm, insight, and sexism -- I found at least half of this collection really tough to get into or care about. Stories of so-called "mountain people," conveyed in Anderson's direct prose, without ornament, are decidedly not for me.

Anderson's strength lies in those stories he tells from the first person point of view, when his brevity hints at the delusions and desperation of his characters without the melodrama that kills other short stories from the perspective of desperate people. "There She Is--Taking Her Bath" was my favorites of the collection for this reason. Anderson could also unsettle with the best of the Southern writers. I'm thinking O'Connor mostly. The scene of the dogs circling a dying woman, who "lived to feed animal life," as a death ritual in "Death in the Woods" gave me chills, it was so perfect.

I wish all of the stories in this collection could have had the same magic. They aren't bad, just...meh.