Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Fourteen stories published over four decades offer an agreeable supplement to the distinguished British novelist's full-length fiction (The Sea Lady,2007, etc.).The early pieces from the 1960s show Drabble's (The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws, 2009, etc.) smooth, reflective prose style already well developed as she focuses on the difficulties of marriage and the temptations of infidelity. "Hassan's Tower" is a grimly funny tale of a couple already mired in mutual hostility while honeymooning in Morocco; the overseas journey of adulterous lovers in "Crossing the Alps" is nearly as disastrous, for different reasons. The title story (the collection's best) echoes the feminism-tinged novels in which Drabble reached her prime (Jerusalem the Golden,1967;The Needle's Eye, 1972), thoughtfully exploring the life of a modern woman prompted by a cancer scare to reconsider her complicated juggling of commitments to work, a difficult husband and her adored children. Similar ground is covered with even more bite in "Homework," narrated by the envious, sniping "friend" of a successful but overstressed career woman. The sharp social consciousness that became an increasing feature of Drabble's work beginning withThe Ice Age(1977) is less evident in her short fiction, although "The Gifts of War" stingingly juxtaposes a beleaguered working-class mother with two patronizing student protestors, and the linked stories "The Dower House at Kellynch: A Somerset Romance" and "Stepping Westward: A Topographical Tale" show middle-class women encountering glamorous representatives of the English landed gentry. Drabble can be acid, as when a woman unforgivingly recalls her dead husband's many petty cruelties in "The Merry Widow," but more often her tone is warm. "The Caves of God," which closes with the protagonist's tender reunion with her ex-husband more than a decade after their divorce, is characteristically gentle about human failings and hopeful about the possibility of redemption and reconciliation.Nothing revelatory, but Drabble's fans will savor these bite-sized examples of her humane intelligence.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Written over a span of 50 years, the stories collected here chronicle relationships in all their messy variations, from first meetings through marriages, love affairs, betrayals, abuses, and estrangements. From the Fifties to more recent times, Drabble has always skillfully depicted the experiences of women in their eras. "Hassan's Tower," for instance, deals with a disastrous honeymoon where magnified misunderstandings and unexpressed resentments underline how very little love exists in this new marriage. "Crossing the Alps" is the tale of a long-planned illicit getaway for a pair of lovers that goes terribly wrong when an illness makes one of them incapable of romance. In the affecting title story, a popular television personality who appears to balance work and life cheerfully and capably, actually lives with an abusive husband and is suffering from a serious malignancy. In "The Merry Widow," the titular character, who had silently endured years with an insufferable husband, takes herself on a much-anticipated holiday to attempt living life on her own terms. VERDICT These sharp and poignant stories will have broad appeal but will be especially nostalgic for readers who came of age in the heady dawn of feminism and who cut their literary teeth on the likes of Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, and Drabble herself.-Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* British novelist Drabble, a writer of acid wit, keen plots, and psychological acuity, hasn't published many short stories. This complete volume contains 14, originally published between 1964 and 2000. Nonetheless, she uses the form with distinct poise and power. Electrifyingly precise and darkly funny, Drabble has a talent for orchestrating startling turning points and moments of truth. Journeys are a favorite conceit, as is ascension, as her characters hike up hills or lift themselves from despair. A priggish fellow on his honeymoon in Morocco is miserably alienated until he and his wife climb a tower and gain a vision of the commonality of humanity. A fuming young woman visiting Elba with friends commits an act of vandalism that stuns everyone, herself included. Drabble is eviscerating in her portrayals of women saddled with angry men, and she is intrigued with the struggles of women who have attained fame and aroused resentment, including a Nobel Prize-winning geneticist and a covertly brilliant television journalist. How profoundly Drabble understands pain and stoicism. She also has a mythic feel for landscape and the awe nature inspires, thus anchoring her masterfully drawn characters and their provocative dilemmas to the larger, living world in stories as piercing as they are dazzling.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist