I bought the collected stories of Grace Paley and when I checked through my extensive library, found I owned two of the books that comprise this complete volume. No matter, I am a collector and lover of books so either I can pass on the individual books (which I most likely will do) or just keep them all.
This first book in the collected stories volume contains stories that she wrote most likely at the beginning of her writing career. The collected stories volume gave a little history of how she was discovered. She gave a few stories to a friend to read, the friend passed them onto her ex-husband, who was an editor at Doubleday, and he in turn asked her for more stories which became this first book, The Little Disturbances of Man. That was a fortunate incident for the unknown writer or as she calls them 'little lucks'.
What impressed me most about the stories are the words Ms. Paley used and the way she used them. As a writer, I am always working to build a more extensive vocabulary for these are the tools I use to write my stories and novels. Sentences like "All the exaggerated bones of childhood and old age were bedded down in a cozy consistency of girl" and "From my narrow-eyed view the court seemed to constrict into a shuddering sailor's know." She tells the truth, she tells it like it was, about the lives of women at the time she was writing. A treasure-trove of creative story-telling, I look forward to reading Ms. Paley's other two novels that comprise the Collected Stories of Grace Paley.
I rate "The Little Disturbances of Man" 4.5 out of 5 stars ****