These stories are sad, but realistic, and make me glad I read them. Especially "Tell me a riddle," the short story for which the book is named. Since my Dad recently died, and I was his caretaker, I identified with the way his wife's life continued to become limited, until she was bedridden, and eventually died. The whole senselessness of a life that had been full with a brain full of compassion and knowledge, ending, and going where?, emanated from this story. ( )

First rate writing. The title story, wow, such execution. The final pages so authentic. ( )

These four stories tackle issues that are still prevalent today: racism, addiction, feminism. All of these stories will stand up to rereading. The first of my favorites is “As I Stand Ironing,” a mother’s melancholy musings on the young life of her first daughter, which was lived by necessity, with hardships. The second favorite, “Tell Me a Riddle,” is really a novella and is the best in this slim book. It is about an aging couple, émigrés from Russia, who have both made sacrifices for themselves and their children, and who have differing ideas about how to live out their remaining years. It’s a poignant tearjerker of the very best kind! ( )

Memoirs or fiction? Hard to tell; some of both. Insights into life in the early 1950s; the story about the narrator's friendship with a black family stands out. Not my cup of tea, but well-written in the mainstream literature mode.
FWIW, I don't particularly enjoy "insightful fiction" about the tawdry and dysfunctional people in the world who relentlessly chew the cud of their troubles, and generally don't make any improvements in their lives in the course of the story. ( )

Ignoring the first three stories, the title story was phenomenally good, sad, devastating. Taught me that even at the end, life never gets easy. Reminded me that everyone, no matter how puzzling or deplorable, has within them a rich, rational world of thought, carries a history worth imploring. ( )