If this was a book I had been assigned at a young age...well, I probably wouldn't have read it...but if I had, it might have communicated something to me. However, I'm old now and I just don't read a lot of books written by cis, het, white men anymore, which often makes it quite jarring when I do, especially when those books are fairly (which, they often are, because "classics" are the rare old white dude books that I feel like I should read). While I feel I can understand why this volume is viewed as a classic and is often taught, in reading it, I didn't really feel like it was anything that I hadn't read better versions of before. 

These somber tales of people living in a small town, all experiencing their own bits of loneliness just kind of dragged on for me. Only one story really caught my attention and that's largely because it was so very depressing and anger-inducing. I really did not like how the women in these stories were written or treated by the men in them. There's just a lot of sexism running through this entire thing and that can be hard to stomach. In fact, while I know many assessments of this text focus on the recurring theme of loneliness, the recurrence that stuck out to me the most was toxic male anger, often directed at women, but also, just generally, at whatever is near.

So, while this may be a "Important" text, I can't really recommend it, as I didn't really get much out of it.