SOURCE: “Hoffman Evokes Sense of Place,” in Richmond Times Dispatch, June 27, 1999, p. F4.

In the following brief review, Carter offers a positive evaluation of the stories in Doors.

Few writers have an ear so finely attuned to the pulsebeat of a place as William Hoffman. In the 10 stories collected here [in Doors], all of which appeared previously in prestigious literary quarterlies, Hoffman creates a rich and lovingly detailed tapestry that encapsulates the life of Southside Virginia from its fox-hunting elite to its harried tobacco farmers, confident “come-heres,” and watermen (or, in this case, waterwomen). In the spare, precise prose that is his hallmark, Hoffman accomplishes feats of storytelling legerdemain that might well serve as a textbook for aspiring writers.

A case in point is the story “Stones,” an O. Henry prize-winner that delineates the curious combination of social progress and cultural stasis that permeates the rural South...