"Flannery O'Connor has written that 'Fiction operates through the senses. . . The first and most obvious characteristic of fiction is that it deals with reality through what can be seen, heard, smelt, tasted, and touched.' Doug Lawson's story collection is a banquet for the senses, though the winds of change are often chilly enough to make us shiver, and what is served up is there not only to sustain us, but to surprise us. His characters are contemporary, but their struggles are timeless. A Patrimony of Fishes contains some beautiful descriptions of the physical world, paired with some disconcerting observations about the ways of the heart. It's a wonderful collection."

—Ann Beattie