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167th out of 226 books
—
300 voters
The Changeling
by
Joy Williams
From the NY Times article "Joy Williams' 30-year Old Comeback Novel," by Dwight Garnier, 21 April, 2008.
"Can a negative review kill a novel?
It depends on the novel, I suppose, and it depends on the review and where and when it appears.
But it has long been argued that Joy Williams’s second novel, “The Changeling,” published by Doubleday in 1978, was burned and then buried a...more
"Can a negative review kill a novel?
It depends on the novel, I suppose, and it depends on the review and where and when it appears.
But it has long been argued that Joy Williams’s second novel, “The Changeling,” published by Doubleday in 1978, was burned and then buried a...more
Hardcover, 201 pages
Published
June 1st 1978
by Doubleday Books
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Apr 22, 2012
Mariel
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
the animal inside
Recommended to Mariel by:
i wish I had a daemon like in Philip Pullman's books
"She had tried so earnestly once to be sane. But sanity, it was like holding onto a balloon, a balloon of the world, fragile, and full of petty secrets and desires. She would let it go. It was easy to let it go."
Once upon a time a critic for some big time newspaper gave The Changeling a bad review and a once upon a time book eclipse lasted for thirty years. No fucking fair is the moral of this story.
Once upon a time Pearl stood in her family home before a painting of a man who broke women like r...more
Once upon a time a critic for some big time newspaper gave The Changeling a bad review and a once upon a time book eclipse lasted for thirty years. No fucking fair is the moral of this story.
Once upon a time Pearl stood in her family home before a painting of a man who broke women like r...more
22 likes · like · see review
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Amazed by the talent in these pages. Engrossing, complex, brilliantly written. Williams' writing style is active and direct, while still giving me layers to muck about in. I'm only halfway through the book, but I expect to still feel as strongly about it at the end as I do now.
I'm disappointed to read about Broyard's review burying this book before it had a chance to take off. His assertion that these were the most artificially tiresome children he'd encountered in literature is repugnant to me...more
I'm disappointed to read about Broyard's review burying this book before it had a chance to take off. His assertion that these were the most artificially tiresome children he'd encountered in literature is repugnant to me...more
the book doesn't really begin until the plane trip back home--but a great red herring of an opener had me unprepared for that fact. i thought i was getting into a woman-on-the-run picaresque (like jaimy gordon's great SHE DROVE WITHOUT STOPPING) but instead slowly realized i was reading a devastating and much more static portraiture of a unique drunk--a depressed mother whose deep-but-unorthodox vision of childhood ripens to rot after she quasi-survives exiting her own.
often beautiful, uneven,...more
often beautiful, uneven,...more
If you hate Joy Williams you will hate this book (and the book won't care). If you love Joy Williams, you will love this book (and still it probably won't care). Started off amazing, got a bit iffy, then transformed itself into a perpetual surprise machine. We learn that Pearl, main character, gets married, then turns into a klepto, then some dude catches her being a klepto, convinces her to come away with him, which she does, to this island where a bunch of children live, along with some adults...more
3 likes · like · see review
Oh lord, this book got a drubbing when it came out. It's been re-released with a Rick Moody intro. Unfortunately I can't find the damned re-issue anywhere. I actually went so far as to call the distributors for Fairy Tale Review (which publishes The Changeling) and the manager was like, "I've never heard of Fairy Tale Review."
I didn't love this one, but I do recommend it. Truly an odd book centered around the common folktale in which an infant is replaced by a troll.
Supposedly, Williams's book...more
I didn't love this one, but I do recommend it. Truly an odd book centered around the common folktale in which an infant is replaced by a troll.
Supposedly, Williams's book...more
Reading this is like stepping into someone else's fever dream - it's hot, it's menacing, but it ends up working by its own strange logic. A very weird book that I only half got but William's prose is so wonderfully transporting and visionary that I was willing to let her get away with alot. It's in the same realm as Angela Carter but even dirtier, if you can believe it. However if you're new to her I'd recommend starting with some of her short stories which are almost uniformly excellent and see...more
I've been in love with Joy William's writing ever since stumbling across Ill Nature on the Lucky Day shelf at the library. There is really no explaining her writing, it can only be experienced. The Changeling is another amazing testimony to this writer's talent and unimpeded vision.
There is a partial sentence from this book that keeps running through my head: ....the eternal consuming the corruptible. Wow!
Hate her or love her, she's a genius.
There is a partial sentence from this book that keeps running through my head: ....the eternal consuming the corruptible. Wow!
Hate her or love her, she's a genius.
this is the wilder, darker, more mystifying sibling to doris lessing's The Fifth Child.
--
"Pearl looked at the infant's face framed by the shaggy, sun-bleached hair. He was shirtless and wore new but muddy denims. He sat, fixed in sunshine, smiling. She took a swallow of wine. He knew her fearful thoughts of him. No one who has private thoughts going on in his own head is quite sure of their not being overheard. Any child knows that. Sam understood her thoughts. Was not his understanding reflecte...more
--
"Pearl looked at the infant's face framed by the shaggy, sun-bleached hair. He was shirtless and wore new but muddy denims. He sat, fixed in sunshine, smiling. She took a swallow of wine. He knew her fearful thoughts of him. No one who has private thoughts going on in his own head is quite sure of their not being overheard. Any child knows that. Sam understood her thoughts. Was not his understanding reflecte...more
1 like · like · see review
Jan 28, 2009
Kathryn
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
contemporary-fiction
(Before) I just read that it's being re-released after a snipey critic's bad review sank the first edition. It sounds very Angela Carter-esque; I'm looking forward to reading this.
(After) It was a strange novel, like being entangled in a vaguely foreboding dream. The heroine's passivity and the subtle strangeness of the children surrounding her made it seem as if she had really died early in the book and was trapped in some strange netherworld, neither here nor there. Everything was a bit disco...more
(After) It was a strange novel, like being entangled in a vaguely foreboding dream. The heroine's passivity and the subtle strangeness of the children surrounding her made it seem as if she had really died early in the book and was trapped in some strange netherworld, neither here nor there. Everything was a bit disco...more
This book is crazy. It infects you like a virus, and it lingers for a long, long time. You can't figure out if it's a bad book, or an amazing book that you almost understand. Are you a genius, or an idiot? Who the hell knows. Read it, pass it around. Talk about it over dinner. It'll do.
Amazing book. Stark, surprising language. An unusual romp through the mythological intricacies of the imagination. I like it when the changeling children attack. One of those books where you go, wow, I learned something about writing here.
At a high level it is simply sad and in the end I was left with this empty, hard to describe feeling, although I usually get depressed when I finish a novel I liked, just like on return from holiday, I immerse that much. [Yes all my reviews are about me.:]
At a granular level the descriptions of beauty were beautiful, feather-light, cloudless sky, had me soaring - no - floating. Every gorgeous sentence. But it was her descriptions of horror I needed badly to read. She can take you to the darkest...more
At a granular level the descriptions of beauty were beautiful, feather-light, cloudless sky, had me soaring - no - floating. Every gorgeous sentence. But it was her descriptions of horror I needed badly to read. She can take you to the darkest...more
It took me over five years to track down a copy and when I did it did not fail to live up to the hype. I can't wait to read it again!
I don't know. Was it about an alcoholic? Were the children real? I feel like I need to go back to school and earn another degree.
Holy shit, what an ending. Prose is wonderful and any impatience I felt for plot was rectified there.
1 like · like · see review
I learned from this book that I should not have read this book.
A story about an insufferable alcoholic that might be a fairytale, but I'm not really sure. Reading it is a frustrating experience because every time you think it's threatening to actually reveal something like a plot point or advance something like a story it veers off wildly into arty prose poem jabbering. Reading this is sort of like listening to your drunk self-important elderly aunt talk. Oh, and nothing ever actually definitively, like, happens.
Jun 11, 2012
lauren
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
fairy-tale-ish
the writing is SO GOOD. I started off strong reading this, then didn't pick it up consistently, for no reason related to my feelings for the book. I think i would have enjoyed it more without the interruption. As it was, the story was fine, but the language of the book was fantastic. Highly recommend for people who read for good writing.
So far a fairly disturbing story about an island full of weird, self governing prepubescent kids, presided over by eccentric rich adults, with Pearl, a greiving drunk mother talking to the weird kids all the time, "entering their world." Sort of like a Bret Easton Ellis set of unpredictable, nihilistic characters...hard not to like.
A "trippy" and, at times, stream of consciousness narrative rife with feminist themes and a smattering of non-West elements: animal spirit guides, Native American totems, I-Ching, tarot -- all relevant to the time in which it was originally published, 1978.
A good study, but an unpleasant read.
A good study, but an unpleasant read.
one of my favorite novels
Dark and creepy as all hell. Thirtieth anniversary edition just came out, btw.
First read April 1 - April 10, 2012.
First review:
so OOPy & ILL.
brilliant.
May 12, 2013
Brandon
marked it as to-read
May 09, 2013
Lhson
marked it as to-read
May 01, 2013
Sara
is currently reading it
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“You must stop worrying about why things happen and wonder what they mean when they do.”
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