false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173055523m/242412.jpg 242412 3 Don't read Joy Williams if you're looking for Oprah-style stories of redemption--stories in which the human spirit triumphs. And don't look to her for a mirror of reality; with this author, there's never the sense that "I've been there" or "I identify." Williams creates novels and stories that operate under a tightly wound surrealist aesthetic. She distorts the world, but her distortions are subtle enough that you don't see them coming. You can't predict when the logic of dream will take over the logic of the text. Like the filmmaker David Lynch, Williams sees pathology and the ominous everywhere; she renders a world that looks familiar but is slightly off. Like Don DeLillo, she's a sprawling, ambitious writer whose characters often talk in a lovely, unbelievable poetry, as if they were prophets, or preachers, or ghosts.<p> <I>The Quick and the Dead</I>, Williams's fourth novel, follows a series of linked stories, all taking place in Arizona. Indeed, it could be called a desert epic, so dependent is its narrative momentum on the desert's eventual consumption of its inhabitants. These characters are consumed by thirst and mirages, by dry dreams of a lifeless landscape. They reside in a state of spiritual flatness and emptiness.<p> At the heart of the book, three motherless teenage girls befriend each other, go on camping trips, lay out in the sun by the rich girl's pool. Corvus, Alice, and Annabel are, respectively, spooky, apocalyptic, and prom-queen vain. In the course of things, they encounter, among others, a gay piano player named Sherwin who lives in a smelly apartment and constantly wears a tux, and a retirement-home nurse who entertains her patients with one-liners like: "Thoughts are infusorial" and "The set trap never tires of waiting." Perhaps most memorable is a cowboy-hatted stroke victim called Ray who believes a monkey lives in the back of his brain. Ray hitchhikes and steals credit cards. When he hasn't eaten for a while, the animal takes over: "The little monkey was climbing the walls in his head, making clear that it wanted out. Any avenue along the capillaries would do. There was an awful craving to get out. Ray didn't feel well." <p> Other lively phenomena interrupting the prevailing desert stillness: an injured deer leaping over a fence into a swimming pool in the middle of a party; a man shot in the desert by a couple of stoned guys shooting at cacti; a reappearing ghost called Ginger (Annabel's mother) who arrives every night to rail at her alcoholic widower husband, berating his clothes and his investment strategies.<p> In the hands of a lesser artist these various, often forcefully bizarre characters and events could have seemed like the work of someone out to impress with her weirdness. But Williams is the real thing, and <I>The Quick and the Dead</I> is her visionary world--a place so unmistakably doomed, it literally gives you the chills. <I>--Emily White</I> 1946195 2000 The Quick and the Dead total:216|5:79|4:80|3:32|2:19|1:6| 216 855 345 43 4 2 false false Fri Jul 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 20:47:47 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 04 11:15:35 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Jan 02 13:10:29 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 23 08:51:09 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 09 19:51:17 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 09 20:37:49 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 09:41:01 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 15 09:18:01 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 08 07:22:26 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 09:12:03 -0700 2009 The Quick and the Dead is unlike any novel I’ve read. What separates this book from a lot of writing is the ever shifting point of view, and the how characters enter and leave the narrative in ways that do not conform to any of the advice from the dozens of books on fiction writin...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Feb 14 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Oct 15 11:02:05 -0700 2007 Fri Feb 15 00:08:28 -0800 2008
Anyhoo, both recommendations were excellent. I was in and out of this one, however. The main charac...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sun Feb 15 20:16:46 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 20:18:51 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Oct 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 08:29:12 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 08:35:09 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sat Jan 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 14:42:55 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 13:10:12 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 04 07:42:42 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 11:03:31 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Aug 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 22:50:40 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 22:52:18 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Dec 01 08:58:23 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 08:59:06 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Mon Nov 09 18:52:13 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 18:53:07 -0800 2009
Joy Williams is excellent, and this book is clever and profound and fascinating and singular.]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Dec 30 10:04:54 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 24 07:07:47 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Nov 22 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 22 11:33:05 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 22 11:36:40 -0800 2008 rather shocking novels.]]> 5 0 false false Thu Mar 05 00:45:29 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 00:47:30 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Tue Jun 09 15:05:55 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 15:06:40 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 18:38:33 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 18:44:23 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 27 00:34:34 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 00:36:12 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 02 14:54:23 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 14:57:25 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=242412