Hard Candy

by Tennessee Williams

Hard Candy  contains Tennessee Williams’s short stories written after the publication of his first collection of short fiction,  One Arm , and before the stories appearing in  The Knightly Quest . These volumes have established him as an original, compelling, and honest master of the short story. The stories in  Hard Candy  display Mr. Williams’s mastery of several very different styles. “Three Players of a Summer Game,” for instance, is as powerful and moving a study of the disintegration of an individual as  A Streetcar Named Desire . The delicate and luminous nostalgia of “The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin” will remind readers of  The Glass Menagerie . Other stories, like “Two on a Party,” are more colloquial and brittle; and one––”The Coming of Something to the Widow Holly”––is an excursion into ironical fantasy. Yet each of the stories demonstrates, in its different way, the characteristic blend of psychological penetration with compassion and understanding that has marked Tennessee Williams’s successes in the theater.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Queer, Literature, Plays, Drama

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Thomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.

Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I had one Tennessee Williams story to mop up from my short-fiction non-genre list, the titular piece here "Hard Candy". I knew that it had some connection to another powerful Williams piece ("The Mysteries of the Joy Rio") I liked, so, since that piece is also here, let me recapitulate my review of that story from another collection:

"The Mysteries of the Joy Rio" has always stuck in my head since I first read it years ago - it's the tale of an elderly gay man and the decrepit pleasure palace (once opera house, then grand cinema, now aging fleabag theater) where he spends his time at furtive fumblings in the dark with strangers following the death of his longtime lover. It impresses on a number of levels - a sad and touching ghost story, a symbolic examination of life and death (the grand hall, awash with possibilities as a youth, turned rotting, empty cavern desperately filled with hollow desires by the end) and also a surprisingly frank (if slightly coded) portrayal of the unspoken rules and practices of anonymous homosexual cruising during the early part of the 19th century. Extremely well-written, as would be expected.

"Hard Candy" (presented before "Mysteries" in this collection - and rightly so) gives us the flip side of William's melancholy paean to the pleasure grounds of gay southern youth. Here we follow a rather (physically) ugly little retired man (not the character from "Mysteries") as he purchases some hard candy and makes his way to a secretive destination that no one in his family suspects - the cavernous darkened balconies of the Joy Rio, of course - where he has been known to find the companionship he desires on occasion (with the bag of sweets useful as a bargaining device). It is interesting to realize that this is Williams' setting down a truth that was unlikely to have been recorded in fiction before (certainly in this specific locale and detail) and also how "Mysteries" acts as a more pleasant counterpoint to the sordid intimations found here. Some details the age of the "boy" he encounters is never clarified - obviously not a child but whether a younger adolescent or older teenager is not clear and the ending are even open to some discussion (the old man's death could have been in the raptures of ecstasy but just as likely assault from an unwilling companion. As I said, sordid but fascinating and Williams does a very nice authorial insertion job of warning the reader that they are about to read a story wherein something unsettling may happen (I've put it in quotes as it's quite well done) and there's the nicely ironic turn of why the event even makes the papers. Good stuff!

[Maria Di Biase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il kit southern: colpa, violenza e innocenza

Per comprendere la narrativa di Williams non si può prescindere dalla sua storia personale. Thomas Williams nacque nel 1911 a Columbus, nel Mississippi. Scoprì di essere omosessuale abbastanza giovane e restò segnato dalla morte del nonno, nel quale aveva trovato l’approvazione che non ottenne da suo padre perché troppo distante dal prototipo del maschio del Sud. Ansioso, ipocondriaco e claustrofobico, Williams era preda di mille nevrosi.
La sua scrittura segue un andamento irregolare: ogni storia, che sia un dramma o che sia un racconto, comincia con un'introduzione lenta e ponderata, come i classici C’era una volta delle fiabe, e poi precipita, qualche volta troppo velocemente. È come se avesse il timore di non riuscire a dire "la cosa importante" abbastanza bene e abbastanza in fretta. Sembra descrivere se stesso, nel racconto Rubio y morena:

Scriveva nel modo in cui aveva sempre fatto l’amore, con un senso di apprensione, con fretta cieca e febbrile come se avesse paura di non essere capace di completare l’atto.

Ma, e questa è la parte migliore, il messaggio giunge nel bel mezzo del racconto come un’esplosione, una verità che Williams rivela sempre in modo eccezionale.

Perciò: Il posto di Tennessee Williams nella southern gothic literature

[Emilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Perhaps all adversaries are larger than Olga, for she is almost as large as the afternoon she lies under."


"The days behind her were like an unclear, fuzzy negative of a film that faded when exposed to the present. They were like a dull piece of thread she would like to cut and be done with. Yes, to be done with forever, like a thread from a raveled hem that catches on things when you walk. But where had she put the scissors?"

"Oh, yes, for a while she would seem to be thinking of something. But in the end it was always pretty much like a lump of sugar making strenuous efforts to preserve its integrity in a steamingly warm cup of tea. THe cubic shape of a thought would not keep. It relaxed and dissolved and spread out flat on the bottom or drifted away."

[Acrasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una raccolta di racconti in cui il disagio, le difficoltà e la miseria dei protagonisti sono il filo conduttore. Storie drammatiche di persone che si trovano ai margini della società e per le quali non c'è possibilità di rivalsa.
Ci viene raccontata con una delicatezza disarmante l'America dei vinti, di un'umanità tormentata.
La lettura, lenta e malinconica, mi ha trascinato per giorni in questo mondo di oppressi senza però trasmettermi angoscia o pena, mi sono invece sentita paradossalmente in sintonia con ogni singolo personaggio.

[Theut · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un'America fatta da persone lontane dal clichè dei vincenti: un'umanità sull'orlo della bancarotta, del degrado, dello sfinimento provato per sè stessi. Alcuni dei racconti sono dei piccoli capolavori.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a random pick-up from the Portsmouth Public Library. What attracted me to this old tome was the blue striped hardcover (no book jacket). I would have weeded this book years ago. I haven't read short stories in a long time and have forgotten how enjoyable they can be. It's like a rich chocolate, and a little piece is all you need.
These were not all winners, but 7 out of 9 is good odds. I especially liked the sense of place in "The Mattress by the Tomato Patch." It's set in Santa Monica, CA, in 1943 and the city is full of young couples eager to find a room to "release their passions."

[Andrew Dobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

“It is only the outside of one person’s world that is visible to others, and all opinions are false ones, especially public opinions of individual cases.”

Hard Candy is a book that contains 9 short (strange) stories. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the previous collection by Tennessee Williams, “The Caterpillar Dogs”.

Some of these were quite entertaining while others were a little too out there for me. My favorites were “Three Players of a Summer Game”, “Rubio Y Morena”, and “The Mattress by the Tomato Patch”.

[David Sterritt]

“Hard Candy: A Book of Stories” is Tennessee Williams’s second collection of short fiction, and while it doesn’t have quite an much bite and surprise as the earlier “One Arm and Other Stories,” it’s consistently brilliant, always richly poetic and often sublimely perverse. Hard to choose favorites, but the title story and its earlier variant, “The Mysteries of the Joy Rio,” are among the most splendid. He was truly one of the greatest American authors.

[Dillon Sickels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never has it taken me so long to finish a single book. I attribute this to the style of Tennessee Williams’s writing and not to the potency of his work. There are many good stories in this book which will stay with me for some time. If you’re a Williams fan and haven’t read this book I definitely recommend it. If you’ve never read Williams before, maybe start with some of his poetry, for I think you’ll find it more digestible than Hard Candy.

[Ally Carcich · Rating 4 out of 5]

brilliantly written — Williams’ writing has a disturbing beauty to get lost in. coming from his better known collection 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Williams’ continues this massive disturbance coupled with grounded realism, making the reader conflicted between adoration for the beauty of his written word and discouraged by the state of humanity

[Fenissa Holden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cinque stelline per i racconti "Ritratto di ragazza in vetro" e "Il campo dei bambini azzurri".

[Cole Brookson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suspect this falls into the category of just I didn’t get it not that it was bad

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Dev · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this short story collection after finishing Williams' "One Arm." I felt this collection didn't match the intensity of "One Arm" and finished the book underwhelmed. The pacing of "The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin" and a few others was very slow and outlandishly dull.
However, the title story, "Two on a Party" and "The Mattress by the Tomato Patch" had the satisfying and jarring impact that Williams delivers.
What took away from the book was that some stories tended to drag. Tennessee wants to say so much but he ends up repeating himself or focusing on too many unimportant details. Other times, Tennessee creates these vivid characters and scenarios that repulse you in the most wonderful of ways.

[Surrender Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

My, I don't even think I managed to finish all the stories in this little volume. It was all just so depressing (like most Tennessee Williams) and all the stories I read all revolved around sex and/or death (like most Tennessee Williams). I usually don't mind this, in fact I think usually prefer it. However, I guess most books I read are Melancholy and end with a sort of thoughtful sadness. I did like 'The Resemblance between a Coffin and a Violin Case' and 'The Mattress by the Tomato Patch' mainly because it had this one amazing sentence:

"These tomatoes are big as my fist, bloody red of color, and firm to the touch as a young swimmer's pectoral muscles."

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Increasingly disappointing collection of stories that starts out strong enough, but slowly becomes redundant and weak. The characters are reasonably solid throughout, but the arcs of the stories become very weak early enough, and by the end we're stuck with a final story that's nearly a literal retelling of one we've already read. Having known Williams from his plays, I had high hopes. Was consequently very disappointed by this.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

*Three Players of a Summer Game
*Two on a Party
*The Resemblance between a Violin Case and a Coffin
Hard Candy
Rubio y Morena
*The Mattress by the Tomato Patch
The Coming of Something to the Widow Holly
The Vine
The Mysteries of the Joy Rio--1
***
The Vengeance of Nitocris --3
*Desire and the Black Masseur
*The Field of Blue Children
Happy August the 10th
*The Yellow Bird

[Virginia Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Train-wreck characters. Interesting places. Strange interactions. Imperfectly perfect writing that is simultaneously not enough and just enough. Concise and to the point, with just enough room for odd details.

Favorite stories: Three Players Of A Summer Game, Two On A Party, Rubio Y Morena, The Mattress By The Tomato Patch, The Mysteries of the Joy Rio.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite story in this was "The Vine". I can't exactly say why I loved it so much, but I guess I just enjoyed how human it felt. I know that sounds strange, but really that's the only way I can find to describe it.

The other stories were good and well written, but "The Vine" is definitely my favorite!

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been really into Williams' plays recently, but as a short story writer he doesn't work for me. The themes are all the same, even some of the characters and lines are the same, but this collection mostly felt stale and dull.

[Brujarosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Williams' clean,crisp writing style lures the reader to trusting him;even as he spins stories filled with singular characters in interesting situations. He uses language to create amazing, detailed images of a certain time in American culture.

[Donkeyballs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy stories. But memorable. Startlingly unlike his plays.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tennessee Williams is a literary god. Brilliant.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a short story lover. These are all so well written, the first is my favorite.

[Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

boy oh boy do i love this man's tickling voice inside my head.

[patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given that this book was first published in 1954, I wonder how many early readers experienced a bit of southern discomfort with these shorts.

[Jay Cardam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Williams is without peer in American Writing. No other way to say it, magic and beauty in words!

[Ryan Juno · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a sequel to Cat on a Hot Tin roof, praise be

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites: Three Players of a Summer Game, Two on a Party, Rubio y Morena, The Mysteries of the Joy Rio, Hard Candy

[Bob Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d never read Tennessee Williams before, and this book of short stories was excellent I thought.