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December 14, 2004

Book Bites #7

The book review section of yesterday’s SF Chronicle was dedicated to the Best Books of 2004. It’s a looong and inclusive list, punctuated with some of my personal faves like Julian Barnes’s “The Lemon Table.” But my most recent discovery didn’t make it, apparently because it wasn’t reviewed by the Chronicle this year, nor in a lot of places it ought to have been, I suspect. I picked up Joy Williams’s “Honored Guest” because the Atlantic Monthly’s Benjamin Schwarz named it as one of the year’s best. Halfway through the first story it was clear that I should have already been acquainted with Williams’s work, but I plan to make up lost time post-haste with her novels, and for now “Honored Guest” is a great place to start.

I’ve read only five of the 12 stories so far, but I feel that rush of finding a writer you can return to for the rest of your life. The voice is quirky but deadpan: when Miriam, the main character of “Congress,” begins telepathically communicating with a lamp made of deer hooves, it’s treated utterly matter-of-factly. These are serious stories about mortality: a daughter who knows she will soon lose her mother; a mother who must host a funeral reception for the junk-head friends of her just deceased son. The characters—like an alcoholic who finds purpose visiting a mental hospital—are disconnected, befuddled by the absurdity of death. The symbolism in each story is just weird enough to give you pause, just curiously apt enough to strike a chord of realization. In terms of craft, the choices made in each story are so bold you can’t distill pat lessons from them, just marvel at their effect. These have to be freeing stories for anyone who’s sat through one too many writing workshops. I can’t wait to read the rest.

Posted by Rachel at December 14, 2004 12:17 AM

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