Ninety-Nine Stories of God [Hardcover]

Wry and playful, except for when densely allusive and willfully obtuse,?[The stories in?[Q]uietly splendid. . . . I believe in art, andNot many writers can launch a premise like The Lord was in line at the pharmacy counter waiting to get His shingles shot without falling into gimmickry, but Williamslong known as a master story writertwists the scenario to an eerily moving effect.Williams says more in a page-long scene than most can say in a chapter; it's fitting, then, that her very short collectionRead together,Read together,While Marilynn Robinson (stately, assured) is so often held up as the major Christian believer in American letters, I would argue that, along with Annie Dillard, Joy Williams is the true seeker.Masterly . . . Ms. Williams is her usual funny, irreverent self. Each story is beautifully strange and meditative in an unexpected but glorious way. . . .?Much like the divine, Williams prose is simple and brutal, thoughtful and haunting.The most beguiling book of the summer is this little collection of 99 very short stories about God. The catch is that the brilliantly twisted Joy Williams is behind the stories, which means the Lord finds himself at a hotdog-eating contest or in line for a shingles vaccination.[T]hese stories are 100% Williams: funny, unsettling, and mysterious, to be puzzled over and enjoyed across multiple readings.I would follow the trail of Joy Williamss wordsalways beautiful, compelling, and so wiseanywhere they led.These modern fables and skewed vignettes make the implausible plausible. Compression, as done by Joy Williams, extends the reach of her stories.Each story, like living tissue, is a reliquary that makes something splendid of our most secret agonies and desires.These stories are as full of surprises as a Noahs Ark filled with mystical beasts, three of each.Joy WilliamssThe word count of this slender, extraordinary collection belies the density and combustibility of its contenl3(