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Hard Candy
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.
220 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1954
About the author
Tennessee Williams
786 books3,893 followersThomas 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
April 6, 2015
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 and the ending are even open to some discussion (. 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!
"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 and the ending are even open to some discussion (. 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!
April 27, 2017
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:
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
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
May 20, 2011
"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."
"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."
November 23, 2017
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.
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.
July 20, 2020
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.
August 20, 2026
Unequal stories!
A few excellent ones, a few which are are a clear pass.
Writing short notes on each (for myself, mostly! I think you'll see what I love of Tennessee Williams and what doesn't work so much for me).
I'd read Rubio y Morena, The Vine and The Mysteries of the Joy Rio before starting, since I was reading from the complete Collected Stories collection, which is in chronological writing order.
But I rectified this once I reached Three Players of a Summer Game, and read the remainder in order.
Three Players of a Summer Game 4/5
Grim, so quietly grim in its depiction of Southern respectability and how it impacts women, of masculine self-delusion and alcoholism... but really well-done. The emotional impact all comes from the detached narrator, and from the excellent dialogue that reveals much in what it doesn't say (the way the mother circles around the matter when talking to her daughter!! aaaah).
Interesting to see the original "foundation" of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, I didn't expect it to involve such a different viewpoint/different characters altogether. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof feels like the "sequel".
Two on a Party 4/5
Aaah, slightly melting for this one... I like the romantic side of Tennessee Williams a lot, and this focus on two outsiders on a cruising road trip through America is pretty sweet. Well, there is still unfulfilled, bittersweet love, and even sexual violence... but much respite from it also. I liked it.
The Resemblance between a Violin Case and a Coffin 3.5/5
The pacing can be grating, and the tone too, but overall, I liked it a lot! There's… a lot of sadness to unpack in this dual sexual awakening story focusing on a younger brother and his slightly older sister, impacted by adolescence/gender expectations in very different & cruel ways.
Again, the heavy lid of Southern respectable moral rules within the family (with overtones of Portrait of a Girl in Glass / The Glass Menagerie with the focus on a timid daughter); the whole thing makes me pretty sad, but the minute pacing and the necessity of the younger brother point of view can make the reading a bit of a pain at times.
Hard Candy 2.5/5
It seems others found it valuable, but I… did not enjoy it much at all, personally...
Maybe because I'd already read The Mysteries of the Joy Rio before due to the chronological order of the stories in Collected Stories: both stories prominently feature the Joy Rio setting, but where The Mysteries of the Joy Rio is an absolute favourite of mine, I simply could not deal with the considerable meanness and smallness of everything here.
This isn't the first story of his to feature (from my reading at least! it can be debated otherwise in this case), but I couldn't deal with the added meanness of the narrator to pretty much everyone in this story: the protagonist (with so much emphasis on his fatness, old age, set ways of thinking and moving), his mean family, his exploitative . Nothing and no one to salvage.
A tad too cynical and hopeless for me, could not enjoy it very much.
Rubio y Morena 2.5/5
Hmmm, not much to say, but personally did not enjoy it much either: the romance simply did not work for me (again, too mean, plus the regrettable exotification), and the ending did not manage to rectify much.
The Mattress by the Tomato Patch 3.5/5
A good one! Full of desire and of realistic disappointment/acceptance of them too, but in a way that transcends both, and that's carried by the prose. I hope Williams really had such a summer in his California screenwriting period, I could really feel it and enjoy it.
The Coming of Something to the Widow Holly 2/5
Hm. In Collected Stories, there are several other stories dealing with chaotic rooming houses with awful, grimy tenants full of meanness and petty concerns.
This one is no exception. Hard, hard pass.
The Vine ??/5
Aaaaah. I think this one is maybe the hardest to read for me. It's infuriating, a couple scenes made me gasp (I'll mention two short instances of sexual assault). I felt suffocated by the man's self-conscious concerns through the whole thing, which is definitely part of the point: it's absolutely pathetic, but it works... I'm forced to grant as much. Broadly, set a lot of gears running at the same time regarding masculinity, expectations of sexual prowess; it's rare too see it so nakedly described.
Many of the looping sentences from the protagonist's regretful, anxious mind here feel like they could summarise a fair share of Tennessee Williams's concerns and output, at least when he deals with men (aging and sexual vanity, fleeting salvation through intimacy).
The ending partly infuriates me and yet is so Williams and poignant that I'm sort of forced to bow down after all.
The Mysteries of the Joy Rio 4.5/5
Re-read it at the end since I'd read it out-of-order the first time. Still works as well, heart-breaking in its quiet pathos, in the "split" lives of both protagonists.
Again, a single story that seems to concentrate so much of Williams (at least re:men): "Those are the times when you have got to remember that other times you will find it, not this time but the next time, or the time after that, and then you’ve got to be able to go home without it, yes, those times are the times when you have got to be able to go home without it, go home alone without it".
This might be my favourite.
A few excellent ones, a few which are are a clear pass.
Writing short notes on each (for myself, mostly! I think you'll see what I love of Tennessee Williams and what doesn't work so much for me).
I'd read Rubio y Morena, The Vine and The Mysteries of the Joy Rio before starting, since I was reading from the complete Collected Stories collection, which is in chronological writing order.
But I rectified this once I reached Three Players of a Summer Game, and read the remainder in order.
Three Players of a Summer Game 4/5
Grim, so quietly grim in its depiction of Southern respectability and how it impacts women, of masculine self-delusion and alcoholism... but really well-done. The emotional impact all comes from the detached narrator, and from the excellent dialogue that reveals much in what it doesn't say (the way the mother circles around the matter when talking to her daughter!! aaaah).
Interesting to see the original "foundation" of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, I didn't expect it to involve such a different viewpoint/different characters altogether. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof feels like the "sequel".
Two on a Party 4/5
Aaah, slightly melting for this one... I like the romantic side of Tennessee Williams a lot, and this focus on two outsiders on a cruising road trip through America is pretty sweet. Well, there is still unfulfilled, bittersweet love, and even sexual violence... but much respite from it also. I liked it.
The Resemblance between a Violin Case and a Coffin 3.5/5
The pacing can be grating, and the tone too, but overall, I liked it a lot! There's… a lot of sadness to unpack in this dual sexual awakening story focusing on a younger brother and his slightly older sister, impacted by adolescence/gender expectations in very different & cruel ways.
Again, the heavy lid of Southern respectable moral rules within the family (with overtones of Portrait of a Girl in Glass / The Glass Menagerie with the focus on a timid daughter); the whole thing makes me pretty sad, but the minute pacing and the necessity of the younger brother point of view can make the reading a bit of a pain at times.
Hard Candy 2.5/5
It seems others found it valuable, but I… did not enjoy it much at all, personally...
Maybe because I'd already read The Mysteries of the Joy Rio before due to the chronological order of the stories in Collected Stories: both stories prominently feature the Joy Rio setting, but where The Mysteries of the Joy Rio is an absolute favourite of mine, I simply could not deal with the considerable meanness and smallness of everything here.
This isn't the first story of his to feature (from my reading at least! it can be debated otherwise in this case), but I couldn't deal with the added meanness of the narrator to pretty much everyone in this story: the protagonist (with so much emphasis on his fatness, old age, set ways of thinking and moving), his mean family, his exploitative . Nothing and no one to salvage.
A tad too cynical and hopeless for me, could not enjoy it very much.
Rubio y Morena 2.5/5
Hmmm, not much to say, but personally did not enjoy it much either: the romance simply did not work for me (again, too mean, plus the regrettable exotification), and the ending did not manage to rectify much.
The Mattress by the Tomato Patch 3.5/5
A good one! Full of desire and of realistic disappointment/acceptance of them too, but in a way that transcends both, and that's carried by the prose. I hope Williams really had such a summer in his California screenwriting period, I could really feel it and enjoy it.
The Coming of Something to the Widow Holly 2/5
Hm. In Collected Stories, there are several other stories dealing with chaotic rooming houses with awful, grimy tenants full of meanness and petty concerns.
This one is no exception. Hard, hard pass.
The Vine ??/5
Aaaaah. I think this one is maybe the hardest to read for me. It's infuriating, a couple scenes made me gasp (I'll mention two short instances of sexual assault). I felt suffocated by the man's self-conscious concerns through the whole thing, which is definitely part of the point: it's absolutely pathetic, but it works... I'm forced to grant as much. Broadly, set a lot of gears running at the same time regarding masculinity, expectations of sexual prowess; it's rare too see it so nakedly described.
Many of the looping sentences from the protagonist's regretful, anxious mind here feel like they could summarise a fair share of Tennessee Williams's concerns and output, at least when he deals with men (aging and sexual vanity, fleeting salvation through intimacy).
The ending partly infuriates me and yet is so Williams and poignant that I'm sort of forced to bow down after all.
The Mysteries of the Joy Rio 4.5/5
Re-read it at the end since I'd read it out-of-order the first time. Still works as well, heart-breaking in its quiet pathos, in the "split" lives of both protagonists.
Again, a single story that seems to concentrate so much of Williams (at least re:men): "Those are the times when you have got to remember that other times you will find it, not this time but the next time, or the time after that, and then you’ve got to be able to go home without it, yes, those times are the times when you have got to be able to go home without it, go home alone without it".
This might be my favourite.
April 6, 2008
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."
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."
July 22, 2023
“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”.
Read
September 4, 2020“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.
April 19, 2021
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.
August 4, 2023
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
November 4, 2021
Cinque stelline per i racconti "Ritratto di ragazza in vetro" e "Il campo dei bambini azzurri".
November 2, 2023
Suspect this falls into the category of just I didn’t get it not that it was bad
February 24, 2025
3.5 stars
September 14, 2026
This Tennessee guy sure knows how to write a sentence
December 15, 2011
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.
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.
May 19, 2012
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."
"These tomatoes are big as my fist, bloody red of color, and firm to the touch as a young swimmer's pectoral muscles."
August 23, 2012
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.
Want to Read
April 30, 2023Read so far:
Three Players of a Summer Game--2
*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
***
Desire and the Black Masseur
The Field of Blue Children
Happy August the 10th
The Vengeance of Nitocris --3
The Yellow Bird
Three Players of a Summer Game--2
*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
***
Desire and the Black Masseur
The Field of Blue Children
Happy August the 10th
The Vengeance of Nitocris --3
The Yellow Bird
March 24, 2013
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.
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.
June 19, 2013
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!
The other stories were good and well written, but "The Vine" is definitely my favorite!
September 24, 2012
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.
August 14, 2014
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.
June 6, 2007
Creepy stories. But memorable. Startlingly unlike his plays.
June 13, 2007
Tennessee Williams is a literary god. Brilliant.
December 17, 2007
I'm a short story lover. These are all so well written, the first is my favorite.
June 18, 2008
boy oh boy do i love this man's tickling voice inside my head.
June 6, 2010
Given that this book was first published in 1954, I wonder how many early readers experienced a bit of southern discomfort with these shorts.
February 5, 2014
Williams is without peer in American Writing. No other way to say it, magic and beauty in words!
April 20, 2016
I got a sequel to Cat on a Hot Tin roof, praise be
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews