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The Collected Stories of Diane Williams
The Collected Stories of Diane Williams brings together over three hundred new and previously published short fictions—distilled works of “unsettling brilliance” (Vanity Fair) that have rewritten the rules of the American short story
From Ben Marcus’s introduction to The Collected Stories of Diane Williams:
“Diane Williams has spent her long, prolific career concocting fictions of perfect strangeness, most of them no more than a page long. She’s a hero of the form: the sudden fiction, the flash fiction, whatever it’s being called these days by the genre naming conglomerate. The stories are short. They defy logic. They thumb their nose at conventional sense, or even unconventional sense. But if sense is in short supply in these texts, that leaves more room for splendor and sorrow and insight.”
From Ben Marcus’s introduction to The Collected Stories of Diane Williams:
“Diane Williams has spent her long, prolific career concocting fictions of perfect strangeness, most of them no more than a page long. She’s a hero of the form: the sudden fiction, the flash fiction, whatever it’s being called these days by the genre naming conglomerate. The stories are short. They defy logic. They thumb their nose at conventional sense, or even unconventional sense. But if sense is in short supply in these texts, that leaves more room for splendor and sorrow and insight.”
784 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2018
97 people are currently reading
1199 people want to read
About the author
Diane Williams
98 books151 followersDiane Williams is an American author, primarily of short stories. She lives in New York City and is the founder and editor of the literary annual NOON (est. 2000). She has published 8 books and taught at Bard College, Syracuse University and The Center for Fiction in New York City.
Her books have been reviewed in many publications, including the New York Times Book Review ("An operation worthy of a master spy, a double agent in the house of fiction") and The Los Angeles Times ("One of America's most exciting violators of habit is [Diane] Williams…the extremity that Williams depicts and the extremity of the depiction evoke something akin to the pity and fear that the great writers of antiquity considered central to literature. Her stories, by removing you from ordinary literary experience, place you more deeply in ordinary life. 'Isn't ordinary life strange?' they ask, and in so asking, they revivify and console”).
Jonathan Franzen describes her as "one of the true living heroes of the American avant-garde. Her fiction makes very familiar things very, very weird." Ben Marcus suggested that her "outrageous and ferociously strange stories test the limits of behavior, of manners, of language, and mark Diane Williams as a startlingly original writer worthy of our closest attention."
Her books have been reviewed in many publications, including the New York Times Book Review ("An operation worthy of a master spy, a double agent in the house of fiction") and The Los Angeles Times ("One of America's most exciting violators of habit is [Diane] Williams…the extremity that Williams depicts and the extremity of the depiction evoke something akin to the pity and fear that the great writers of antiquity considered central to literature. Her stories, by removing you from ordinary literary experience, place you more deeply in ordinary life. 'Isn't ordinary life strange?' they ask, and in so asking, they revivify and console”).
Jonathan Franzen describes her as "one of the true living heroes of the American avant-garde. Her fiction makes very familiar things very, very weird." Ben Marcus suggested that her "outrageous and ferociously strange stories test the limits of behavior, of manners, of language, and mark Diane Williams as a startlingly original writer worthy of our closest attention."
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June 8, 2019Discussed this book here: https://youtu.be/zQdkjmTKRio
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June 8, 2024The Greatest 25 Short Stories of All Time According to Forbes - #22: https://www.forbes.com/sites/entertai...
May 22, 2019
Diane Williams is the inverse of David Foster Wallace and an extension of Amy Hempel and I dislike them all for the same reason: reading intelligent people writing deliberately obtusely for the sake of looking smart is actually dumb as bricks. There's like 5 stories I liked here out of the 300 or so, but hey, at least I can say I've read William's canon now. And never need to again. 1.5 stars, rounded up.
January 11, 2023
"Long Stories," a shelf of anthologies I'm erratically working through.
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"This is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate" and "Some Sexual Success Stories Plus Other Stories in which God Might Choose to Appear"
Too austere to truly delight yet too nutty to be brooding, Williams doles out fun-sized morsels of vivid dread and anxious wonder. She's the one putting razors in your children's candy, because evidently no one else wants to help them cut the ties that bind. Frankly, though I enjoy the process of reading these, either I don't quite "get" flash fiction or it's not my preferred mode of prose-making (I'm disclosing my bias toward maximalism). But I'm striving to grow into it and through it. I tend to treat them as distended poems, torqued by the incessantly competing forces of sensation, perception, memory, thought, and thingness. The weirdness is just right, seeping from the molten nucleus of sex, death, and language. It's challenging, which is always good. The title of each offering floats above the body of the text and defiantly entices you to tether it with interpretation or understanding. Sometimes it works and other times it seems to be the worst kind of weirdness gone awry, the kind anyone who hates anything experimental--be it literature, music, film, anything that shirks the old solace of good form--always says is "just nonsense for the sake of nonsense!" No, but in fairness the hermetic object doesn't exactly invite you in. These are small enough that you can hold them and turn and turn and turn them until something opens up. Every one is not a winner but so what. The experience is some radioactive composite of hallucination, free association, banality, trauma, oneiric decomposition... essentially the inescapable and eternal via dolorosa you walk with the signifier on your back.
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Not one story makes sense. Not one sentence leaves sense unscathed.
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"This is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate" and "Some Sexual Success Stories Plus Other Stories in which God Might Choose to Appear"
Too austere to truly delight yet too nutty to be brooding, Williams doles out fun-sized morsels of vivid dread and anxious wonder. She's the one putting razors in your children's candy, because evidently no one else wants to help them cut the ties that bind. Frankly, though I enjoy the process of reading these, either I don't quite "get" flash fiction or it's not my preferred mode of prose-making (I'm disclosing my bias toward maximalism). But I'm striving to grow into it and through it. I tend to treat them as distended poems, torqued by the incessantly competing forces of sensation, perception, memory, thought, and thingness. The weirdness is just right, seeping from the molten nucleus of sex, death, and language. It's challenging, which is always good. The title of each offering floats above the body of the text and defiantly entices you to tether it with interpretation or understanding. Sometimes it works and other times it seems to be the worst kind of weirdness gone awry, the kind anyone who hates anything experimental--be it literature, music, film, anything that shirks the old solace of good form--always says is "just nonsense for the sake of nonsense!" No, but in fairness the hermetic object doesn't exactly invite you in. These are small enough that you can hold them and turn and turn and turn them until something opens up. Every one is not a winner but so what. The experience is some radioactive composite of hallucination, free association, banality, trauma, oneiric decomposition... essentially the inescapable and eternal via dolorosa you walk with the signifier on your back.
--------------------------
Not one story makes sense. Not one sentence leaves sense unscathed.
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April 8, 2023"...this is not literature. This is espionage" (197).
"...I have storyish ideas, but no story in me" (457).
After finishing this omnibus of Diane Williams's flash-fiction collections, reading and re-reading Ben Marcus's eloquent introduction, and scanning through reviewers' comments, it seems to me that what these stories do is stimulate us to primarily speculate. Williams stimulates not analysis or criticism of her work, but rather attempts to explain what it is like to read the work. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I tire of work that attempts to implode traditional writing (i.e. to subvert storytelling). It has its place, of course, but how many different ways can one produce work that is chiefly about breaking the rules? But perhaps this sort of prose is about awakening readers from a slumber: "When you know how it will turn out, you feel tired" (202).
So, that said, what was this like for me? Most of the time you get the feeling she is talking about something else. Williams takes Hemingway's advice--show, don't tell--to the extreme and gives us enough clues to spin or own stories. It's sort of like people-watching in a crowded space. The narrator flits from one person to another, oscillating between first- and third-person, weaving threads between strangers. The opening and closing sentences drop you in the middle of something. "Claudette's Head" is one of the more lucid stories and, I think, may rival "Hills Like White Elephants": "I am terrified I will be found out" (26).
Certain excerpts shine, however, dropped in at far-flung intervals though they are. "Their infant, who can understand their language better than his own, is listening" (156). "Many time a person seems fairly satisfied already but is so unsuspecting" (240). "I am one of those who keeps expecting the dark heart of human desire to be revealed to me" (268). "Living can provide a sense that everything has already happened" (283).
Many of the "stories" are strands of lingual matter, confounding logic. This reminds me of Gertrude Stein, exemplified by the Williams story "The Idea of Counting." Perhaps both are too avant for my guard, in which case maybe the point is to reveal more about myself than about the work.
"...I have storyish ideas, but no story in me" (457).
After finishing this omnibus of Diane Williams's flash-fiction collections, reading and re-reading Ben Marcus's eloquent introduction, and scanning through reviewers' comments, it seems to me that what these stories do is stimulate us to primarily speculate. Williams stimulates not analysis or criticism of her work, but rather attempts to explain what it is like to read the work. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I tire of work that attempts to implode traditional writing (i.e. to subvert storytelling). It has its place, of course, but how many different ways can one produce work that is chiefly about breaking the rules? But perhaps this sort of prose is about awakening readers from a slumber: "When you know how it will turn out, you feel tired" (202).
So, that said, what was this like for me? Most of the time you get the feeling she is talking about something else. Williams takes Hemingway's advice--show, don't tell--to the extreme and gives us enough clues to spin or own stories. It's sort of like people-watching in a crowded space. The narrator flits from one person to another, oscillating between first- and third-person, weaving threads between strangers. The opening and closing sentences drop you in the middle of something. "Claudette's Head" is one of the more lucid stories and, I think, may rival "Hills Like White Elephants": "I am terrified I will be found out" (26).
Certain excerpts shine, however, dropped in at far-flung intervals though they are. "Their infant, who can understand their language better than his own, is listening" (156). "Many time a person seems fairly satisfied already but is so unsuspecting" (240). "I am one of those who keeps expecting the dark heart of human desire to be revealed to me" (268). "Living can provide a sense that everything has already happened" (283).
Many of the "stories" are strands of lingual matter, confounding logic. This reminds me of Gertrude Stein, exemplified by the Williams story "The Idea of Counting." Perhaps both are too avant for my guard, in which case maybe the point is to reveal more about myself than about the work.
October 25, 2018
Yes, I longed for this book and here it is! I am so glad of it. All the stories, in one sturdy book. I’ve been reading Williams for many years now and it has always seemed to me that they are best read this way, in order. The early stories give a reader a little more to go on, then more and more one is left stranded in midair. It is a delight one learns, I think. The recent stories seem to circle around a bit, provide a little ground again -- but never much!
If you are new to Williams, I suggest you read a half dozen of the tiny stories themselves, rather than rely on anyone’s opinion, including mine. I adore to read these stories, to try to read them and fail, to lose my balance again and again. It’s an entirely different experience of reading than most people are accustomed to and it’s an experience I crave. I like very much to hang out in the strange atmosphere the stories create, to let my sensitivity to language be tuned by them.
But I have no idea how this translates, in terms of so-called “normal people”! I am admittedly the sort of person who reads Gertrude Stein for fun. I enjoy difficulty, at least in prose. To me, the tiny size of the stories is so inviting. I love to practice paying attention in this way. Or, as I like to joke, If everything is entirely straightforward, how can I be distracted from the wretched condition of my life? I am, in short, a tortured soul. As such, I adore these stories.
(If you are contemplating the splurge of purchasing a hardcover, for me a very rare occurrence, I note happily that this is an exceptionally beautiful book. It is just as it should be. The typeface, cover, the sense of space, endpages. The interior of the book was done by Janine Agro, of Soho Press. I’ve never mentioned a book designer in a review before -- but this is utterly beautiful work, done by someone who totally understood that it was crucial how the stories appeared on the page. Bravo.)
If you are new to Williams, I suggest you read a half dozen of the tiny stories themselves, rather than rely on anyone’s opinion, including mine. I adore to read these stories, to try to read them and fail, to lose my balance again and again. It’s an entirely different experience of reading than most people are accustomed to and it’s an experience I crave. I like very much to hang out in the strange atmosphere the stories create, to let my sensitivity to language be tuned by them.
But I have no idea how this translates, in terms of so-called “normal people”! I am admittedly the sort of person who reads Gertrude Stein for fun. I enjoy difficulty, at least in prose. To me, the tiny size of the stories is so inviting. I love to practice paying attention in this way. Or, as I like to joke, If everything is entirely straightforward, how can I be distracted from the wretched condition of my life? I am, in short, a tortured soul. As such, I adore these stories.
(If you are contemplating the splurge of purchasing a hardcover, for me a very rare occurrence, I note happily that this is an exceptionally beautiful book. It is just as it should be. The typeface, cover, the sense of space, endpages. The interior of the book was done by Janine Agro, of Soho Press. I’ve never mentioned a book designer in a review before -- but this is utterly beautiful work, done by someone who totally understood that it was crucial how the stories appeared on the page. Bravo.)
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October 25, 2018I believe I actually swooned when I saw that The Collected Stories of Diane Williams was on NetGalley. I have been reading and writing flash fiction since around 2002. In fact, I love it so much that I wrote my master’s thesis on it (which included an exploration of some of Diane Williams’ work from her collection Excitability). Revered NOON editor Williams is a master of the form and these stories are each excellent examples. This collection, featuring an introduction by Ben Marcus, is a gift for Williams’ fans and will surely be a delight for those who are new to her work. —Myf (excerpted from Bookish's Staff Reads)
November 18, 2022
These stories aren't for everyone, or even anyone, really. You may love or hate these works, but either way you can't deny that Williams has always been an uncompromising prose artist, totally committed to her unique vision and voice.
Personally, I found this massive collection intensely peculiar, funny, addictive, absorbing, beguiling, and absolutely beautiful.
Diane Williams is a singularity I'll be returning to again and again until I'm dead.
Highly recommended if you've got a taste for the odd and irresolvable in literature.
Personally, I found this massive collection intensely peculiar, funny, addictive, absorbing, beguiling, and absolutely beautiful.
Diane Williams is a singularity I'll be returning to again and again until I'm dead.
Highly recommended if you've got a taste for the odd and irresolvable in literature.
February 17, 2019
This reminded me of reading Donald Barthelme, who I thought I would like but didn't. I like short stories, but apparently there is such a thing as "too short." I wondered, "Oh, maybe there's some hidden backstory I'm missing and I need to reread these." How much backstory can you build in two pages? I honestly have no memory of any of the stories.
Maybe folks who like poetry would like this. Not me.
Maybe folks who like poetry would like this. Not me.
December 5, 2018
I consider myself to be fairly sophisticated when it comes to fiction: don't read romance, don't even go for Harry Potter-type fantasy. Ottessa Moshfegh, Jennifer Egan, (sometimes) Jonathan Franzen, Lauren Groff, Rachael Kushner, Kate Atkinson, Alice Munro, Jamie Quatro, George Saunders...I believe I've made my point. So, when I read an interesting interview with Ms. Williams in a recent issue of The New York Times, I figured I'd shell out the $30 to buy her book, I mean it's over 700 pages and she's supposed to be brilliant...right? I'd be getting my money's worth.
Oh, no, so wrong, so very very wrong. This book has shot to the top of my short-list of the worst books I've ever read, all of them in the past few years. I've tried, tried to finish it because the longest stories are only two pages but I can't. Half-way through, reading the ludicrous "novella" that she throws in in the middle I decided that I've had enough. Now though I have to decide what I want to do with this word salad: I would never offer it to a friend, not one I want to keep anyway, and I feel guilty giving it to the Goodwill, which is what I always do at the end of the year with the books I know I will never read again. I can't imagine this book sitting on the Goodwill shelves, I'd have nightmares about being the person that donated it.
This book reminds me of an old, very old, 60 Minutes that Morley Safer hosted about modern art. I believe the episode was broadcast in the late 70s. Safer visited a few galleries that were showing paintings that were contemporary, modern art and most of them, if not all, were quite awful, which Safer managed to get across to viewers with an occasional arched brow as he spoke to a curator who was going on and on about the piece. Sometimes people think that they have to like something even if it's horrid, just so they'll look like they're "with it", that they "get it."
Well, I'm here to say that I don't "get" Ms. Williams writing, not at all. Do people think it's cool to like her because most of her stories are about sex? Because she uses words like "cunt", "cock", "vulva", because she talks about sucking penises and having penises shoved up her ass? I have no idea, but I do know that she's no Anais Nin, whose erotic writing I've enjoyed immensely over the years.
Williams has said that when her sons got older one of them read her stories and said something to the effect that he could never forgive her or look at her the same way again. I think he was probably embarrassed to death by how truly awful these stories are. If she knows what she's talking about, good for her, but this reader doesn't and frankly, I don't care to spend my time trying to decipher fifteen or twenty sentences strung together like mis-matched beads on a string, with an occasional sausage thrown in for good measure.
This is an awful book!
Oh, no, so wrong, so very very wrong. This book has shot to the top of my short-list of the worst books I've ever read, all of them in the past few years. I've tried, tried to finish it because the longest stories are only two pages but I can't. Half-way through, reading the ludicrous "novella" that she throws in in the middle I decided that I've had enough. Now though I have to decide what I want to do with this word salad: I would never offer it to a friend, not one I want to keep anyway, and I feel guilty giving it to the Goodwill, which is what I always do at the end of the year with the books I know I will never read again. I can't imagine this book sitting on the Goodwill shelves, I'd have nightmares about being the person that donated it.
This book reminds me of an old, very old, 60 Minutes that Morley Safer hosted about modern art. I believe the episode was broadcast in the late 70s. Safer visited a few galleries that were showing paintings that were contemporary, modern art and most of them, if not all, were quite awful, which Safer managed to get across to viewers with an occasional arched brow as he spoke to a curator who was going on and on about the piece. Sometimes people think that they have to like something even if it's horrid, just so they'll look like they're "with it", that they "get it."
Well, I'm here to say that I don't "get" Ms. Williams writing, not at all. Do people think it's cool to like her because most of her stories are about sex? Because she uses words like "cunt", "cock", "vulva", because she talks about sucking penises and having penises shoved up her ass? I have no idea, but I do know that she's no Anais Nin, whose erotic writing I've enjoyed immensely over the years.
Williams has said that when her sons got older one of them read her stories and said something to the effect that he could never forgive her or look at her the same way again. I think he was probably embarrassed to death by how truly awful these stories are. If she knows what she's talking about, good for her, but this reader doesn't and frankly, I don't care to spend my time trying to decipher fifteen or twenty sentences strung together like mis-matched beads on a string, with an occasional sausage thrown in for good measure.
This is an awful book!
August 9, 2018
Flash fiction is a difficult genre to master, but Diane Williams is arguably the best contemporary author of the form. From the first story, you’ll be drawn to her characters and her ability to capture a fully realized moment in the span of one to two pages. Some of her stories are ironic, others joyful, and even others devastatingly relatable, but what each of her stories does is awaken and affect the reader with a keen emotional capacity. Though they are just snapshots, this collection of stories is abrasive and addictive, making you ask hard questions about happiness, love, loss, greed, and apathy while compelling you forward with each new narrative. If you want to truly experience the feeling of reading great flash fiction, look no further than Diane Williams.
October 4, 2018
A strong selection of stories and vignettes covering a wide spectrum of moments and human emotion. Williams certainly knows how to say a great deal in a wonderfully concise manner, and many of the stories in this book are like a sharp shock to the system. In a collection this size it was inevitable that some shorts would be stronger than others, but even the weaker stories were still very readable.
Definitely one of the superior writers of flash fiction out there.
This was an ARC in exchange for an honest review. With kind thanks to Netgalley and Soho Press.
Definitely one of the superior writers of flash fiction out there.
This was an ARC in exchange for an honest review. With kind thanks to Netgalley and Soho Press.
May 31, 2020
I understand all of the words Williams uses, but not the way she uses them. There's so much here! Every line, every warped sentence. Sometimes I'd finish a paragraph-long story and have no idea what I just read. And then after other stories I'd look up from the page and the whole world would be a different shape. I'll come back to these stories over and over again, because there's so much in them that I haven't learned, haven't experienced.
March 11, 2022
flash fiction is becoming one of my favorite mediums of fiction — i love the way williams treats it almost like a collection of poems — they all live in the same world. the ending sentences of many have gotten lodged w me, this section in particular: “But all this is not about failed love.
Somebody please tell me that this is all about something else entirely which is more important.
Somebody smarter and dearer than I, be the one available for my best, my most tenderest embrace when I have been convinced by you.
I could be a believer.”
Somebody please tell me that this is all about something else entirely which is more important.
Somebody smarter and dearer than I, be the one available for my best, my most tenderest embrace when I have been convinced by you.
I could be a believer.”
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December 29, 2020Ενδιαφέρον αυτό που κάνει η Diane Williams από την άποψη ότι καταγίνεται με ένα τελείως προσωπικό είδος και κατ' επέκταση φτιάχνει ένα δικό της κόσμο όπου οι λέξεις και τα νοήματα διαμορφώνουν τους δικούς τους (όχι απόλυτα λογικούς) δεσμούς. Απολύτως σεβαστό ως έκφραση αλλά κατά την ταπεινή μου άποψη ολότελα εγκεφαλικό. Κάποιες ιστορίες έχουν ένα ενδιαφέρον ως προς τη σύλληψη τους αλλά η σύντομη δομή τους τις αφήνει ουσιαστικά ανολοκλήρωτες.
March 16, 2021
This is one of the most beautiful things I've put into my head.
April 1, 2019
This is a challenging book, over 700 pages with more than 300 stories in it. I didn't read the whole thing, but may return to it in the future. Williams is a master of flash fiction combining the elements of a story into a space sometimes as small as one paragraph with no more than a half a dozen lines. As expected many off the stories are mysterious. It's impossible to explain everything in such a short space. Often the reader feels as if he is left hanging wondering "what?" and "why?" But the stories are satisfying also in that so much of our lives is like these stories; complex, transitory, startling, and unpredictable. Read it and see what you think.
November 16, 2020
Was intrigued to read this. She's the godmother of flash fiction, some say. I believe it. The stories are incredibly cryptic and poem-like--but she's firm about them being stories which is vastly reassuring to me as I 1) want to emulate this style and 2) don't want to write poems. These are probably prose poems on a certain level but I feel I have permission to do things I didn't before reading her work. Gonna be a watershed book for me.
Indispensable if you're considering writing flash-fiction.
Indispensable if you're considering writing flash-fiction.
October 19, 2019
A couple of months after reading it, I have absolutely no idea of what the fuck I read, but I remember liking it a lot.
February 7, 2020
It could be argued that this is the only book you'll ever need. Open it to any page (this is the way to read it) and you'll find a surprise.
October 17, 2020
The briefness and abstraction of her stories is odd and inspiring, throwing the imagination into sympatico.
November 19, 2021
Some of these stories are really wonderful. Others are not.
And that is the problem.
And that is the problem.
August 31, 2022
I think we have a new contender for the Most Divisive Book Award. This book really seems to divide the room. You've some people who love it and others who just seem to hate it!
Some seem to hate it and call it needlessly 'intellectual'. Which is really just code for, 'I don't understand it, so I hate it.'
And that might seem dismissive of me... but I can't account for it any other way really. Aside from a few witty linguistic moments and a dose of playfulness, there's really very little of the 'intellectual' about these stories. They're perhaps even deceptively simple at times. They articulate really basic impulses in a pared back form.
But I chalk it up to the fact that people who consider themselves smart rarely use the term 'I didn't like this' and tend towards the more banal 'This book is awful'. As if their opinion mattered to anyone else... least of all to me...
Others are against it because it presents a very raw and honest portrayal of female sexuality.
Which I can only read as the same as the intellectual approach... You're disliking it based on your own prejudice and not based on the work itself. That's dumb. Smart people move beyond personal taste... just FYI.
Anyway the book seems to make people think that there's some punchline they're not getting and it makes them very embarrassed...
Which is what you get when you over-intellectualise things and you're trapped by patriarchal ideas. You're left with a situation where you're only comfortable with spoonfed ideas and boring sex.
These stories are just raw expressions. They work brilliantly at generating a sort of cognitive white noise where only the words/thoughts on the page are left and they become really brilliantly emotionally charged.
They're written in a format that makes space for the universality of the ideas/worries/passions/anxieties to manifest clearly and unfiltered...
And it takes a smart writer to make that work... but the stories themselves... approach them joyfully and openly and you'll get it.
In short. I really loved this one. It was potentially a quick read, but I savoured it over a long while. You might read it and dislike her based on the repetitive nature of her work (there's a free legitimate criticism you guys can use... if you're interested), but when you read it slowly over a long period, those circular orbits of theme and event become quite nostalgia inducing and familiar. Five stars well earned.
July 9, 2024
Stories are an outlandish term for what Diane Williams writes. One might not read them for plot or arrangement or description, accurately, even though those things rear up every now and then. Williams is the avant-garde master of ‘mini fiction’. This assembled collection contains over 300 new and heretofore published short fictions, each of which is wonderful in its own right. This colossal book brings together her previous seven volumes of fiction as well as a new batch of stories. For any fan of Williams’ writing, this is an essential collection. And for a unpremeditated or newer reader, it is an irresistible opus that spans from 1990 to now and contains hundreds of stories and numerous novellas. Williams walks the line, recurrently, amid the world of rudimentary, corporeal satisfaction and the dominion of distress, in which her sweeping intelligence sounds the depths to which our human existence is isolated, our contact with the divine unpredictable, and our language outmoded. Her instinct and intuition guide her along this tightrope. When reading this book, the reader should look for no mere nugget; she should look in its place for the risk-taking management of characters, plot, and language itself, which amuses us and enriches us.
July 15, 2023
This was such an engaging read. Williams' short stories are structured almost like jokes, even at their bleakest and most grim, and their gleeful divorce from reality (and from expectations of narrative structure) makes them all the more fun - and their incongruous grimness all the more impactful. I'm not personally a fan of stories which reference sex seemingly just for shock value or to imbue themselves with an associated trait of the idea of sex, and that is a frequently-made choice in this oeuvre, but the stories are still good and enough of them exist without that choice, either by centering sex to great thematic relevance or by eliding it as an accessory in pursuit of directly engaging with the topics and themes at hand, that I had a good time. There are like 310 stories in here - three of them are novellas - so there's bound to be something worth reading for you.
October 9, 2023
Authors often walk a fine line with ambiguity and shock value, especially when it comes to sex, but when it works, it’s worth it. When it doesn’t, you almost feel embarrassed for reading the darn thing. Diane Williams’ stories fall somewhere in the middle. I’m not a prude, but it feels like the shock is its own point in most of these stories, making me less interested in the ambiguity or actual ideas. Here’s someone who writes that there must be something more (than sex) just before proceeding to mostly write about only that. Some turns of phrase are genuinely stunning, but between all the edginess and more dropping of the author’s own name than a rapper the true beauty gets crowded out. I could be wrong, but in this case I don’t see much there there.
June 3, 2022
This book is disgusting, and that is why I read all 764 pages of it over the course of a few days, whenever I wasn't eating, sleeping, or having sex. That is also why I (1) gave it away, and (2) within days had to buy the book again, realizing it was an essential reference book for life. These surrealist short-shorts are sexy and revealing. Diane Williams is now an ex lover, the kind you come back to at times of weakness. Thank god she continues to write, even after this “complete collection” was compiled in 2018. I will invest in Volume II when it is released, even if it is also so fat that it's hard to hold in one's lap while reading.
May 18, 2023
I really like flash fiction and this was touted as one of the truly innovative flash fiction collections. These stories, however, felt as if the author started with a well-constructed sentence, many times chosen for shock value, which was strung together with a surreal group of other sentences with no cohesion or thought. Often, the stories ended with a statement that had nothing to do with the story itself. I persevered and read all 764 pages, hoping for at least a bright spot but never encountered one.
February 25, 2024
DNF’ed halfway through—I wanted to love this, it was a selection from our local library’s blind date with a book, and in theory it should be up my alley—but flash fiction is just not for me. I’m sure it’s a lot of people’s cup of tea and Dianne Williams is a great author, but I probably won’t be exploring this genre again, personally.
September 22, 2025
Through all my ups and downs and confusions about the work of Diane Williams, I would still take this brick to a desert island with me, especially if I had my own notebook to write in in response. Sometimes baffling, but often strange and brilliant, Miss Williams has been a long time favorite puzzle, a genre of her own.
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