Romancer Erector

by Diane Williams

Famous for her works of "flash fiction" which capture life, love, and contradiction in a single page, Diane Williams continues to forge her own innovative tradition in this new collection. Including over three dozen short stories along with three novellas, ROMANCER ERECTOR is her boldest collection to date. Here she once again astonishes us with her distinctive voice, detached yet fiercely intimate. As one critic writes: "the effect is original, as if a strange little memory has insinuated itself into the reader's own memory, to remain there...incapable of assimilation." Like intricately wrapped gifts, these tales deliver the hidden, the haunted, the charms, the bell, the mansions inside of the human heart.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Diane 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."

Reviews

[Christopher Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Romancer Erector might just be Diane Williams’ strangest, most obscure collection to date. Which, if you’re at all familiar with her work, you know that’s really saying something.

Truly an oddity among oddities. I could spend the rest of my life rereading these stories and still get no closer to decoding them. And so I will. Very happily.

If you, like me, enjoy the incomprehensible and irresolvable, look no further. Everyone else, steer well clear.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Diane Williams book. What deep, disturbing psychological relationships and 'dark' sexuality! I don't entirely understand it all (does anyone?) To read Williams is to hook into her prose on a visceral level, to enter into the language through image and unconscious. There's something smart going on in these little stories, too, though I couldn't explain that either. I imagine you are either bowed by her or hate her. Give her a try and see which.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very complex and dark. I wrote an essay on the story "Romancer Erector" and through my analysis of the piece found myself both deeply disturbed and isolated from the text -not because it was in any way poorly written, but rather because I did not want to be a part of the world.

It is incredible and weird, just... not everyone's cup of tea.

[Steven Felicelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben Marcus mode - or vice-versa, not sure who came first

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I read Diane Williams, the less I understand, and for that, I am grateful.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I read Diane Williams, the more I can longer concentrate on routine things. Matter-of-fact and with a cadence of a Wire song.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

When people ask me for an author recommendation, without hesitation I say two: Diane Williams and Haruki Murakami. Yes, two very different authors - but each have molded me in specific ways.

Diane Williams is obscure and her writing is inane (sometimes). She places you directly in the middle of a story and seemingly expects you to know just what is happening, yet that's the whole point. I loved this short collection, I love saying "romancer erector", I love Diane Williams.

Please read more of her!

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you want to syntax undone in the service of overturning status quo ideas, williams is your writer. i've never read anyone who wildly subverted the causal element like she does. her prose boggles, with humour-sadness, foible and resonant-innuendo. resonant-innuendo. want to read more of her "fiction".

[Vuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think it's "going over your head"? It's supposed to. Diane Williams really plays on the predictability of the narrative, and how what we come to expect from stories relates to what we expect from life. It's a brilliant satire, in this sense, and I found her particular brand of humour very refreshing. "The Penis Was Plenty Decent" Ha!

[ryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

this lady's language thrills me. she's succinct and precise in the most dreamlike, pensive way, and all these little glimpses cohere to a vision of a world both perverse and perfected.

[Flora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of beautiful, but pretentious.

[Josh]

Where has this book been all my life?

Well, now it lives in my pantry, next to the soy sauce and rotini, between Joyelle McSweeney's "Flet" and Ben Marcus's "The Age of Wire and String."

[Martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this one went over my head