What do you think?
Some Sexual Success Stories Plus Other Stories in Which God Might Choose to Appear
Book by Williams, Diane
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
132 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Diane Williams
104 books154 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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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 15, 2013
in this collection, diane williams throws her sexuality, and the overall idea of human sexuality, into your face and does so so unabashedly that it makes you delight in her overt eroticism and squirm in sometimes awkward situations. it should be noted that most stories are so esoteric that it reads like a diary. also the concept of god pervades most stories in one way or another. although i would not consider reading this collection again (it gets its point across the first time over), you may find yourself thinking later "what the hell was i reading?" but not necessarily in a bad way.
January 23, 2022
When I was still a girl, I did this. When I get to you, you have such a stake in warmth and affection and you are drinking up your wine from a golden goblet. You have out the cracked mixing bowl and your steel spoon for you to mix with. The fire is the blue ring of light on your stove and your music is here. Flutes, I think, and entreaties from a gang of women. I suppose I am supposed to live or die without such a brilliant man as you.First, I have to climb a hill - not a lucky omen. Then it is easy going until the storm bursts out. In the storm, I hear the shouting. The people swearing to God. Wet again! I am heading to somewhere else I cannot stay, having such a good time, not lost, and I like to take breaths. I have been doing this. I did not make this up.
* * *
There's the baby who gets the bee sting. In my opinion, there's the baby carrying around a paperweight that, if he had dropped it on his bare foot, would or could have broken his foot.The mother of the babies has sprained her ankle, and chipped a bone in it, and she is using a cane to help her get around.Here's where the plot is thickening. Here's the plot: When the baby was stung, at first no one was sure what had happened, but then the mother said, "His arm is getting all pink." Not to go on and on - the sting was discovered on the tip of the baby's thumb. Finally - I was there - at the moment of the discovery, when just then: the baby stopped crying.I was the person who took the paperweight away from the baby. He walks. He's old enough to walk, just old enough, which is why I call him a baby. He was disappointed, but did not appear outraged, when I took the paperweight away from him. "You should not be carrying this around," I said.If this were an issue larger than the worry about human extinction, I would allow myself to think about it.Secretly, I believe the paperweight is an item which should never have existed, ever.The facts of the matter are complex, but this baby's power is nowhere limited. This baby's power is his renunciation of all power.
* * *
He moves around in his gloom and then he does something with something. He is calmer about his longings. He sits for a bit before he hears whatever it is. Hearing it gives him the sensation of holding on to a great instrument which is at work. He discovers a small square white cardboard box and he opens it. Inside is a disappointment. His children hold him responsible for everything he does. His house suits him.For some idea of the full range of tools at his disposal, one would have to know what human longings are all about, a calm voice says calmly.
- All New, pg. 23
* * *
There's the baby who gets the bee sting. In my opinion, there's the baby carrying around a paperweight that, if he had dropped it on his bare foot, would or could have broken his foot.The mother of the babies has sprained her ankle, and chipped a bone in it, and she is using a cane to help her get around.Here's where the plot is thickening. Here's the plot: When the baby was stung, at first no one was sure what had happened, but then the mother said, "His arm is getting all pink." Not to go on and on - the sting was discovered on the tip of the baby's thumb. Finally - I was there - at the moment of the discovery, when just then: the baby stopped crying.I was the person who took the paperweight away from the baby. He walks. He's old enough to walk, just old enough, which is why I call him a baby. He was disappointed, but did not appear outraged, when I took the paperweight away from him. "You should not be carrying this around," I said.If this were an issue larger than the worry about human extinction, I would allow myself to think about it.Secretly, I believe the paperweight is an item which should never have existed, ever.The facts of the matter are complex, but this baby's power is nowhere limited. This baby's power is his renunciation of all power.
- Naaa, pg. 74
* * *
He moves around in his gloom and then he does something with something. He is calmer about his longings. He sits for a bit before he hears whatever it is. Hearing it gives him the sensation of holding on to a great instrument which is at work. He discovers a small square white cardboard box and he opens it. Inside is a disappointment. His children hold him responsible for everything he does. His house suits him.For some idea of the full range of tools at his disposal, one would have to know what human longings are all about, a calm voice says calmly.
- Machinery, pg. 130
September 5, 2026
these stories are puzzling in a lispector kind of way, but beautiful and cathartic in a lispector kind of way all the same. I like the way that she sets up the scene and the characters in a super vague way because every new sentence is a turning point. I feel stylistically there's a lot to learn from re-reading these stories
June 10, 2018
https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/175234...
This was the first Diane Williams book I ever read and it came highly recommended in 1995 by my then-teacher Gordon Lish. Back then Gordon went to great lengths to verbosely champion the work of Diane Williams. And the book was certainly novel and unlike anything else I had ever read. Its novelty drew me in but unfortunately gave me no impetus to read anything else by her in the future. Recently I was offered an advance review copy of Williams’ forthcoming The Collected Stories of Diane Williams and began at the beginning as I am wont to do. This being the second book of her entire oeuvre in no way compares to her first book titled, This Is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate: Stories which was her amazing emergence into contemporary literature.
…The cause of my serenity may be that I am not ashamed to just go through the motions of having naked power and ambition, as in fucking.
This burgeoning is gratifying.
This was the first Diane Williams book I ever read and it came highly recommended in 1995 by my then-teacher Gordon Lish. Back then Gordon went to great lengths to verbosely champion the work of Diane Williams. And the book was certainly novel and unlike anything else I had ever read. Its novelty drew me in but unfortunately gave me no impetus to read anything else by her in the future. Recently I was offered an advance review copy of Williams’ forthcoming The Collected Stories of Diane Williams and began at the beginning as I am wont to do. This being the second book of her entire oeuvre in no way compares to her first book titled, This Is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate: Stories which was her amazing emergence into contemporary literature.
…The cause of my serenity may be that I am not ashamed to just go through the motions of having naked power and ambition, as in fucking.
This burgeoning is gratifying.
September 7, 2024
psst. it is actually 5*.
I've read Vicky a few months back and had mixed feelings.
But the book staid in my mind and I felt exploring more.
This time everything I felt the proper way to read is via Feynaman path integrals.
The "stories" are still jumbled, but now every incongruity felt like there is a bunch of possibilities with the boundary ones being: 1) it is truly a random jump and 2) it is a totally mundane jump, that you have no information about.
Between these two positions lies a wide field of interpretation freedom which makes the reading fun.
The writing is very conversational, but more sophisticated than meets the eye.
I don't know, what I'm taking away from this book, but I know that as entretainment (or "aesthetic aexperience") it is the bees knees.
I've read Vicky a few months back and had mixed feelings.
But the book staid in my mind and I felt exploring more.
This time everything I felt the proper way to read is via Feynaman path integrals.
The "stories" are still jumbled, but now every incongruity felt like there is a bunch of possibilities with the boundary ones being: 1) it is truly a random jump and 2) it is a totally mundane jump, that you have no information about.
Between these two positions lies a wide field of interpretation freedom which makes the reading fun.
The writing is very conversational, but more sophisticated than meets the eye.
I don't know, what I'm taking away from this book, but I know that as entretainment (or "aesthetic aexperience") it is the bees knees.
August 20, 2024
Sometimes right before bed I pull out a book of stories by Diane Williams and think, I'll just tear through a bunch of these now. So short! Then I read one, and read it fifteen more times trying to figure out what's going on, and put the book down after twenty minutes and two pages read, none the wiser. I enjoy this experience.
May 2, 2026
love me some D to the dubs. Inscrutable, hilarious— concerning? This was her second collection and while it’s not my favorite (her debut and The Stupefaction are my favs) it’s got some absolute magnificent work. I have a similar relationship to her work with Ashbery’s— it’s all abstract and strange, but the pieces that make an impression really make an impression. Pollock-y, I guess technically, to be so outside the box while so intense and measured. Nobody writes about sex and desire and the obvious secrets of human folly like her. Making my way through the Collected Stories.
January 31, 2008
Not actually erotic. Iowa Writer's Workshop-style microfiction.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews