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Moise and the World of Reason
The publication of a major work of fiction by Tennessee Williams—the most gifted playwright and poet of the human emotions of our time—is a major literary event. His gift for dialogue, his shrewd instinct for phrase and language, and his unerring knowledge of the regions of soul where desire, regret and loneliness lie in wait for the traveler make this remarkable novel a work as moving and powerful as his enduring plays—A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie.
At the center of Moise and the World of Reason is the need of three people for each other: Moise, an impoverished and quixotic young painter with a gift for unfinished canvases; the narrator, a young man from Thelma, Alabama, who is determinied to be a distinguished writer; and Lance, the man whose intensity, strength and sensuality held them all togther while he lived, and whose absence gives the novel its strange and haunting power and pathos. For the subject of Tennessee Williams’ novel is the need for love—a need which Lance once filled in the narrator and his new lover does not, and which Moise’s never entirely fills for her. It is this need that propels them through a long and restless night in Greenwich Village—a night in which Moise gives a party to announce her retirement from “the world of reason”; in which the narrator loses his roommate, the “second love of his life”; and in which a lifetime of experience, hope, the loss of innocence and the rekindling of desire is exposed in a series of scenes and encounters so dramatic, moving and precise that only Tennessee Williams could have written them.
Erotic, sensual, comic, and totally convincing, Moise and the World of Reason is a major work by one of the most distinguished artists of American literature.
At the center of Moise and the World of Reason is the need of three people for each other: Moise, an impoverished and quixotic young painter with a gift for unfinished canvases; the narrator, a young man from Thelma, Alabama, who is determinied to be a distinguished writer; and Lance, the man whose intensity, strength and sensuality held them all togther while he lived, and whose absence gives the novel its strange and haunting power and pathos. For the subject of Tennessee Williams’ novel is the need for love—a need which Lance once filled in the narrator and his new lover does not, and which Moise’s never entirely fills for her. It is this need that propels them through a long and restless night in Greenwich Village—a night in which Moise gives a party to announce her retirement from “the world of reason”; in which the narrator loses his roommate, the “second love of his life”; and in which a lifetime of experience, hope, the loss of innocence and the rekindling of desire is exposed in a series of scenes and encounters so dramatic, moving and precise that only Tennessee Williams could have written them.
Erotic, sensual, comic, and totally convincing, Moise and the World of Reason is a major work by one of the most distinguished artists of American literature.
190 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
13 people are currently reading
340 people want to read
About the author
Tennessee Williams
754 books3,691 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 44 reviews
February 8, 2010
Good writing without a good story.
April 8, 2018
I was strongly tempted to give this five stars. This is one of my favorite books I've read this year, an underrated, visionary, and often wrongly maligned piece of queer literature by one of the best queer American writers of the twentieth century. Many readers may be put off by the writing style--sort of a mixture between William Faulkner, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth--but I adored it. What kept me from giving that fifth star was Moise herself. I just never believed her as a character. Like Hannah Jelkes in Night of the Iguana, she feels and sounds more like an idea than a person, which would have not bothered me so much had she not been one of the main characters. Luckily, she only appears in the first and last chapters of the novel. The middle is dedicated to the narrator, his upbringing in a conventional, sexually repressed Southern town, his obsessive need to write--often to the detriment of his own mental health and interpersonal relationships--and his relationship with Lance, an openly gay black figure skater, which I would have liked to have read more about. American literature (and literature in general, really) is sadly bereft of interracial relationships, let alone queer interracial relationships, and I think Williams really missed an opportunity there.
Four stars.
Four stars.
November 27, 2024
The copy on my edition is desperately defensive: "What’s not to like about Tennessee Williams’s most forthright work about homosexual love?"
And in a blurb from John Waters: "There is no such thing as 'bad' Tennessee Williams."
I beg to differ, John.
This is awful. The characters are all insufferable -- the worst "artistic" people you've ever met, the kind who produce no actual art -- and the writing kinky but incoherent. If by some chance you're keen to see a penis described as a "thick and velvety length of human asparagus," then this is the book for you.
And in a blurb from John Waters: "There is no such thing as 'bad' Tennessee Williams."
I beg to differ, John.
This is awful. The characters are all insufferable -- the worst "artistic" people you've ever met, the kind who produce no actual art -- and the writing kinky but incoherent. If by some chance you're keen to see a penis described as a "thick and velvety length of human asparagus," then this is the book for you.
September 7, 2007
1975. This is perhaps my favorite book of all time. The young protagonist, nameless, is a gay man who is living in an abandoned warehouse on the docks in New York City near West 11th St. Most of the book is his journals. He remembers his now dead lover, Lance, the "Living Nigger on Ice", a former figure skater. So beautiful. Get a copy if you can.
September 23, 2019
Wow, who knew that when I picked up this book I was actually choosing to read Tennessee Williams' autobiographical novel? "Moise and the World of Reason" is one of William's rare forays into the novel genre, and such forays were rare, apparently, for a reason.
Telling the story of a failed gay writer and his interactions with a failed painter, both who live in Manhattan, Williams' novel grates against the normal tenets of literary writing by messing with sentence structure, paragraph ordering, and narrative story telling. Admittedly, many of the writing and formatting choices Williams makes in this book would translate beautifully played out on stage but in fact fall horribly flat (and make reading this book a real slog) when composed as prose. If anything, the writing of this novel proves that Williams was indeed the dramaturgical genius he has become in the canon.
And beyond the slog of reading the pretty choppy prose, the book itself is so clearly a retelling of Williams romantic failures, that reading it carries the same feeling of reading some famous person complain about how not-famous they are on social media.
But, with all this said, I can't help but wonder if this is one of those rare books I just simply didn't like despite it having true literary merit. And this is why this book is one of those rare books that I am giving a low rating to but encouraging you to still pick up.
Telling the story of a failed gay writer and his interactions with a failed painter, both who live in Manhattan, Williams' novel grates against the normal tenets of literary writing by messing with sentence structure, paragraph ordering, and narrative story telling. Admittedly, many of the writing and formatting choices Williams makes in this book would translate beautifully played out on stage but in fact fall horribly flat (and make reading this book a real slog) when composed as prose. If anything, the writing of this novel proves that Williams was indeed the dramaturgical genius he has become in the canon.
And beyond the slog of reading the pretty choppy prose, the book itself is so clearly a retelling of Williams romantic failures, that reading it carries the same feeling of reading some famous person complain about how not-famous they are on social media.
But, with all this said, I can't help but wonder if this is one of those rare books I just simply didn't like despite it having true literary merit. And this is why this book is one of those rare books that I am giving a low rating to but encouraging you to still pick up.
July 20, 2016
This, Williams' second novel, was written just after his release from a psychiatric hospital for drug and alcohol abuse (1969) and after his appearance on the Dick Cavett Show in 1970 during which he came out as gay. Both events were quite traumatic, and this novel reflects the turmoil in his life as a writer and coming to grips with being openly gay in his life and his writing. Moise is a female artist who essentially ends her career, and the narrator is a writer who can't quite finish a thought--literally. Many of the paragraphs and sentences end with a word or phrase missing. That can be either a little disconcerting for the reader or give the reader the opportunity to finish his sentences with her own conjecture. Think "choose your own adventure." In some cases the person in the room supplies the missing thought. Although I wouldn't call the writing stream-of-consciousness, I found myself being reminded instead of Brecht's style of writing what his characters are thinking. It's hard to describe, but I know it when I read it. : ) As Williams often said when asked, "All writing is autobiographical, and no writing is autobiographical." This novel was entertaining but not incredible. I prefer the plays.
August 30, 2012
I read this at a young and impressionable age, but it haunts me to this day. A beautiful, sad, and excruciatingly true story (even if it is made up) about people living on the margins of society, but whose love of life and art is central to the persistence of the human race.
July 26, 2013
I wish this book were better known. It has all the excesses of Williams' latter days, true, but it is a true gem. A book that was a generation ahead of its time. Read it today. It's well worth it.
December 16, 2025
Raunchy and tender, this book was ahead of its time (1975.) I read the Tennessee Williams Collected Stories and loved them, so was excited to see this short novel in a bookstore in New Orleans. The story jumps back and forth in time from the nameless, gay narrator's first love, a black skater named Lance, to his current love, Charlie, exasperated with him and his best friend Moise: "Say mo and then say "ease" with the accent placed (ironically) on the ease." Moise was a painter incapable of finishing her works or a sentence, just totally whackadoo. Lance was devastatingly unfaithful and the narrator just took it, it was such a bummer. Lance and Moise both spoke like drug addicts. You had to parse out exactly what they were on about, especially Moise. Her big groundbreaking "announcement" at one of her parties is that she is departing the world of reason, delivered in a philosophical, beatnik word salad. The best I could glean from that is she wants to kill herself. The other guests kind of don't know what to do with that. There were some interesting parts about gay life in New York before the AIDS crisis (which was all I could think about when Lance would sleep with everyone who crossed his path.)
The narrator writes down all his observations in his little Blue Jay notebook (I pictured a blue book like from APUSH exams.) He winds in and around memories from his youth in the South, his alcoholic, concerned mother, anecdotes he hears from other people, and thoughts of Lance. This wordy passage was particularly poignant and spoke to the kind of mid-to-late-twentieth century ennui that just reminds me of Tennessee Williams: "This space...reminds me of the unmentionable which I keep mentioning which is the vastness of the nothing, the nowhere, out of which emerges the momentary light-flicker of being alive and drops back into it so precipitously, even in lingering cases, with the miraculous swoop of an aerialist at the top of a circus tent, swinging between a pair of trapezes with. no net beneath him. It is the act, the moment of brilliance: and then the failure to fly, the plummeting out of light to the heart of the black, with no great public gasp of terror and dismay that is comparable to that which occurs in his heart as he finds that he has miscalculated his leap at the cost of his being."
I really liked reading this although I'm not totally sure what the end goal was. I preferred his Collected Stories. Now that I think of it, this book maybe would have made a better short story. Just focus on Lance, the narrator and Moise. Keep that one shocking childhood memory of his first sexual encounter, with the older men riding into town and taking advantage of him. (Although Tennessee Williams loves to add that kind of shit as window dressing, this time it did add to the character, underscoring and explaining the difficulty he has in speaking up for himself in relationships and even his willingness to be swept along. This line sent chills through me: "I have only one more thing to confess in my relation to them and it is that I would like to have held the blond one in my arms, over my lap, at the time of his passing." It was a tiny bit like Young Mungo! Less horrific, but similarly affecting.)
The narrator writes down all his observations in his little Blue Jay notebook (I pictured a blue book like from APUSH exams.) He winds in and around memories from his youth in the South, his alcoholic, concerned mother, anecdotes he hears from other people, and thoughts of Lance. This wordy passage was particularly poignant and spoke to the kind of mid-to-late-twentieth century ennui that just reminds me of Tennessee Williams: "This space...reminds me of the unmentionable which I keep mentioning which is the vastness of the nothing, the nowhere, out of which emerges the momentary light-flicker of being alive and drops back into it so precipitously, even in lingering cases, with the miraculous swoop of an aerialist at the top of a circus tent, swinging between a pair of trapezes with. no net beneath him. It is the act, the moment of brilliance: and then the failure to fly, the plummeting out of light to the heart of the black, with no great public gasp of terror and dismay that is comparable to that which occurs in his heart as he finds that he has miscalculated his leap at the cost of his being."
I really liked reading this although I'm not totally sure what the end goal was. I preferred his Collected Stories. Now that I think of it, this book maybe would have made a better short story. Just focus on Lance, the narrator and Moise. Keep that one shocking childhood memory of his first sexual encounter, with the older men riding into town and taking advantage of him. (Although Tennessee Williams loves to add that kind of shit as window dressing, this time it did add to the character, underscoring and explaining the difficulty he has in speaking up for himself in relationships and even his willingness to be swept along. This line sent chills through me: "I have only one more thing to confess in my relation to them and it is that I would like to have held the blond one in my arms, over my lap, at the time of his passing." It was a tiny bit like Young Mungo! Less horrific, but similarly affecting.)
June 26, 2025
A sus treinta años, el narrador y protagonista de esta novela se considera un “distinguido prosista fracasado”. Acumula cartas de rechazo de las revistas a las que manda sus cuentos (por indecentes, autocompasivos o incoherentes). Escribe en lo que le queda de un cuaderno escolar, en pedazos viejos de cartón y hasta en las mismas cartas de rechazo. Y lo que escribe es esta novela.
Escribe sobre escribir, sobre la familia que abandonó siendo un adolescente, sobre su sexualidad precoz, sobre la soledad que siente orbitando a sus dos amantes. El primero, Lance, se autoproclamaba “el mejor patinador negro de todos los tiempos”, y es de quien heredó (tras su muerte) el depósito donde vive con su segundo amante, Charlie, un pintor diez años menor, que se va con otro hombre durante el transcurso de la noche que dura la mayor parte de la novela.
¿Y Moise?, ¿y el mundo de la razón? Moise es una amiga pintora, pobre y medio loca, que hace una fiesta para anunciar que va a “abandonar el mundo de la razón”; aunque no me queda claro qué quiere decir con eso, porque el libro se ocupa muy poco de ella.
Quizás esta no haya sido la mejor introducción a Tennessee Williams. Al final, aunque me gustaron algunos pasajes y frases, me sentí como uno de los editores que hubiera recibido (y rechazado) un texto suyo, pero no por indecente (pues las experiencias sexuales que relata son lo más interesante del libro), sino porque no siento que sus incoherencias hayan recompensado mi paciencia.
Escribe sobre escribir, sobre la familia que abandonó siendo un adolescente, sobre su sexualidad precoz, sobre la soledad que siente orbitando a sus dos amantes. El primero, Lance, se autoproclamaba “el mejor patinador negro de todos los tiempos”, y es de quien heredó (tras su muerte) el depósito donde vive con su segundo amante, Charlie, un pintor diez años menor, que se va con otro hombre durante el transcurso de la noche que dura la mayor parte de la novela.
¿Y Moise?, ¿y el mundo de la razón? Moise es una amiga pintora, pobre y medio loca, que hace una fiesta para anunciar que va a “abandonar el mundo de la razón”; aunque no me queda claro qué quiere decir con eso, porque el libro se ocupa muy poco de ella.
Quizás esta no haya sido la mejor introducción a Tennessee Williams. Al final, aunque me gustaron algunos pasajes y frases, me sentí como uno de los editores que hubiera recibido (y rechazado) un texto suyo, pero no por indecente (pues las experiencias sexuales que relata son lo más interesante del libro), sino porque no siento que sus incoherencias hayan recompensado mi paciencia.
June 24, 2025
This probably has more interest as a curio for real Tennessee Williams heads (which I am not, at least not yet) than it does as a standalone piece of literature. The writing, at least when it goes to interiority, trends a little sloppy, including an obsession with cutting sentences off midstream (and then mentioning that he cut the sentence off midstream). The novel is told by the narrator who’s supposed to be a bad writer so some of that could hypothetically work but in this case it ended up making this feel a little repetitive and drag. Williams being a playwright aspect really shines when he does set a scene, as swimming in the narrator’s memories of times with his dead ex lover and his childhood in Alabama are the finest aspects of this one, but for every page of that you end up with two or three of poorly done interiority. The most interesting aspect is his encounter with his (unknown to the narrator younger) self: the aging gay writer (being Williams in this case), seeing himself as undesirable, having lost the love of his life, writes his younger self on the verge of closing out his physical prime, with that same loss, abandoned by an even younger lover, looking at his future self with disgust and disdain. That in itself is a very interesting concept, just one that I wished was better developed. For a fan of the guy interested in his life, though, I can imagine it as catnip.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 8, 2018
Tennessee Williams in 1975 is sufficiently sad and beautiful but also kinda self absorbed.
January 3, 2013
What do you say after reading this book?
There are moments of clarity, but they are few and far between. The sentences end without punctuation in the middle of a thought, characters ramble on for pages without knowing what they're talking about.
In the middle of it is glimpses of the former Williams and there are a few vignettes of brilliance, but really this book is too heavily shadowed by Williams stays in mental institutions to be coherent or relevant or readable.
The following passage I think illustrates what I'm saying:
"I have heard many people say they can't do almost anything alone but I have never heard a writer say that he can't write alone. In fact most writers I've known, despite my instinctive aversion to knowing others engaged in the same kind of existence, preferring to know painters and hustlers and practically anything but lawyers and persons who enforce law and others who have commitments to order, an exciting number of whom have recently been exposed as compulsive violators of the same
I know when a sentence is going on too long for the mental breath of a reader not to mention a writer so let me complete what I had started to say and leave it there and go on. I have never known a writer to say that he can't write alone. Now how is that for a simple declarative sentence?"
See there's moments, but then he starts talking to the reader about the difficulties of writing the book, and really, it can't go up from there.
Also for his first novel, having one guy pee into his lover's hands as a sexual kink on page three? Not the best idea.
I wondered how Williams, so well known, could have written a novel that was so not well known. I've read it and now I know.
There are moments of clarity, but they are few and far between. The sentences end without punctuation in the middle of a thought, characters ramble on for pages without knowing what they're talking about.
In the middle of it is glimpses of the former Williams and there are a few vignettes of brilliance, but really this book is too heavily shadowed by Williams stays in mental institutions to be coherent or relevant or readable.
The following passage I think illustrates what I'm saying:
"I have heard many people say they can't do almost anything alone but I have never heard a writer say that he can't write alone. In fact most writers I've known, despite my instinctive aversion to knowing others engaged in the same kind of existence, preferring to know painters and hustlers and practically anything but lawyers and persons who enforce law and others who have commitments to order, an exciting number of whom have recently been exposed as compulsive violators of the same
I know when a sentence is going on too long for the mental breath of a reader not to mention a writer so let me complete what I had started to say and leave it there and go on. I have never known a writer to say that he can't write alone. Now how is that for a simple declarative sentence?"
See there's moments, but then he starts talking to the reader about the difficulties of writing the book, and really, it can't go up from there.
Also for his first novel, having one guy pee into his lover's hands as a sexual kink on page three? Not the best idea.
I wondered how Williams, so well known, could have written a novel that was so not well known. I've read it and now I know.
January 3, 2016
Funny, crazy, erotic,touching fantastical journey of a failed 30 year year old Southern writer in 1975 NYC. Williams view of the reception of his work of the period is obvious mocked, as the deliciously nonsensical auto-biographical-esque unfolds. He give nods and jeers to other writers /artists ....O'Neill ....Fitzgerald...Rimbaud..Capote,,,Warhol. I wonder how much of Moise is made of him and how much is Marie St Just? A must for any Williams0phile.
February 26, 2025
Queer excellence. Not only is it rare to find gay art that doesn't place main focus on coming out or hedonistic aspects, but this was also relatable in ways I didn't even know I needed to be recognised.
June 18, 2008
gay ice skaters and drama!
December 20, 2017
First book I ever read of Tennessee Williams and ADORED IT. Opened up my eyes to all of his works and how much I now love them
December 6, 2022
I didn’t like the format of the writing, I could get 30 pages in
May 1, 2025
Le dramaturge américain Tennessee Williams signe ici l'un de ses deux romans. Il y peint la solitude, le solipsisme et la cruauté du quotidien à travers des personnages désemparés, perdus dans le tumulte de New York. Son inspiration reste fictionnelle, mais révèle une once de fausse autobiographie, témoignant d'une sympathie profonde pour leurs souffrances. Son regard sans jugement, mais empreint de profondeur, souligne les particularités que le monde pourrait juger dépravées.
Son style, direct et sans concession, fuit les exclamations et les points de suspension. Sensuel et sensoriel, il observe minutieusement les détails physiques et psychiques, ainsi que les émotions des personnages. Avec une écriture fluide et rythmée, Williams crée une atmosphère intime et introspective, grâce à des répétitions subtiles et des ellipses profondes qui confèrent un effet de lyrisme unique. Les métaphores poétiques et les dialogues complexes enrichissent encore les interactions des protagonistes, donnant vie à un monde singulier et captivant.
Son style, direct et sans concession, fuit les exclamations et les points de suspension. Sensuel et sensoriel, il observe minutieusement les détails physiques et psychiques, ainsi que les émotions des personnages. Avec une écriture fluide et rythmée, Williams crée une atmosphère intime et introspective, grâce à des répétitions subtiles et des ellipses profondes qui confèrent un effet de lyrisme unique. Les métaphores poétiques et les dialogues complexes enrichissent encore les interactions des protagonistes, donnant vie à un monde singulier et captivant.
August 1, 2022
Moise and The World of Reason is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. I’ve noticed Tennessee Williams doesn’t have the most favorable ratings on Goodreads, and I’m not sure why that is, but he remains one of my favorite authors of all time. Moise and The World of Reason, like The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, demonstrates William’s talent at novel writing, though he only wrote the two. As always, I found Williams’ character portrayals to be highly sympathetic and very melodramatic (which I love). I relate to the young writer a lot at this point in my life, so this novel was really emotionally poignant at times for me. I appreciate that William’s depicted a gay protagonist who experiences loneliness, loss of a lover, and a volatile relationship, especially given that this novel was written in the 70s. I would 100% recommend it to anyone and I think Moise and The World of Reason should be considered an important work in the queer canon.
October 4, 2022
"Ich glaube, sie hatte angenommen, nachdem Lance durch das Eis gebrochen war, würde ich mir außer ihr keine zweite Liebe zulegen. Aber ist das nicht eher eine Anmaßung als eine Annahme? Und meine kurze Pause des Nachdenkens endete, wo sie begonnen hatte, mit der einen feststehenden Tatsache, daß Lieben sich in die Quere kommen: das wenigstens war so klar und verwirrend für mich wie jedes Naturgesetz."
"Du hast dich in mein Leben eingebrannt, du wirst dich wieder herausbrennen, und ich werde ausgebrannt hinter dir zurückbleiben wie ein Dorf mit strohgedeckten Hütten, das du angesteckt und geplündert und verwüstet hast."
"Du hast dich in mein Leben eingebrannt, du wirst dich wieder herausbrennen, und ich werde ausgebrannt hinter dir zurückbleiben wie ein Dorf mit strohgedeckten Hütten, das du angesteckt und geplündert und verwüstet hast."
February 12, 2025
Strange and sad little book. Sharp and lovely, and frustrating like a splinter. Like if Malte Brigge was in an abandoned warehouse in 70s Greenwich village instead of his damp room in Paris. Taking action against the fear— all forms of self-expression are doing the same thing and all that. ARE the same thing: desperation, or hope, depending probably on one’s current mood or the weather or the presence or lack of a warm body aside from one’s self. Less ice skating and more personal attacks than expected. Might have been an odd place to start with Tennessee Williams but who am I to argue with library shelves or UPS delivery schedules or other such portents?
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November 23, 2020“Moise and the World of Reason” is a mildly diverting blend of urban romance, nostalgic musing, writerly self-absorption, and gay sex comedy, definitely one of Tennessee Williams’s minor works, more freewheeling but also less focused than “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” his earlier and better novel. Interesting as his book-length fictions are, plays and short stories were unquestionably his best creative arenas.
November 10, 2023
Just finished it on the plane. I can’t not say 5 stars but I think zero is also justified for anyone who says so. God he’s so insane and genius. I would not in good faith call this a novel. It’s something of its own but something beautiful still.
(Until I got like 120 pages in I was planning on 3 stars but the last chapter got me)
Song I associate: pathetic housewife remembering her first divorce- sleeping in the aviary
(Until I got like 120 pages in I was planning on 3 stars but the last chapter got me)
Song I associate: pathetic housewife remembering her first divorce- sleeping in the aviary
November 25, 2021
Hora do lobo. A escrita do Tennessee Williams é frenética.
April 29, 2022
Closer to a 3.5 prob
November 26, 2022
Exactly what you’d expect from Tennessee Williams. Brutally and beautifully describing life.
December 30, 2022
Wanted one last quick book for my year otherwise I wouldn’t have come close to finishing this. Thought I couldn’t go wrong with Tennessee Williams..
February 7, 2023
it often made me feel profoundly sad
September 25, 2024
you know what? i’m going to go for it and give this five stars. i will think about this book for a long time.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews