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A review by toniclark
99 Stories of God by Joy Williams
4.0
Joy Williams’s 99 Stories of God consists of 99 microfictions that read like koans or parables, not quite stories, but okay, we’ll call them stories here. They often feature the appearance of well-known figures from history or literature, e.g., Kafka, Tolstoy, James Agee, O. J. Simpson, Jakob Boehme, William James. And very often, God. They are very short, from a single sentence to a page or two, prompting one to read quickly, gobbling down one morsel after another, but they probably deserve more attention to subtexts and themes.
The titles follow the stories, rather than preceding them. At first, I thought this must be a formatting error in the Kindle edition, but other readers’ comments have convinced me that it’s intended. Oddly enough, this added a lot to my enjoyment, as well as adding another layer of meaning. At first, I found myself looking ahead to see the title in advance. But soon, I began to wait until I’d read the story first. In the latter cases, I often returned to the start of the story for a second read or reconsideration.
These stories represent many different subjects and points of view. Some individual stories don’t seem to have a point, a conclusion. There’s sometimes no moral to the story, as it were. And, in sympathy with the many readers who find them exasperating, I admit that some of the individual stories do seem nonsensical or anti-climactic. Pointless or meaningless. Like most things in life, I guess. But oddly enough, the further I read, the more sense they seemed to make. Others nail something so perfectly as to elicit a satisfying, inward “Yes!” For example:
We were not interested the way we thought we would be interested.
Title: Museum
If it’s difficult to ascribe merit or value to individual stories, there is a lot to be gained from considering the work as a whole, the stories taken together, the writer’s essential project — which in this case seems to be a rather oddball, offbeat way of getting a bead on the meaning of life — if not exactly knowing the mind of God.
One reviewer on Amazon says: “Every one of these stories made me stop and say, "huh" to myself. I keep thinking they are one thing, and then another.” Another counters: “make u go huh but not in a good way.” Now, I laughed more at that than at any story in the collection. Another reviewer says: “It is definitely worth the ‘huh.’”
I didn’t find these laugh-out-loud funny, as apparently some people do. However, God — at least the God in these stories — does have a (sometimes warped) sense of humor. (Back in the real world, I’ve never found acts of God to be particularly humorous, or himself even remotely witty.) One point of these stories, taken as a whole, seems to be that it’s not possible to really understand him, but to consider all means and manners of revelation, letting them accrue.
Not, myself, a believer in supernatural entities, I’m sure I have a different perspective than readers who believe in some sort of supremely intelligent overlord. Nevertheless, I tended to like best the stories in which God is a character. The God in these stories is not always very attentive, is often elusive, often careless or arbitrary. And sometimes flippant. Edmund White has said that these stories “turn God into our familiar.” I take it Williams is a believer. At least, she mentions belonging to a church group in her Paris Review interview. Or maybe she’s just doing research on God.
In one story we’re told, “One should not define God in human language nor anthropomorphize that which is ineffable and indescribable. We can only know what God is not, not what God is." But in another, “We can never speak about God rationally as we speak about ordinary things, but that does not mean we should give up thinking about God." So, I don’t know. Personally, I don’t have time to think about God. There’s too much real stuff to think about. And the stuff of these stories is, for the most part, the real stuff.
In some stories, God is noticeably AWOL (or is he?), e.g.:
— A child is killed in a drive-by shooting. The family holds a car-wash to pay for the funeral expenses. (God is not in this story.)
— A housecleaner is accused of murdering her three-year-old daughter with “an object, possibly a rose.” (End of that story. No obvious appearance of God, but of course he works in mysterious ways.)
— A newborn baby abandoned in the Kenyan capital is saved by a stray dog (with light brown eyes and no name. (I think we can infer that God is at work here.)
Here is one story in its entirety:
The Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg wrote a book called Heaven and Hell in which he describes the afterlife.
After dropping the physical body, souls transit into an intermediate realm were they met dead friends and relatives.
Following a period of self-examination, they are compelled to go to a particular afterlife world—either a “heaven” or a ‘hell.”
Hell is unpleasant.
Heaven is more pleasant.
In heaven as well as hell, people work, play, get married, and even indulge in war and cm. Both realm lo have social structures and government.
One may progress through various level of heaven or hell, with the exception that one is never able to leave heaven or hell.
Title: Pretty Much the Same, Then
Here is another:
You know that dream of Tolstoy’s where he’s in some sort of bed contraption suspended between the abyss below and the abyss above? You know that one? Well, I gave it to him, the Lord said.
Title: See That You Remember
Okay, one more:
When God abandoned the Aztecs, he turned their chocolate trees into mesquite.
Title: Some Difference
The titles follow the stories, rather than preceding them. At first, I thought this must be a formatting error in the Kindle edition, but other readers’ comments have convinced me that it’s intended. Oddly enough, this added a lot to my enjoyment, as well as adding another layer of meaning. At first, I found myself looking ahead to see the title in advance. But soon, I began to wait until I’d read the story first. In the latter cases, I often returned to the start of the story for a second read or reconsideration.
These stories represent many different subjects and points of view. Some individual stories don’t seem to have a point, a conclusion. There’s sometimes no moral to the story, as it were. And, in sympathy with the many readers who find them exasperating, I admit that some of the individual stories do seem nonsensical or anti-climactic. Pointless or meaningless. Like most things in life, I guess. But oddly enough, the further I read, the more sense they seemed to make. Others nail something so perfectly as to elicit a satisfying, inward “Yes!” For example:
We were not interested the way we thought we would be interested.
Title: Museum
If it’s difficult to ascribe merit or value to individual stories, there is a lot to be gained from considering the work as a whole, the stories taken together, the writer’s essential project — which in this case seems to be a rather oddball, offbeat way of getting a bead on the meaning of life — if not exactly knowing the mind of God.
One reviewer on Amazon says: “Every one of these stories made me stop and say, "huh" to myself. I keep thinking they are one thing, and then another.” Another counters: “make u go huh but not in a good way.” Now, I laughed more at that than at any story in the collection. Another reviewer says: “It is definitely worth the ‘huh.’”
I didn’t find these laugh-out-loud funny, as apparently some people do. However, God — at least the God in these stories — does have a (sometimes warped) sense of humor. (Back in the real world, I’ve never found acts of God to be particularly humorous, or himself even remotely witty.) One point of these stories, taken as a whole, seems to be that it’s not possible to really understand him, but to consider all means and manners of revelation, letting them accrue.
Not, myself, a believer in supernatural entities, I’m sure I have a different perspective than readers who believe in some sort of supremely intelligent overlord. Nevertheless, I tended to like best the stories in which God is a character. The God in these stories is not always very attentive, is often elusive, often careless or arbitrary. And sometimes flippant. Edmund White has said that these stories “turn God into our familiar.” I take it Williams is a believer. At least, she mentions belonging to a church group in her Paris Review interview. Or maybe she’s just doing research on God.
In one story we’re told, “One should not define God in human language nor anthropomorphize that which is ineffable and indescribable. We can only know what God is not, not what God is." But in another, “We can never speak about God rationally as we speak about ordinary things, but that does not mean we should give up thinking about God." So, I don’t know. Personally, I don’t have time to think about God. There’s too much real stuff to think about. And the stuff of these stories is, for the most part, the real stuff.
In some stories, God is noticeably AWOL (or is he?), e.g.:
— A child is killed in a drive-by shooting. The family holds a car-wash to pay for the funeral expenses. (God is not in this story.)
— A housecleaner is accused of murdering her three-year-old daughter with “an object, possibly a rose.” (End of that story. No obvious appearance of God, but of course he works in mysterious ways.)
— A newborn baby abandoned in the Kenyan capital is saved by a stray dog (with light brown eyes and no name. (I think we can infer that God is at work here.)
Here is one story in its entirety:
The Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg wrote a book called Heaven and Hell in which he describes the afterlife.
After dropping the physical body, souls transit into an intermediate realm were they met dead friends and relatives.
Following a period of self-examination, they are compelled to go to a particular afterlife world—either a “heaven” or a ‘hell.”
Hell is unpleasant.
Heaven is more pleasant.
In heaven as well as hell, people work, play, get married, and even indulge in war and cm. Both realm lo have social structures and government.
One may progress through various level of heaven or hell, with the exception that one is never able to leave heaven or hell.
Title: Pretty Much the Same, Then
Here is another:
You know that dream of Tolstoy’s where he’s in some sort of bed contraption suspended between the abyss below and the abyss above? You know that one? Well, I gave it to him, the Lord said.
Title: See That You Remember
Okay, one more:
When God abandoned the Aztecs, he turned their chocolate trees into mesquite.
Title: Some Difference