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A review by matthewcpeck
Honored Guest by Joy Williams
5.0
This is the third of William's story collections that I've read, and it's my favorite. As in the career arc of Cormac McCarthy, her move to the American Southwest seems to have opened up new channels of imagination. Her earlier collections were all about fractured families and alienated young women. The protagonists still run along those lines in 'Honored Guest', but it's death that's creeping in every tale here, overtly or covertly. Williams reminds the reader of how fragile and absurd human existence is over the course of these 12 perfect stories, which never, ever head in the expected direction, in terms of both plot and characterization. In 'Congress' a forensic anthropologist takes up hunting and fashions a lamp out of four deer legs; his wife becomes enthralled by this lamp and attributes to it animate, conscious qualities; after the husband suffers profound brain damage from falling asleep in a deer stand and driving his own arrow through his brain, they embark on a road trip to a taxidermy museum with a cultishly adored proprietor, who spontaneously names the wife as his successor...you know, that tired old story.
Other favorites: the haunting, sad title story, the blackly comic 'Charity', 'Visiting Priveleges'. These stories are both carefully controlled and crazy, and, as any Joy Williams fan will tell you: addictive. Take the advice of those fans and the many writers that esteem her so highly, and read 'Honored Guest' or 'The Quick And The Dead', already. You can meet children like this:
"I think of God as a magician," ZoeBella whispered, looking closely at Janice. "A rich magician who has a great many sheep who he hypnotizes so he won't have to pay for shepherds or fences to keep them from running away. The sheep know that eventually the magician wants to kill them because he wants their flesh and skin. So first the magician hypnotizes them into thinking that they're immortal and that no harm is being done to them when they get skinned, that on the contrary it will be very good for them and even pleasant. Then he hypnotizes them into thinking that the magician is their good master who loves them. Then he hypnotizes them into thinking that they're not sheep at all. And after all this, they never run away but quietly wait until the magician requires their flesh and their skin."
Other favorites: the haunting, sad title story, the blackly comic 'Charity', 'Visiting Priveleges'. These stories are both carefully controlled and crazy, and, as any Joy Williams fan will tell you: addictive. Take the advice of those fans and the many writers that esteem her so highly, and read 'Honored Guest' or 'The Quick And The Dead', already. You can meet children like this:
"I think of God as a magician," ZoeBella whispered, looking closely at Janice. "A rich magician who has a great many sheep who he hypnotizes so he won't have to pay for shepherds or fences to keep them from running away. The sheep know that eventually the magician wants to kill them because he wants their flesh and skin. So first the magician hypnotizes them into thinking that they're immortal and that no harm is being done to them when they get skinned, that on the contrary it will be very good for them and even pleasant. Then he hypnotizes them into thinking that the magician is their good master who loves them. Then he hypnotizes them into thinking that they're not sheep at all. And after all this, they never run away but quietly wait until the magician requires their flesh and their skin."