Analysis of Joy Williams’s Stories
SOME DATA ABOUT HER BIOGRAPHY
Joy Williams was born in Massachusetts in 1944. Her father was a religious minister.
She studied at the University of Iowa (Raymond Carver was studying there at the same time).
She got married to Rust Hills, editor of Esquire, a men’s magazine, and moved to Florida, where she taught creative writing.
She wrote some novels (State of Grace, The Quick and the Dead), but she is best known for her short stories, where she displays her minimalist style. She was nominated once for the Pulitzer prize, and in 2021, she got the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.
As an example of her minimalism we have her collection 99 stories of God. In her book The Visiting Privilege she has collected all her stories.
Joy Williams was born in Massachusetts in 1944. Her father was a religious minister.
She studied at the University of Iowa (Raymond Carver was studying there at the same time).
She got married to Rust Hills, editor of Esquire, a men’s magazine, and moved to Florida, where she taught creative writing.
She wrote some novels (State of Grace, The Quick and the Dead), but she is best known for her short stories, where she displays her minimalist style. She was nominated once for the Pulitzer prize, and in 2021, she got the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.
As an example of her minimalism we have her collection 99 stories of God. In her book The Visiting Privilege she has collected all her stories.
SUMMARY
The story starts in the dunes around White Sands Park. There, Janice and her husband (or partner) listen to a policeman telling them about the feelings he experienced being on a dune.
After this bizarre spontaneous explosion of sincerity, they went on driving through the Sands Park. Janice wanted to stop and get out of the car, but Richard wasn’t impressed by the place and refused to pull over. Nevertheless, after a while, he needed to stop to pee, and they pulled into a rest-stop. There, a couple with two children travelling on a van were holding a sign asking for money to get some petrol for their vehicle.
Janice decided she wanted to give them something, but Richard rode along. However, soon afterwards, he stopped to fill the tank at a gas station. There, while Richard was inside the shop, Janice changed places to sat on the driver’s seat and left the gas station —and Richard— behind. She drove back to the rest-stop where she found the family van. She told the woman, Rose, that she wanted to give some money for petrol. Rose, honest enough, accepted the offer, but told her it was better to go together to the petrol station to show Janice they would spend the money in petrol and not in anything else. It was the same petrol station where she and Richard had stopped several minutes earlier, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Rose’s family appeared to be decent people, even as the children were a little bit naughty. The boy, Zorro, was a little bit too active, and the girl, Zoebella, too pertly clever. Still, their parents seemed to be good people. However, Janice’s first intention to give them only twenty dollars didn’t work —in an outburst of charity, she paid for the bill’s mechanic at the garage where they had the van repaired, she paid for the food at the restaurant where they waited for the mechanic finishing his work, and then, as the repair needed some days, she offered to take them to their place, although it didn’t lay exactly in her way home.
During the trip, they had a car accident because Zorro suddenly jerked the steering wheel and Janice coudn’t control her car. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but Janice was exhausted and deeply upset. They had to abandon the car and stay at a motel. Although Rose insisted that Janice needed some rest, they ended up together in the same room, the only one suitable to sleep in. But, all in all, in the end she fell asleep. She dreamt she was on the road alone hoping somebody would pick her up and take her home.
QUESTIONS
-They say you’re getting old when you aren’t able to feel enthusiasm. What is your opinion about it?
-What do you know about dog’s behaviour? Can dogs identify their names?
-“She distrusted speech as a way of expressing thoughts.” How else can you express your thoughts?
-Whe we’re generous, aren’t we selfish all the same (because being generous please our feelings)?
-Do you usually think things twice?
-Do you sometimes dislike somebody only for their clothes?
-When you give charity, do you try to check how they will spend it?
-Do you think people have a more beautiful appearence when they are “good”?
-According to a saying, blind people are more suspicious. What is your view?
-What do you usually borrow from hotels and restaurants when you leave?
VOCABULARY
wears, take a leak, ramada, rummaging, grille, brave, shot glasses, signed, low rider, retrieved, queasy, trading post, road runner, fitted beedsheet, pull over, misery lights, drummed out, blacktop road, stony wash, axles, sacred datura, bath crystals, swatted, scootch