RaveChicago Review of BooksIt’s difficult to give an account of Harrow’s plot because it is structured to be vague, fractured, and messy ... The very idea of cause and effect is a consolation of narrative, a kind of myth, where Joy Williams instead asks: Do we deserve to be consoled? How can we be consoled if we don’t even feel grief? ... Harrow might be the most \'postmodern\' work by Joy Williams so far. Plots may be introduced but are just as readily done away with, as the novel refuses to bend to narrative expectations ... Characters have no more stability than the plot. They disappear wildly and often, sometimes without comment, at such a breakneck pace that those disappearances or deaths can hardly be reckoned with before there is another ... I fear I may be writing this so far in a way that is entirely humorless when in fact I find all of this deeply exciting ... This book feels so unreservedly Williams that fans of her work should jump for Joy. (Sorry.) The writing is quintessentially tight, yet also whimsical and acidically funny. Williams is a master of the absurd.
