By turns joyful and unnerving ... But even the most ambitious stories are bare-bones, and the attendant dangers are obvious: bathos, jaggedness, whimsy. They are not always averted ... But the more common effect is of slyness and hidden or hinted-at depths.
A great deal is left unsaid. Many of the stories, only two to four pages long, cast light on seemingly ordinary moments in the lives of women quietly struggling against forces that are not always clear to them ... It can be aggravating to read so many stories that feel opaque and unfinished in succession. But this may be the book’s conceit: We can never know the full story; we can only ever get a glimpse. Layered together, these glimpses result in a haunting feeling, telling us less about the world and far more about the eyes through which we are seeing it.
These 33 stories, a few as short as a paragraph, pack inordinate complexity into tiny spaces and take unpredictable turns toward unexpected conclusions ... Witty, bare-bones glimpses into the human condition.
Williams’s blend of precision and understatement make her insights on her characters’ fears and limitations cut deeply while leaving the stories open to interpretation.
