The Valley of Happiness, by George Williams
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The Valley of Happiness, by George Williams
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George Williams returns with a second collection of stories as original and arresting as his first, Gardens of Earthly Delight. From a Texas reservoir a fisherman hauls in a record-breaking bass that transforms his life forever. In Georgia a man is required by federal law to become chattel for a day. A criminal and his ventriloquist's dummy wreak havoc wherever they go. The son of a Syrian soap maker becomes obsessed with a fellow graduate student in Colorado and plans an atrocity he believes will bring him the admiration of the world. In the title story, two physicists traveling across southern Germany keep and reveal secrets about their relationships that comfort as much as they trouble. A girl discovers she has a strange medical condition that will eventually benefit the world. In the final story, two pickpockets working Indiana fall festivals make the mistake of lifting the wallet of a relentless and vindictive ATF agent. In these fifteen stories, George Williams takes readers from 16th century England to 21st century post-apocalyptic Canada, from suburban Georgia to rural Texas, from a Baton Rouge motel to the shores of Northern California. At turns comic, disturbing, and visionary, The Valley of Happiness reveals a writer in peak form using a subtle, daring range of styles to create unforgettable characters, fully human in their heartbreak, cruelty, and capacity for self-deception.
The Valley of Happiness, by George Williams- Amazon Sales Rank: #2420164 in Books
- Published on: 2015-03-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.02" h x .37" w x 5.98" l, .53 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 158 pages
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. LAUGHTER IN A VERY DARK ALLEY By Stephen D. Geller Each time George Williams has a new book, I rush to it like a helium balloon rushes to the sky!His short stories are gems in a dark corner of a darker alley's imagination: bizarrerie with perfect cut, shape, andunforgettable shadow. Like great bizarrerie, his vision is also oddly skewed and insane in its humor: think Poe, Dunsany, the moresentimental moments of James Ellroy, and you've an idea of the incomprehensibly elegant shifts of Williams'work.Reading the work late at night can be chilling. I admit to such shivers. Reading it at full Savannah noon, where I live, makes me look over my shoulder, no matter the jasmine and tea blossoms in the air.And like all writing worth the event, he is a writer always worth re-reading.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful collection of minimalism done well, the common tale with a fine twist By Bacterialover The back cover of this new collection from Williams (Gardens of Earthly Delight) has a blurb of praise from Library Journal saying that he “…shows a darkly comic sensibility more akin to that of the filmmaking Coen brothers…than to more obvious literary influences…” and I agree that this describes his work excellently.Each of the stories in The Valley of Happiness and Other Stories take a setup or core plot that seems very familiar, classical even in the American landscape of storytelling, but then gives it a tweak into some direction surreal, absurd, or just plain weird. Dialogue spoken with ‘straight man’ seriousness sounds slightly comic, unfamiliar in the surrounding situation.For instance, the opening story “Striper” begins as a quiet tale of friends fishing, and a sudden tremendous haul of a gigantic fish that seemingly shatters all known records. The folky nature of the story is drawn into the realms of the fantastic, the unusual by the size of the fish, and phone calls from scientific institutions wanting to examine and preserve it. But Williams will take things some steps further, the fish speaking, and the fisherman who caught him struck with novel feelings and needs leading to his physical transformation and refuge in the waves.“Dummy” deals with a ventriloquist and his dummy who go on a rampage of crime and destruction. The creepiness of the ventriloquist dummy (or dolls in general) have appeared in thrillers and horrors on small screen, large screen, and in print for long enough that it is a common trope. But Williams looks at things again slightly off kilter, in the minimalism of his text not stating outright who these people are, what the dummy is, but linking it into the psychology of the man.The minimalism of Williams writing is one of the things that I loved most about his stories in his last collection. In this he continues that mastery of staccato dialogue and bare-bones evocative description. Yet, it is also apparent from a couple of the stories that he can do flowery just as well, particularly with “The Bay of Drake”.With this story Williams seems to have skewing both the story AND his characters into comic absurdity. Narrated by a member of explorer Francis Drakes’ crew, the story is written in a more antiquated and verbose style than all the others. We soon find that the crew has come ashore to California of modern day, with an invitation to a party for ‘play boys’ hosted by one ‘Huey Heifer’. The juxtaposition of the older with the modern, the uncertainty of whether Drake’s men have been lost in time or if they are just method actors REALLY devoted to their role, the calash of modern culture through the eyes of a more repressed age… they all play here to highlight the best of Williams even absent the minimalism.Other stories here range from social commentary (“Slave for a Day”) to violently disturbing (“Ginny Shay”) to bizarrely empowering (“Beestings”), while others court closely to the literary focus on relationships (“The Valley of Happiness”) or a Bonnie-and-Clyde-esque genre crime story (“Wabash”). At approximately a quarter length shorter than his previous collection Gardens of Earthly Delight, I actually enjoyed this one more, just the right amount of this style for me without it losing its potency.Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this from Raw Dog Screaming Press in exchange for an honest review.CONTENTS:“Striper” (Originally published in Journal of Curriculum Theorizing)“Ghostly”“Dummy”“Televangelist at the Texas Motel” (Originally published in Gulf Coast)“Slave for a Day”“Deadly”“Ginny Shay”“Moon”“The Valley of Happiness” (Originally published in Boulevard)“Goat”“The Bay of Drake” (Originally published in Reed)“Buy Now, Pay Nothing”“Beestings”“Wabash” (Originally published in Boulevard)
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Almost like a full season of the Twilight Zone episodes. By Richard L. Bjornseth Wow, such a wide variety of interests and obsessions are displayed in these 14 short stories. Williams reveals an extremely observant mindset as he delves into the geographically disperse settings and the colloquial conversations of his characters. In some sense his rich descriptions reminds me on Tom Wolf. But Williams' stories are not so easy to categorize - which is good. Some stories border on fairy tale, some on legend, sometimes surreal, sometimes sci-fi, sometimes gore, sometimes Pulp Fiction, and sometimes Penthouse Forum. After finishing his book,I feel like I've watched an entire season of the Twilight Zone - an adult version. Despite the wide range of topics and characters, Williams' contemporary writing style links them together. His stories usually are quite conversational including a well done but odd old English style language in the story "The Bay of Drake," features a Hugh Heffner character twist. Overall this book present an entertaining and varied set of short stories taking the reader to places and meeting people that are in one sense are very contemporary, but in another sense other-worldly. Enjoy.
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