{"product_id":"the-pelican-child-stories-9781984898814","title":"The Pelican Child: Stories","description":"\u003cb\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD - FINALIST FOR THE PEN\/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD - NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY \u003ci\u003eTHE WASHINGTON POST - \u003c\/i\u003eA razor-sharp new collection of stories of visionary childhood misfits and struggling adult dreamers from this legendary writer of \"perfectly indescribable fiction . . . To read Williams is to look into the abyss\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"An American master is back with crystalline stories that map the personal and political minefields of her unmoored characters. Williams blends everyday dramas with surreal imagery, her voice and range inspiring awe.\" --\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Night was best, for, as everyone knows, but does not tell, the sobbing of the earth is most audible at night.\" \"Men are but unconscious machines and they perform their cruelties so effortlessly.\" \"Caring was a power she'd once possessed but had given up freely.\" The sentences of Joy Williams are like no other--the coiled wit, the sense of a confused and ruined landscape, even the slight chortle of hope that lurks between the words--for the scrupulous effort of telling, in these eleven stories, has a ravishing beauty that belies their substance. We meet lost souls like the twin-sister heiresses of a dirty industrial fortune in \"After the Haiku Period,\" who must commit a violent act in recompense for their family's deeds; in \"Nettle,\" a newly grown man who still revolves in a dreamscape of his childhood boarding-school innocence; the ghost of George Gurdieff, on an obsessive visit to the Arizona birthplace of the shining Susan Sontag; the \"pelican child\" who lives with the bony, ill-tempered Baba Yaga in a little hut on chicken legs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAll of these characters insist on exploring, often at their peril, an indifferent and caustic world: they struggle against our degradation of the climate, of each other, and of honest human experience (\"I try to relate only to what is immediately verifiable,\" says one narrator ruefully), possibly in vain. But each brief, haunted triumph of understanding is celebrated by Williams, a writer for our time and all time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/flcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-16154474\"\u003eJoy Williams\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Vintage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/20\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 176\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.44lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.19w x 0.50d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781984898814\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1984898817\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/flcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-FIC\"\u003eFiction\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/flcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-FIC029000\"\u003eShort Stories (single author)\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/flcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-FIC\"\u003eFiction\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/flcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-FIC019000\"\u003eLiterary\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/flcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-FIC\"\u003eFiction\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/flcorrectionsbookstore.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-FIC045000\"\u003eFamily Life | General\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJOY WILLIAMS is the author of five previous novels--including \u003ci\u003eHarrow\u003c\/i\u003e, a finalist for the PEN\/Jean Stein and the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e book prizes, and \u003ci\u003eThe Quick and the Dead, \u003c\/i\u003e a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize--as well as four collections of stories. Her book of essays, \u003ci\u003eIll Nature, \u003c\/i\u003e was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Among her many honors are the Rea Award for the Short Story and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She was elected to the Academy in 2008. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, and Laramie, Wyoming.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54229550203177,"sku":"9781984898814","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0855\/5747\/7673\/files\/9781984898814.jpg?v=1790360574","url":"https:\/\/www.njcorrectionsbookstore.com\/products\/the-pelican-child-stories-9781984898814","provider":"New Jersey Corrections Book Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}