The Collected Stories of Diane Williams

October 1, 2018

Flash fiction: it's the short short story, a vignette, a portrait, a moment in time that at its best imparts a flash (so to speak) of insight or frisson of recognition. Williams is a past master of the form, indeed, a cult author whose followers will be celebrating the arrival of this volume. The stories range from 1990's This Is About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate to 2016's Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, with a dozen new pieces (e.g., "The Beauty and the Bat") serving as the cherry on top. As those titles suggest, Williams is witty, incisive, and broad-ranging in her interests; what else could you say about a collection with pieces that include "Orgasms" and "The Meaning of Life," "My Defects" and "The Mermaid Pose." Unlike many examples in this genre, these are fully formed, even if a speaker says presciently at one point, "I am the size of a pin." VERDICT Important for serious literature collections.

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