George Williams (10) (1956–)

You can read my entire discussion here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/gardens-of-earthly-delight-by-george-williams/

Review snippet: "I honestly don’t understand why I loved this book. I am generally not a big fan of minimalism, though I can see the appeal in Raymond Carver, and even writers like Hemingway. I generally detest any story wherein the bulk of the plot and characterization come from dialogue. And I almost always hate, hate, hate it when writers eschew conversational signposts and show more punctuation.

But perhaps I do not like these things because I have not seen them done this well. Even without signposts, I could follow Williams’ dialogue and never got confused as to who was speaking when. I didn’t realize how hard he was making me work until I was finished, because he laid so neatly the foundation for me to understand these stories. It seemed effortless, reading these stories, and that is not something I encounter much with minimalism. I never enjoy most minimalism because I have a tendency to read literary fiction with a desire for catharsis. One has a hard time experiencing much in the way of catharsis with minimalist prose – the words themselves hold you at arm’s length. And I had no catharsis reading this book, yet I still found it gripping, interesting, amusing, maddening and deeply entertaining.

So I don’t know why I love this book. Sometimes that which is good can be very indefinite. All I know is that those two naked people in a cracking bubble made me take a chance on this book and I am very glad I read it. And perhaps that is reason enough to think this book odd – individually, every style element Williams employs annoys me and yet this book is excellent in every respect. Highly recommended." show less