Guías temáticas: #366escritoras: Joy Williams

Joy Williams
Estados Unidos

1944-

"Jones’s love is much too apparent and arouses neglect. He is like an animal in a traveling show who, through some aberration, wears a vital organ outside the skin, awkward and unfortunate, something that shouldn’t be seen, certainly something that shouldn’t be watched working.”

Hoy quiero hablar de una de mis escritoras favoritas/imprescindibles: Joy Williams (Estados Unidos, 1944), autora de cinco novelas y cinco libros de cuentos. De ella recomiendo especialmente la recopilación de sus relatos bajo el nombre The Visiting Privilege (2015).
Las cinco novelas de Williams son State of Grace (1973), The Changeling (1978), Breaking and Entering (1988), The Quick and the Dead (2000) y Harrow (2021).
Tres de ellas pueden encontrarse en español por Alpha Decay.
Y , si bien son buenísimas, para mí el talento de Joy Williams se despliega en toda su belleza encandilante en sus cuentos: Taking Care (1982), Escapes (1992), Honored Guest (2004) y 99 stories of God (2013).
Pero si pueden o se quieren comprar un solo libro de Joy Williams (o buscarlo en bibliotecas), para mí el favorito es The Visiting Privilege, que reúne los cuentos ya publicados más otros nuevos. Es de esos libros a los que vuelvo siempre.
Les dejo algunas citas:
Jones’s love is much too apparent and arouses neglect. He is like an animal in a traveling show who, through some aberration, wears a vital organ outside the skin, awkward and unfortunate, something that shouldn’t be seen, certainly something that shouldn’t be watched working.”
“The girl wants to be in love. Her face is thin with the thinness of a failed lover. It is so difficult! Love is concentration, she feels, but she can remember nothing. She tries to recollect two things a day. In the morning with her coffee, she tries to remember...”
“Jane has never prepared a meal in this house. She is as though in a seasonal hotel. This is not her life; she does not have to be this. She refuses to become familiar with this house, with this town. She is a guest here. She has no memories: she is waiting. “
“He talked to the plants. He always told them what he was going to do before he did so they would have a chance to prepare themselves. Plants have lived in the Now for a long time but they still have to have some things explained to them.”
Citaría todo el libro. Yo, al menos, me releo uno de sus relatos cada día. Joy Williams es una cuentista magnífica y uno aprende muchísimo leyéndola. En español también hay una edición de sus Cuentos Escogidos por Seix Barral.