Books Update: The Wild Delights of Joy Williams’s Fiction

A.O. Scott considers the idiosyncratic originality of an author whose imagination is wholly her own

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story November 20, 2020 Joy Williams near her home in Key West, Fla., in 2015.Raymond Meeks Dear Reader, We bring in Thanksgiving week with the latest essay in A.O. Scott’s series, The Americans. This time he looks at Joy Williams. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Williams is probably best known to most readers for her novels “The Quick and the Dead” and “Breaking and Entering,” and for her many short stories, including her most recent collections “Ninety-Nine Stories of God” and “The Visiting Privilege.” Williams has long been a presence in our pages as a reviewer as well, writing about Kafka and Flannery O’Connor, and reviewing the work of Karen Russell and Denis Johnson, among others. A.O. Scott joins this week’s podcast to discuss Williams and her work. A lot of us will be seeing our loved ones this holiday through the socially distanced lens of screens. Two new books this week take a look at technology from opposite ends of the globe. Xiaowei Wang’s “Blockchain Chicken Farm” (now there’s a grabby title!) offers a different angle on the business, reporting about technology from China’s countryside. Clive Thompson, the author of “Coders” and “Smarter Than You Think,” reviews. And on the other side of the planet, “What Tech Calls Thinking,” by Adrian Daub, looks at the intellectual foundations of Silicon Valley. Virginia Heffernan, the author of “Magic and Loss: The Internet as Art,” reviews. Please stay in touch and let us know what you think — whether it’s about this newsletter, our reviews, our podcast, our literary calendar, our Instagram or what you’re reading. We read and ponder all of it. I even write back, albeit belatedly. You can email me at books@nytimes.com. Pamela Paul Editor of The New York Times Book Review @PamelaPaulNYT Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Like this email? Sign-up here or forward it to your friends. Have a suggestion or two on how we can improve it? Let us know at newsletters@nytimes.com. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. THE BOOK REVIEW PODCAST Joy Williams and Her Unique Views of America A.O. Scott talks about Williams’s fiction, and Nicholas Christakis discusses his new book about the coronavirus, “Apollo’s Arrow.” FICTION Crime Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller Is Back. This Time He’s the Suspect. In “The Law of Innocence,” someone has planted a corpse in the trunk of the snazzy lawyer’s famous Lincoln Town Car. By Marilyn Stasio Fiction Jonathan Lethem Imagines a World Where Technology Stops Working In Lethem’s new novel, “The Arrest,” a visitor upends the pastoral, postapocalyptic lives of a farming community in Maine. By Charles Yu Fiction In Shaping Her Own Story, She Upends a National Epic Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s novel “The Adventures of China Iron” spotlights a female character relegated to a bare mention in an Argentine classic. By Jamie Fisher Fiction The Best Post Office Novel You Will Read Before the Election Vigdis Hjorth’s “Long Live the Post Horn!” follows a 35-year-old woman through an identity crisis — and a campaign in support of postal workers. By John Freeman Shortlist Young Adult Debuts Coming-of-age stories from four first-time novelists. By Jennifer Hubert Swan Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT NONFICTION nonfiction ‘What Tech Calls Thinking’ Might Really Be Something Else The new book by Adrian Daub, a Stanford professor of comparative literature, brings a skeptical eye to Silicon Valley mythology. By Virginia Heffernan The Mysteries of the American-Saudi Alliance Two new books, David H. Rundell’s “Vision or Mirage” and Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck’s “Blood and Oil,” offer insights into an enigmatic country. By Kenneth M. Pollack Nonfiction A Book About Nature That Is So Much More In “World of Wonders” the poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil tells stories of her life through the natural world that surrounded her and gave her solace. By James Rebanks nonfiction Yes, Books Were Bound in Human Skin. An Intrepid Librarian Finds the Proof. “Dark Archives,” by Megan Rosenbloom, a librarian at U.C.L.A., traces the history of the controversial practice and considers what we should do with such books today. By James Hamblin Nonfiction A Road Trip With One of the 20th Century’s Greatest Writers “Borges and Me,” a memoir by Jay Parini, recounts a young poet’s travels with Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine master. By Michael Greenberg nonfiction Is Socialism Coming to America? In “The Socialist Awakening,” John B. Judis argues that a new socialism is emerging among the young and educated. By Mitchell Cohen Nonfiction Against the White Picket Fence In “Brave New Home,” Diana Lind identifies the single-family home as the source of many social and economic problems. By Liza Featherstone Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Nonfiction The Untold Technological Revolution Sweeping Through Rural China In “Blockchain Chicken Farm,” Xiaowei Wang documents how technology is transforming the lives of China’s rural poor. By Clive Thompson nonfiction What’s Wrong With the Meritocracy Michael J. Sandel’s “The Tyranny of Merit” examines the damage our current meritocratic system is doing to the country. By Arlie Russell Hochschild CHILDREN’S BOOKS Children’s Books Into the Woods In Gavriel Savit’s “The Way Back,” a National Book Award finalist, two children leave their shtetl and venture to the Far Country. By Marjorie Ingall Children’s Books A Girl Raised in Isolation Stumbles on an Exit “Cleo Porter and the Body Electric,” a lighthearted adventure written before the pandemic, imagines a post-virus world eerily like the one we now inhabit. By Ellen Barry FEATURES The Americans The Wild, Rangy, Unclassifiable Delights of Joy Williams’s Fiction In the third installment of “The Americans,” his series on overlooked or under-read writers, A.O. Scott considers the idiosyncratic originality of an author whose influences extend from Hawthorne to Carver but whose imagination is wholly her own. By A.O. Scott By the Book The Classic Novel That Robert Macfarlane Just Couldn’t Finish “Wild landscapes, weird nature, science fiction — this really should be my jam. But no.” GROUP TEXT This Medical Memoir Reads Like a Detective Story A young woman’s diagnosis is only the beginning of the mystery in “Lightning Flowers.” As Katherine E. Standefer tried to make sense of her heart condition, her conscience sent her on a trip across the world. By Elisabeth Egan Graphic Content Visions of New Worlds, Both Hopeful and Nightmarish A new Graphic Content column reviews three books that cover a gamut of world-building, from the lives of Syrian refugees to the friends of Pepe the Frog. By Hillary Chute Sketchbook Trying to Keep It Together in Zoom School When a children’s book tour goes virtual, high jinks ensure. By Steven Weinberg New & Noteworthy Audiobooks, From Rebel Girls to Rachel Bloom A selection of recent audiobooks of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading. England’s Greatest Novelist and Other Letters to the Editor Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review. 12 New Books We Recommend This Week Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times. Inside the List Now More Than Ever, Brandon Stanton Makes People Feel Less Alone The creator of Humans of New York went global in his new best seller. Now that we have to stay local, his perspective is more galvanizing than ever. By Elisabeth Egan New in Paperback: ‘The Grammarians’ and ‘Edison’ Six new paperbacks to check out this week. By Jennifer Krauss Best Sellers Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction Hardcover Fiction Hardcover Nonfiction Paperback Trade Fiction Paperback Nonfiction All Lists New International Books Illustration by Thoka Maer Your sneak preview of books coming out in 2020 from around the world. Get globetrotting. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Books from The New York Times. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. 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