cover image The Stupefaction: Stories and a Novella

The Stupefaction: Stories and a Novella

Diane Williams. Knopf Publishing Group, $21 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-679-44186-1

Although Williams (Some Sexual Success Stories) has her own distinct style and manner, her latest collection holds few surprises for those familiar with her previous work. The 49 stories here are anti-narratives often less than a full page long. But, unlike postmodern innovators such as John Barth or Donald Barthelme, Williams seems to be essentially a one-trick pony. Her stories are fragmentary to the point of deliberate incoherence, and, in the manner of conceptual artists, she picks enigmatic or shocking titles-""A Moment of Panic,"" ""Okeydoke,"" ""The Fuck""-designed to shape the way a reader enters the text. In this collage of often scatological pieces, Williams's prose does attain an amusing archness, but it frequently slips into a highly mannered and self-indulgent tone. The title novella is no less fragmentary and obscure than her stories: in extremely abbreviated chapters, it details an erotic tryst between two lovers in an almost fairy-tale rustic landscape. Williams packs her short, almost aphoristic form with impressive cognitive-though not emotional-complexity. But her reliance on this form, with its brevity and its limited emotional range, marks her as a writer likely to appeal only to committed readers of experimental fiction. (May)