The Pelican Child, Joy Williams, 2025.
Joy Williams’ most recent short story collection is an amazing read. She is bleak, pessimistic, and without hope, so a dark world indeed. But I find her world portrayal accurate, a fair representation of how common cruelty is. One of her characters realizes how sad he is and thinks “men are but unconscious machines and they perform their cruelties so effortlessly.” This sums up the mood and themes of this collection but it also reflects what I see as the reality in the world right now. These stories are full of human cruelties: towards animals, the environment, people, and themselves. Mortality is also a theme throughout this collection, from decay of the body and the environment to death and final pains of the same. It all adds up to a dystopian feel albeit all too real.
Williams is an impressive writer. I have only read a couple of her novels and story collections but admire them a great deal. Her unread books sit patiently on my ‘to read’ shelf. She writes wonderful sentences, in-depth explorations of existence, and through all the darkness includes a good dose of dry wit and humor. Overall, this is a strong story collection and what could be seen as a call to action.
