The Changeling by Joy Williams
Almost half a century later, The Changeling is no less haunting and no less visionary than the day it was published. It has only become clearer that Joy Williams is a virtuosic stylist and a singular thinker―a genius in every sense of the word.
- Sale Date
- ISBN
- 9781963108903
- Page Count
- 336
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 5 x 7¾
- Imprint
- Tin House
Meet the Author
Joy Williams
Almost half a century later, The Changeling remains as haunting and as visionary as on the day it was first published. Joy Williams is a virtuosic stylist and a singular thinker―a genius in every sense of the word.
When we first meet Pearl—young in years but advanced in her drinking—she’s on the lam, sitting at a hotel bar in Florida, throwing back gin and tonics with her infant son cradled in the crook of her arm. But her escape is brief, and the relief she feels at having fled her abusive husband, and the Northeastern island his family calls home, doesn’t last for long. Soon she’s being shepherded back. The island, for Pearl, is a place of madness and pain, and her round-the-clock drinking spurs on the former even if it dulls the latter.
With The Changeling, Joy Williams has blended, as Rick Moody writes, “the arresting improbabilities of magic realism, with the surrealism of the folkloric revival . . . and with the modernist foreboding of Under the Volcano,” and created something entirely original and entirely consuming.
When we first meet Pearl—young in years but advanced in her drinking—she’s on the lam, sitting at a hotel bar in Florida, throwing back gin and tonics with her infant son cradled in the crook of her arm. But her escape is brief, and the relief she feels at having fled her abusive husband, and the Northeastern island his family calls home, doesn’t last for long. Soon she’s being shepherded back. The island, for Pearl, is a place of madness and pain, and her round-the-clock drinking spurs on the former even if it dulls the latter.
With The Changeling, Joy Williams has blended, as Rick Moody writes, “the arresting improbabilities of magic realism, with the surrealism of the folkloric revival . . . and with the modernist foreboding of Under the Volcano,” and created something entirely original and entirely consuming.
Praise for The Changeling
-
“Within a single sentence, Joy Williams can swerve from absurd profundity to wicked satire and back, all with miraculous economy and control. . . . A startlingly alive book, even more resonant today.”
Dana Spiotta, Oprah Magazine (Editor's Pick) -
“An elusive but enchanting work by one of America's greatest authors.”
Kirkus Reviews -
“Williams is a genius . . . The Changeling remains Williams’s fullest plunge into the uncanny and the magical. Give it a try. Let it cast its spell on you.”
Lincoln Michel, BOMB Magazine
About the Imprint
Where the literary canon of tomorrow is born. Critically acclaimed titles that challenge, illuminate, and linger. Discover award-winning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from emerging voices you’ll say you found first.
