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FINE, FINE, FINE, FINE, FINE

Diane Williams

A bold new collection by a hero of the American Avant-Garde.
The very short stories of Diane Williams have been aptly called “folk tales that hammer like a nail gun,” and these 39 new ones are sharper than ever. They are unsettling, yes, frequently revelatory, and more often than not downright funny—even though within these covers a mother dies, an illicit love affair is revealed, a ghost pays a visit, and police are called to the scene. Not a single moment here is what you might expect. While there is immense pleasure to be found in Williams’s spot-on observations about how we behave in our highest and lowest moments, the heart of the drama beats in the language of short fiction’s grand master, whose originality, precision, and power bring the familiar into startling and enchanting relief. Diane Williams is the author of eight books, including a collection of her selected stories. She is also the founder and editor of the literary annual NOON, the archive of which, as well as Williams’s personal literary archive, was acquired in 2014 by the Lilly Library. She lives in New York City.
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Published 2016-01-26 by McSweeney's

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Diane Williams is one of the true living heroes of the American avant-garde. Her fiction makes very familiar things very, very weird.

Surprising, funny, and evocative, the narratives in Williams’s newest collection mine small instances for larger meanings. Despite their brevity, these 40 stories exhibit great depth... Once again, Williams’s askew, precise prose demonstrates tremendous compassion and skill. Read more...

Flavorwire lists the book as one of the 50 most anticipated Books of 2016: Perhaps the finest collection of 40 stories since Donald Barthelme, Williams lights this one up with tremendous humor and wit. Everything here is chasing after vapor and vanity, and everything is fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. Read more...

The whip-quick snapshots in Diane Williams's Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine (McSweeney's) pack a sizable punch; to read is to tread unstable ground. Discomfitingly and devastatingly funny, Williams upends the mundane, the painful, and the unusual, resulting—much in the way an art teacher might ask her class to copy a photograph upside-down—in precision and clarity. Read more...

Book mentioned on Page One - Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin Read more...

She is one of the very few contemporary prose writers who seem to be doing something independent, energetic, heartfelt.

Williams creates stories that can be consumed in small bites, but she provides enough material in each to chew over for an entire meal. Read more...

Book listed as one of the most anticipated books for 2016 Read more...

Charged with meaning, every word carrying more than its weight, this is a series of provocations inviting us to look at the world a little differently from before. Read more...

Forty very brief stories strike with precision… Encompassing interactions both vast and intimate...Williams’ avant-garde stories explore the faulty power of the mind as well as the delusions we cling to to keep moving forward.