When I last needed a book to read, I was stumped on which to choose. One hardcover amongst the floating book shop's inventory, A High New House by Thomas Williams, had no jacket. I opened it and saw an inscription: The Dial Fellowship Award For Fiction, and I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did. I assumed it was a novel. It is a collection of eight stories, the title piece by far the longest at 68 pages. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a novella, which is a work up to 60,000 words, but it doesn't matter. It's good, as are the other stories. The setting is New England and the characters are a broad range of ages and personalities, all navigating the mystery of life. The emphasis is on portrayal, on what it is to be a human being, not plot. It was first published in 1963. Dial Press was eventually acquired by Dell, then Doubleday, then Random House. Today it operates as an independent subsidiary of the latter. Williams' stories were published in Esquire and The New Yorker. In 1973 his novel, The Hair of Harold Roux, won the National Book Award for fiction. It was re-issued in 2011 and is still selling at a steady rate. Williams was a mentor of John Irving, author of the wildly popular The World According to Garp. Irving wrote the introduction for Introduction to Leah, New Hampshire, a compilation of Williams' stories published posthumously in 1990. It seems several of his eight works are out of print. One, The Night of Trees, published in 1978, is being offered for $2420 by an enterprising soul at Amazon, which had me wondering if my copy of A High New House has monetary value, despite the missing jacket. Alas, it's listed at less than eight bucks, although it is out of print. It certainly has literary value, and that is what really matters. I had a little trouble through the first third of the book, puzzled occasionally by the prose and what the author meant. The rest of it is smooth as can be. Anyone intrigued by the average human condition would find this work interesting. My favorite is the next to last story, The Skier's Progress, told alternately from the point of view of several characters. It is damn fine writing. On a scale of five, I rate A High New House, four.
Action at the floating book shop was back to normal after yesterday's record setting day. My thanks to the two kind folks who made purchases.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Horror Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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