sometimes i tell someone a story that i think is funny or amusing and that really happened and they say ‘i don’t get it’ or ‘what’s the point?’ and i think that these may be the same people who ‘don’t get’ joy williams, carver, etc. - tao lin

I began reading Taking Care a few months ago when I was in Spain, and it was a very strange experience, mostly because the landscape of Williams’ stories (interior and exterior) is instilled with a sense of perversity that is just not present in places like Mallorca where the sky is blue, blue, blue and so is the sea and there are perfectly tanned Europeans and elegant, flat-topped houses crawling up the surrounding mountains. So I put the book aside and allowed myself to sink into a sun-induced daze for a week. Now, back in my usual surroundings, I was able to finish the stories, and I found them to be surprising and unsettling and precise in a way that made sense to me, and I can think about little else. So if you haven’t read this collection, you should, and if you have, you already know what I mean.