Rating: 
Summary: The Filtered Word
Review: A generous, flawed, and brilliant book, which, I agree, should have won the Pulitzer (Who'd they give it to anyway, P. Roth again?), just for the lines "Concern is the new consumerism" and "He poured himself another Scotch and things became considerably less interesting . . ." If you want a novel that speeds along like a hundred-minute movie, clean and tight, relying on a tractable plot to carry its images, this ain't it. It's sprawling, yes. Structurally it's a mess, yes. Which would be a problem if, sentence to sentence, conceit to conceit, it weren't so precise and insightful. Nobody else writes like this.
Rating: 
Summary: A quirky and fastidious rant of a novel...
Review: A quirky and fastidious rant of a novel about the life-and-death adventures of three misfit teenagers in the American desert. Alice, Corvus, and Annabel, each a motherless child, are an unlikely circle of friends. One filled with convictions, another with loss, the third with a worldly pragmatism, they traverse an air-conditioned landscape eccentric with signs and portents -- from the preservation of the living dead in a nursing home to the presentation of the dead as living in a wildlife museum -- accompanied by restless, confounded adults. A father lusts after his handsome gardener even as he's haunted (literally) by his dead wife; a heartbroken dog runs afoul of an angry neighbor; a young stroke victim drifts westward, his luck running from worse to awful; a sickly musician for whom Alice develops an attraction is drawn instead toward darker imaginings and solutions; and an aging big-game hunter finds spiritual renewal through his infatuation with an eight-year-old, the formidable Emily Bliss Pickless. With nature thoroughly routed and the ambiguities of existence on full display, life and death continue in directions both invisible and apparent. Funny and serious, The Quick and the Dead limns the vagaries of love, the thirst for meaning, and the peculiar paths by which all creatures are led to their destiny. A panorama of contemporary life, endlessly surprising, vaguely apocalyptic, Williams' vision is unapologetically idiosyncratic, yet desperately relevant to our spiritual survival.
Rating:
Summary: Ode to Joy
Review: First off,to the Reader From Toronto above:the answer to your question is YES!Ms.Williams other works are just as wonderful as TQATD.Especially the novel, "Breaking and Entering",which is somewhat similar in feel.And the book of stories,"Taking Care",which is where I first discovered Williams work.And I do agree that this should have won the Pulitzer.But why should we expect those judges to ever think outside the box and use their imaginations-LOOSEN UP already!And I'm in agreement with the prior reviewer that Flannery O'Connor is Williams'obvious antecedent -an excellent model to follow,nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: Death is no Falure
Review: Having paid little regard to the literary careerist's rule of "publish early and publish often," Joy Williams tends to be underrated. Only four fiction titles stand in between her State of Grace, nominated for the 1974 National Book Award, and this new novel. Williams is sometimes taken as an inheritor for Flannery O'Connor, who died in 1964. Both exhibit ferocious intellects that, for all their fascination, you wouldn't necessarily want as permanent next-door neighbours. Corvus, Alice and Annabel are three motherless children pinned down in a harsh American desert landscape. The wraith of Annabel's mother pitilessly upbraids her father, all the while coyly inviting him into her "skeleton arms". Alice assists the still-living dead at the old folks' home, while Corvus tries her hand at arson. As various characters explain helpfully, the human body is but a thief and a counterpart, while its annihilation is no failure, but merely "a night between two days ... the Radiant Coat". In The Quick and the Dead, death's personal business calls are inventive and grimly amusing. Williams has lost none of her metaphysical skills but, structurally, her earlier novel Breaking and Entering is the more elegant.
Rating:
Summary: Death is no Falure
Review: Having paid little regard to the literary careerist's rule of "publish early and publish often," Joy Williams tends to be underrated. Only four fiction titles stand in between her State of Grace, nominated for the 1974 National Book Award, and this new novel. Williams is sometimes taken as an inheritor for Flannery O'Connor, who died in 1964. Both exhibit ferocious intellects that, for all their fascination, you wouldn't necessarily want as permanent next-door neighbours. Corvus, Alice and Annabel are three motherless children pinned down in a harsh American desert landscape. The wraith of Annabel's mother pitilessly upbraids her father, all the while coyly inviting him into her "skeleton arms". Alice assists the still-living dead at the old folks' home, while Corvus tries her hand at arson. As various characters explain helpfully, the human body is but a thief and a counterpart, while its annihilation is no failure, but merely "a night between two days ... the Radiant Coat". In The Quick and the Dead, death's personal business calls are inventive and grimly amusing. Williams has lost none of her metaphysical skills but, structurally, her earlier novel Breaking and Entering is the more elegant.
Rating:
Summary: Death is no Falure
Review: Having paid little regard to the literary careerist's rule of "publish early and publish often," Joy Williams tends to be underrated. Only four fiction titles stand in between her State of Grace, nominated for the 1974 National Book Award, and this new novel. Williams is sometimes taken as an inheritor for Flannery O'Connor, who died in 1964. Both exhibit ferocious intellects that, for all their fascination, you wouldn't necessarily want as permanent next-door neighbours. Corvus, Alice and Annabel are three motherless children pinned down in a harsh American desert landscape. The wraith of Annabel's mother pitilessly upbraids her father, all the while coyly inviting him into her "skeleton arms". Alice assists the still-living dead at the old folks' home, while Corvus tries her hand at arson. As various characters explain helpfully, the human body is but a thief and a counterpart, while its annihilation is no failure, but merely "a night between two days ... the Radiant Coat". In The Quick and the Dead, death's personal business calls are inventive and grimly amusing. Williams has lost none of her metaphysical skills but, structurally, her earlier novel Breaking and Entering is the more elegant.
Rating:
Summary: an absolute delight
Review: I don't know how I managed to overlook Joy Williams before. If her other books are even half as good as this (and I plan to find out right away), it will be a miracle. The Quick and the Dead could very well be the best novel I've read this year. The language constantly surprises, and she very deftly conjures a narrative out of the most elusive (and allusive) elements. Comic, profound, and remarkably thoughtful. Comparable in some ways to Lynda Barry's Cruddy (another great book), but utterly original. I can't gush enough.
Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect...
Review: I just finished reading this book last night. I talked so much about it at work that three of my co-workers are asking to borrow it. I don't want to build it up too much. There are a dozen story lines/characters and not all of them interested me (Ginger and Carter were focused on way too much). However, I was mesmerized by all the children, especially Emily Pickless, and many times couldn't put the book down. Joy Williams is an incredible writer and the Quick and the Dead is a beautiful book that holds up to the very satisfying end. Read it if you like dark comedy/art house films but stay away if you need everything explained to you at the end.
Rating:
Summary: One of the BEST Books I've Ever Read
Review: If you have never read anything by Joy Williams, now is the time to start. This is truly a masterpiece. The characters are so alive they shimmer off the page. Already a few fans here in Tucson (home of the infamous Wildlife Museum in the book)are talking about having a Quick and the Dead party...come as your favorite character! Who would you be?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! SHOULD have won the Pulitzer!
Review: The Quick and the Dead is one of the best books I have ever read, no wonder it was a finalist for the Pulitzer! And on the front page of the NY Times Book Review! You do have to be intelligent to understand Williams' writing, but if you are, then you are really in for a treat. I savored every moment of reading it and I didn't want it to end. This book is about despair, hope, death, life, the environment, and it's funny as heck to boot! It's coming out in paperback on January 8th, so get it. You will not be sorry!
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