Joy Williams The Visiting Privilege

In an article called The Misanthropic Genius of Joy Williams by Dan Kois in the NYTimes Williams is said to be

so beloved by generations of fiction masters that she might be the writer’s writer’s writer. ‘‘She did the important work of taking the tight, minimal Carveresque story and showing that you could retrofit it with comedy,’’ George Saunders told me, ‘‘that particularly American brand of funny that is made of pain.’’

In my opinion, if you want to enjoy and understand her stories, then you should pay attention to the many dogs that appear within them. The dogs tell you a great deal.