Almost a prelude to “Butcher’s Crossing,” a young man has dropped out of college and spends his days in a depressive state drinking and reading. When his father returns to town from some vague international business and wants to meet Arthur is apprehensive but agrees. He acts out at lunch when a friend asks for a loan to start a poetry publication. He acts out at dinner with his father after connecting over their shared exhaustion when his father wants to reconnect but is interrupted by a mistress. He acts out at a bar, goes home with a woman and acts out again. Arthur has a lot of outbursts in under 120 pages.
Arthur witnessed something horrific. It explains the dropping out of college, the estrangement from his father, the general issues. In fact, it’s all explained. Here’s a portrait without any mystery but with plenty of punch. Williams wrote this when he was 22 and it feels like a first novel. But it has the hallmarks of his more mature works: elaborate scene setting, (overly?) heavy alliteration, the feeling of oppressive space, the disaffected/disconnected characters. Maybe it’s not the greatest novella–the covers blurbs only mention that it’s the author or “Stoner” and celebrate the revival of Williams’ work.