Title:: [[The Quick & the Dead]] Authors:: [[Joy Williams]] Tags:: #fiction Read:: [[2024-05-17]] Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/jeronimo_ficus/p/C7Eo0RPgKRe/ ## Editions - Edition:: First [[Vintage Books]] Contemporaries Edition, 2002 - Original Copyright:: 2000 - Pages:: 309 ## Purchase * Bookshop.org:: https://bookshop.org/a/94437/9780375727641 ## Annotations I have been thinking a lot about a quote [@patrick__nathan](https://www.instagram.com/patrick__nathan/) shared from José Ortega y Gassett, in which great novels are less remembered for what they’re about, and more for the senses they evoke: “The titles of certain books are like names of cities in which we used to live for a time. They at once bring back a climate, a peculiar smell of streets, a general type of people and a specific rhythm of life.” This is how I think of The Quick and the Dead, and how I think about Joy Williams in general (there is a similarity to this and George Saunders’ early stories, too). Williams’ worlds are familiar but just enough off-kilter to make them wholly unique. I enjoyed my time in this city.  I did learn a new word here, which if I had to use one word to describe the book, I would choose it: “Some people get very involved in gardening, Alice. It can become a lifelong obsession. Sometimes they just move rocks around together. Donald is a big believer in fighting ass…acid—God, what is that word?” “Acedia,” Corvus said. “That’s right! You are so good, Corvus. You could go on Jeopardy or something. It means sloth, right?” “It means more like experiencing the moment as an oppressive weight. It means listlessness of spirit.”