Escapes

These prize winning stories confirm what readers of "State Of Grace" and "Taking Care" already suspected: that Joy Williams is a writer of unparalleled empathy and emotional candor, who can render the "hopeless and uncomprehending love" between a little girl and her alcoholic mother, the panicky restlessness of a couple trying to outrun the exhaustion of their marriage, or the quiet unease of a man watching a vintage car disintegrate in his living room with a sureness of pitch that is at once heartbreaking and elating.