State of Grace (novel)
State of Grace is a 1973 debut novel by Joy Williams, published by Doubleday. Receiving "nearly universal acclaim" and high expectations set for Williams' career henceforth, it was a finalist for the 1974 National Book Award for Fiction.
Critical reception
Gail Godwin, writing for The New York Times, called the book a "Bleak but beautifully-crafted first novel" and concluded her review with "a most grateful welcome to a first‐rate new novelist."The Brooklyn Rail lauded Williams' ability to capture "self-abandonment in stunning and singular prose—incantatory, lush, and decidedly different from all that she would come to write in the fifty years that have followed State of Grace