The Paris Review, Issue 179, Winter 2006

Javier Marías on the art of fiction: “Trying to be original is very dangerous. If you say, I'm going to turn literature upside down, most often the result is ludicrous.”New stories by T. C. Boyle and Gish Jen.More from Liao Yiwu's encounters in China: “While the corpse waited at the entrance, the guide walked into the lobby, tapped the counter, and said in a low voice, The god of happiness is here.”Newly discovered work from Joseph Heller: “Abraham was my father. I was his son and his only heir. Without me, where would he be? Where would those promises be that he said he had gotten from his god? Then Isaac came.”Peter Matthiessen remembers William Styron.