284
PARTISAN REVIEW
he abandoned as faithlessly as
I.
I see the faint and sorrowful
radiance of the glass, hundreds of little transparent pieces of it in very
delicate colors. I hold my breath , for if my sister's face appears
among them-the night is hersl
Williams:
Is that the end of the story or the play?
Int.:
End of the story.
Williams:
My sister did ask a question-we were dressing a Christmas
tree-it was the first time I rea lized that she was mentally off base.
She said "do stars really have five points?" I didn't put that into the
play, but I think it's in the short story. I'd have to read it over because
it's so long since I've written it. I just remember my sister making
that remark.
Int.:
Was Nono in
Night of the Iguana
based on your grandfather?
Williams:
"Nono" means grandfather in Italian . Yes.
It
was an
affectionate portrait of my grandfather. Who, however, was not as
mercenary as the old man in the play, who was always saying to his
daughter, "wh at's the take, Hannah?" I thought he was a touching
compliment to old age.
Int. :
You seemed not only to have used art as a way of re-creating your
own identity, as all great artists do, but to have re-created your family
too, casting their limitations in a more sympathetic light.
Williams:
Yes, I don't think I would have been the poet I am without
that anguished familial situation. Therefore I don 't think we should
busy ourselves for the sufferings of our familial relationships because
they do charge us, you know, with a certain dynamism; and if we're
really creative people, we release it in our work. I've yet to meet a
writer of consequence who did not have a difficult familial back–
ground if you explored it. Of course, a lot of people never turned out
to be creative at all because they had terrible familial backgrounds;
they just crack or break.
Int.:
Let's talk about two friends of yours, "Coroydon" and Donald
Windham.
Williams:
When did you hear about "Coroydon?"
Int.:
Is it true that you asked him to live with you and caused him to
leave three million dollars?
Williams:
He did live with me for a while.
Int.:
What about the three millions and the Lady in England that you
forced him to leave?
Williams:
No, that's ridiculous. Where do you get these ridiculous
stories?
Int .:
You called him down and gave him a check for five thousand
dollars and said, " I've changed my mind, please excuse me. "
