"Taking Care" by Joy Williams

The tone of the short story "Taking Care" by Joy Williams is objective and leisurely, recreating in the pace of the words the moments in the life of the central character that form the story. The author uses understatement in depicting the sense of cosmic irony facing the central character. The narrator, Jones, "takes care" as he goes through his daily life, for he is the central strength in the family and must take care of everyone else. He is faced with a crisis because of the cancer of his wife, an illness requiring surgery. At the same time, their daughter has flitted off somewhere and left behind her baby, making the baby Jones's responsibility as well. He is faced with the two ends of life at one and the same time, with birth and with death (or at least potential death), and his admonition to others to take care has a number of levels of meaning--he wishes them to take care to protec

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