The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis is one of our most original and influential writers. She has been called “an American virtuoso of the short story form” (Salon) and “one of the quiet giants . . . of American fiction” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Now, for the first time, Davis’s short stories will be collected in...
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Lydia Davis is one of our most original and influential writers. She has been called “an American virtuoso of the short story form” (Salon) and “one of the quiet giants . . . of American fiction” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Now, for the first time, Davis’s short stories will be collected in one volume, from the groundbreaking Break It Down (1986) to the 2007 National Book Award nominee Varieties of Disturbance. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis is an event in American letters.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780374270605 (0374270600)
Publish date: September 29th 2009
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages no: 733
Edition language: English
I haven't finished this book-- it lives next to my bed, migrates throughout the house. Davis is the master of the microstory, of the changing narrative style, of the one-sentence punch to the chest. Every time I think I know her voice, it changes. Every time I think what POV she's going to com...
I am stuck between giving it 2-3 stars
Wait, she writes stuff too?This is the masterful translator of Madame Bovary and Swann's Way, and she just won the Man Booker Prize for her own stories, which some guy who learned how to write from Pitchfork says "fling their lithe arms wide to embrace many a kind," whatever the fuck that's supposed...
Lydia Davis is certainly different, and i can't say i'd read anything quite like this (except in terms of brevity) up until this collection. i can't say i adored it though, or even that i really liked most of what was here. four story collections are combined: Break it down (1986), Almost No Memory ...
Lydia Davis is the master. From almost novella length to a few sentences, or even words, Davis has a command of the form and of quick and devastating characterization. It's a brick but an enjoyable brick.
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