logo
Wrong email address or username
Wrong email address or username
Incorrect verification code
Varieties of Disturbance - Lydia Davis
Varieties of Disturbance
by: (author)
3.33 30
Lydia Davis has been called “one of the quiet giants in the world of American fiction” (Los Angeles Times), “an American virtuoso of the short story form” (Salon), an innovator who attempts “to remake the model of the modern short story” (The New York Times Book Review). Her admirers include... show more
Lydia Davis has been called “one of the quiet giants in the world of American fiction” (Los Angeles Times), “an American virtuoso of the short story form” (Salon), an innovator who attempts “to remake the model of the modern short story” (The New York Times Book Review). Her admirers include Grace Paley, Jonathan Franzen, and Zadie Smith; as Time magazine observed, her stories are “moving . . . and somehow inevitable, as if she has written what we were all on the verge of thinking.”In Varieties of Disturbance, her fourth collection, Davis extends her reach as never before in stories that take every form from sociological studies to concise poems. Her subjects include the five senses, fourth-graders, good taste, and tropical storms. She offers a reinterpretation of insomnia and re-creates the ordeals of Kafka in the kitchen. She questions the lengths to which one should go to save the life of a caterpillar, proposes a clear account of the sexual act, rides the bus, probes the limits of marital fidelity, and unlocks the secret to a long and happy life.No two of these fictions are alike. And yet in each, Davis rearranges our view of the world by looking beyond our preconceptions to a bizarre truth, a source of delight and surprise. Varieties of Disturbance is a 2007 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction.
show less
Format: paperback
ISBN: 9780374281731 (0374281734)
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages no: 222
Edition language: English
Bookstores:
Community Reviews
Minor Characters
Minor Characters rated it
Two stars for the story "Grammar Questions" and Davis' high quality writing. Minus three because not once, beyond reading "Grammar Questions," did I give a single damn. I can understand why others enjoyed this so much, as stylistically she's an excellent writer, but I was just bored. I never felt...
debnance
debnance rated it
4.0 Varieties of Disturbance
Short stories? You call these short stories?Well, it doesn't really matter what you label them....They are fun,they are innovative, they zing your mind.
Other editions (2)
Books by Lydia Davis
On shelves
Share this Book
Need help?