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Original Essays | September 9, 2013
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The Collected Stories of Lydia Davisby Lydia Davis
Staff Pick
Normally I dislike "domestic stories." You know, those fictions that deal with slice-of-life musings or investigations into the American Life and Household. Lydia Davis tackles this terrain quite often, but the clarity of her voice, coupled with a will to make it all a little weird, makes her a keen observer of the minutiae of life. Her preferred style seems to be tiny prose gems, 1,000 words or less. This hardcover-bound volume is thick in the spine but otherwise diminutive; it is graced with a bright coral cover. What a fitting vehicle for Davis's small fictions, which hold so much. Review-A-Day"Davis readers will detect a special kind of energy, one that feels particularly fresh and female. Small as they may be, these stories ought not to be underestimated, for they are the brave, big-hearted works of a literary titan. You can read them any way you like. For heaven's sake, just read them." Erika Recordon, The Oregonian (read the entire Oregonian review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments: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. Review:"Among the true originals of contemporary American short fiction." San Francisco Chronicle
Review:"Davis is a magician of self-consciousness. Few writers now working make the words on the page matter more." Jonathan Franzen
Review:"All who know [Davis's] work probably remember their first time reading it...Blows the roof off of so many of our assumptions about what constitutes short fiction." Dave Eggers, McSweeney's
Review:"Sharp, deft, ironic, understated, and consistently surprising." Joyce Carol Oates
Review:"The best prose stylist in America." Rick Moody
Synopsis:A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE A LOS ANGELES TIMES FICTION FAVORITE FOR 2009 A SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BEST BOOK OF 2009 Lydia Davis is one of our most original and influential writers, a storyteller celebrated for her emotional acuity, her formal inventiveness, and her ability to capture the mind in overdrive. She has been called “an American virtuoso of the short story form” (Salon.com) and “one of the quiet giants . . . of American fiction” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). This volume contains all her stories to date, from the acclaimed 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. Synopsis:Margaret Drabbles novels have illuminated the past fifty years, especially the changing lives of women, like no others. Yet her short fiction has its own unique brilliance. Her penetrating evocations of character and place, her wide-ranging curiosity, her sense of ironyall are on display here, in stories that explore marriage, female friendships, the English tourist abroad, love affairs with houses, peace demonstrations, gin and tonics, cultural TV programs; in stories that are perceptive, sharp, and funny. An introduction by the Spanish academic José Fernández places the stories in the context of her life and her novels. This collection is a wonderful recapitulation of a masterly career. About the AuthorLydia Davis is the author of one novel and seven story collections, the most recent of which was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the acclaimed translator of a new edition of Swann’s Way and is at work on a new translation of Madame Bovary.
Table of ContentsBREAK IT DOWN (1986) Story The Fears of Mrs. Orlando Liminal: The Little Man Break It Down Mr. Burdoff's Visit to Germany What She Knew The Fish Mildred and the Oboe The Mouse The Letter Extracts from a Life The House Plans The Brother-in-Law How W. H. Auden Spends the Night in a Friend's House: Mothers In a House Besieged Visit to Her Husband Cockroaches in Autumn The Bone A Few Things Wrong with Me Sketches for a Life of Wassilly City Employment Two Sisters The Mother Therapy French Lesson I: Le Meurtre Once a Very Stupid Man The Housemaid The Cottages Safe Love Problem What an Old Woman Will Wear The Sock Five Signs of Disturbance ALMOST NO MEMORY (1997) Meat, My Husband Jack in the Country Foucault and Pencil The Mice The Thirteenth Woman The Professor The Cedar Trees The Cats in the Prison Recreation Hall Wife One in Country The Fish Tank The Center of the Story Love Our Kindness A Natural Disaster Odd Behavior St. Martin Agreement In the Garment District Disagreement The Actors What Was Interesting In the Everglades The Family Trying to Learn To Reiterate Lord Royston's Tour The Other A Friend of Mine This Condition Go Away Pastor Elaine's Newsletter A Man in Our Town A Second Chance Fear Almost No Memory Mr. Knockly How He Is Often Right The Rape of the Tanuk Women What I Feel Lost Things Glenn Could Smoke From Below, as a Neighbor The Great-Grandmothers Ethics The House Behind The Outing A Position at the University Examples of Confusion The Race of the Patient Motorcyclists Affinity SAMUEL JOHNSON IS INDIGNANT (2001)
Boring Friends A Mown Lawn City People Betrayal The White Tribe Our Trip Special Chair Certain Knowledge from Herodotus Priority The Meeting Companion Blind Date Examples of Remember Old Mother and the Grouch Samuel Johnson Is Indignant New Year's Resolution First What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
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Related SubjectsFiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
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