The collected stories of Lydia Davis.

Paperback

English language

Published Jan. 1, 2009 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

ISBN:
978-0-374-27060-5
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
317928757

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (1 review)

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 finalist Varieties of Disturbance. - Cover flap.

1 edition

Review of 'The collected stories of Lydia Davis.' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is the kind of odd fiction writing I enjoy personally, but I am certain it isn't for everyone. Among the two hundred minus one little stories here are tiny bits of wordplay, narrators who overanalyze their situation, at least one picaresque travelogue with a surprise ending, dialogues where the speakers are at cross purposes, wounded or in some other way damaged characters, apparently pointless lists, unexpectedly poignant realizations, pastiches of various genres of writing (both fiction and nonfiction), and oddly monomaniacal character studies. In the shortest ones you will miss the point if your attention flags at the wrong instant, in the longer ones you often get the feeling of wondering why you are being told the tale, if that is what it is, up until the very end where things either fall into place or simply come to an abrupt stop.
There aren't any truly outlandish events in …