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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
In February, during my last trip beyond my country's borders, and my last trip to a real bookshop, I bought this book.
I'd been meaning to buy it for a while, but I didn't want to order it online. Instead I wanted to pick it physically from the shelf of a real bookshop because the reading of it was to be a ceremony of sorts: my way of paying tribute to a Goodreads friend who died last year. I chose this particular book because he'd recommended it to me, and when I read it, I realised that I couldn't have chosen a better book. Ted and Lydia Davis had more than a few things in common.
When I first came across Ted's reviews way back in 2012, I noticed that he had a genuine love for numbers and lists, and for breaking things down into statistics. Now that I've sampled Lydia Davis's writing, it's clear why he had so many of her books on his shelves. She seems to like lists and statistics just as much as Ted did, using them frequently in her stories. One of her collections is called [b:Break It Down|113860|Break It Down|Lydia Davis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387720811l/113860._SY75_.jpg|1056320], and in his review of that book, Ted played her at her own game by breaking down certain aspects of the stories:
First person narrator: 9 (7 female, 2 male)
No narrator: 2
Third person narrator: 22
[from Ted's review of Lydia Davis's Break it Down]
He analysed the stories in [b:Varieties of Disturbance|113862|Varieties of Disturbance|Lydia Davis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317064658l/113862._SX50_.jpg|109631] in a similar way:
There are 57 pieces in this collection, ranging in length from the four word "Index Entry" (Christian, I'm not a) and the next five shortest (49 more words) [usually it's moot whether we count the title when speaking of the "length" of fiction, but not so here. The six short pieces expand from 53 words to 82, 50% "longer", if we labor through the titles too. (hide spoiler)] — to the six longest stories, ranging from 11 to 48 pages. These behemoths make up 60% of the total pages.
[From Ted's review of
Varieties of Disturbances]
But it's not only the breaking down of things into statistics that Ted and Lydia Davis had in common. In his review of Davis's [b:Samuel Johnson Is Indignant|113744|Samuel Johnson Is Indignant|Lydia Davis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1372677644l/113744._SX50_.jpg|109513], he writes as if he were Lydia Davis, only surfacing as himself in the review text once or twice. While that review has a fair amount of statistics, it also reveals Ted's creative side brilliantly:
She thought that perhaps she should limit the review to 805 words. This was the average length of the stories in the book. But the median length was far less. She researched, and estimated it to be 205 words. 27 stories had fewer words, the shortest one-pagers being one-liners. She thought to quote those shortest:
Samuel Johnson Is Indignant:
that Scotland has so few trees.
…[certain stories] made her laugh, even out loud upon some readings. On other readings however they only caused her to smile. Still, she appreciated them, thankful for so little effort required on her part…
She thought of introducing the review with a section about as long as the median story. Would that seem simple-minded? Would her editor approve? But she had no editor. And, she thought, she wasn’t a she anyway. But the writer being reviewed was. Or rather is...
[From Ted's review of Samuel Johnson is Indignant]
And here's a one-line story Ted wrote when he first acquired [b:The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis|6670287|The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis|Lydia Davis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316729925l/6670287._SY75_.jpg|6865229] but hadn't yet read them:
A Man Questions His Future.
Will he ever read this? He doesn't know. And if he does, will it make any difference?
That was in 2014. He did read it, and reviewed each collection separately, and it did make a difference. This reader bought a Lydia Davis book because of his reviews, and this reader has now read Lydia Davis.
Ted was 'last online' in June 2019. He died a month later.
…………………………………………………
A mutual friend had the great idea that Ted's goodreads family might help to read some of the books still parked on his 'to-read' shelf since he didn't get to read them himself. I've had one of those books on my own pile for years so when I finally pull out Patrick Leigh Fermor's [b:A Time of Gifts|253984|A Time of Gifts|Patrick Leigh Fermor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1321602492l/253984._SY75_.jpg|2636997], and turn over the first page, Ted will keep me company on that book too.
This virtual world where readers's profiles stay alive long after they've left the physical world has its advantages...
I'd been meaning to buy it for a while, but I didn't want to order it online. Instead I wanted to pick it physically from the shelf of a real bookshop because the reading of it was to be a ceremony of sorts: my way of paying tribute to a Goodreads friend who died last year. I chose this particular book because he'd recommended it to me, and when I read it, I realised that I couldn't have chosen a better book. Ted and Lydia Davis had more than a few things in common.
When I first came across Ted's reviews way back in 2012, I noticed that he had a genuine love for numbers and lists, and for breaking things down into statistics. Now that I've sampled Lydia Davis's writing, it's clear why he had so many of her books on his shelves. She seems to like lists and statistics just as much as Ted did, using them frequently in her stories. One of her collections is called [b:Break It Down|113860|Break It Down|Lydia Davis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387720811l/113860._SY75_.jpg|1056320], and in his review of that book, Ted played her at her own game by breaking down certain aspects of the stories:
First person narrator: 9 (7 female, 2 male)
No narrator: 2
Third person narrator: 22
[from Ted's review of Lydia Davis's Break it Down]
He analysed the stories in [b:Varieties of Disturbance|113862|Varieties of Disturbance|Lydia Davis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317064658l/113862._SX50_.jpg|109631] in a similar way:
There are 57 pieces in this collection, ranging in length from the four word "Index Entry" (Christian, I'm not a) and the next five shortest (49 more words) [usually it's moot whether we count the title when speaking of the "length" of fiction, but not so here. The six short pieces expand from 53 words to 82, 50% "longer", if we labor through the titles too. (hide spoiler)] — to the six longest stories, ranging from 11 to 48 pages. These behemoths make up 60% of the total pages.
[From Ted's review of
Varieties of Disturbances]
But it's not only the breaking down of things into statistics that Ted and Lydia Davis had in common. In his review of Davis's [b:Samuel Johnson Is Indignant|113744|Samuel Johnson Is Indignant|Lydia Davis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1372677644l/113744._SX50_.jpg|109513], he writes as if he were Lydia Davis, only surfacing as himself in the review text once or twice. While that review has a fair amount of statistics, it also reveals Ted's creative side brilliantly:
She thought that perhaps she should limit the review to 805 words. This was the average length of the stories in the book. But the median length was far less. She researched, and estimated it to be 205 words. 27 stories had fewer words, the shortest one-pagers being one-liners. She thought to quote those shortest:
Samuel Johnson Is Indignant:
that Scotland has so few trees.
…[certain stories] made her laugh, even out loud upon some readings. On other readings however they only caused her to smile. Still, she appreciated them, thankful for so little effort required on her part…
She thought of introducing the review with a section about as long as the median story. Would that seem simple-minded? Would her editor approve? But she had no editor. And, she thought, she wasn’t a she anyway. But the writer being reviewed was. Or rather is...
[From Ted's review of Samuel Johnson is Indignant]
And here's a one-line story Ted wrote when he first acquired [b:The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis|6670287|The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis|Lydia Davis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316729925l/6670287._SY75_.jpg|6865229] but hadn't yet read them:
A Man Questions His Future.
Will he ever read this? He doesn't know. And if he does, will it make any difference?
That was in 2014. He did read it, and reviewed each collection separately, and it did make a difference. This reader bought a Lydia Davis book because of his reviews, and this reader has now read Lydia Davis.
Ted was 'last online' in June 2019. He died a month later.
…………………………………………………
A mutual friend had the great idea that Ted's goodreads family might help to read some of the books still parked on his 'to-read' shelf since he didn't get to read them himself. I've had one of those books on my own pile for years so when I finally pull out Patrick Leigh Fermor's [b:A Time of Gifts|253984|A Time of Gifts|Patrick Leigh Fermor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1321602492l/253984._SY75_.jpg|2636997], and turn over the first page, Ted will keep me company on that book too.
This virtual world where readers's profiles stay alive long after they've left the physical world has its advantages...
I usually don’t like short stories but this book really changed my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed Davis’ story telling. Each story was unique and no matter what the length, I enjoyed each other. So many made me laugh. Truly a great read!
As far as irony goes, Lydia Davis really stretches the boundaries and makes us question what is a short story and what is...not. I really enjoyed the insights into human nature that she writes about in all her stories, even the shortest ones, but I'm particularly astounded at the way she bends genre conventions. Does a one-line short story really count as a short story ("Collaboration with Fly")? What about a story that's full of nonsense words, that doesn't have a story except in the footnotes ("Southward Bound, Reads Worstward Ho")?
"Southward Bound, Reads Worstward Ho" is particularly baffling to me because both the object in the contents of both stories in that story--the short story itself and the book the character reads--are utter nonsense, and it's actually the sub-story told within the footnotes that's actually a story. Similarly, "We Miss You: A Study of Get-Well Letters from a Class of Fourth Graders" is absolutely hilarious because of the coldly clinical and academic approach it takes to kids. They're just a bunch of kids! It's moments like these in Davis' stories--when she brings to light a common human absurdity--that make me enjoy her stories. Davis is actively aware of the components of a short story and seems to approach stories with the awareness that she's writing a story in mind, instead of trying to blend character with narration so that its verisimilitude shines through.
"Southward Bound, Reads Worstward Ho" is particularly baffling to me because both the object in the contents of both stories in that story--the short story itself and the book the character reads--are utter nonsense, and it's actually the sub-story told within the footnotes that's actually a story. Similarly, "We Miss You: A Study of Get-Well Letters from a Class of Fourth Graders" is absolutely hilarious because of the coldly clinical and academic approach it takes to kids. They're just a bunch of kids! It's moments like these in Davis' stories--when she brings to light a common human absurdity--that make me enjoy her stories. Davis is actively aware of the components of a short story and seems to approach stories with the awareness that she's writing a story in mind, instead of trying to blend character with narration so that its verisimilitude shines through.
I hated this book. I'm baffled by all the great reviews I read on it. I skimmed over a lot of the stories once I had given up all hope. I will no longer allow myself to feel guilty about putting down a book I'm not enjoying.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Lydia Davis loves to make you read 40 page character studies... and by god I did!!!
Collaboration with a Fly
I put that word on the page,
but he added the apostrophe.
p. 8
I tend to like short stories. So after I read an article about Lydia Davis, I naturally checked out a book of her stories. Although it took me awhile to get through this collection, the stories were well worth reading. I just got distracted by some other books along the way.
Davis has a way with words that leaves me flabbergasted. How do people take the English language bent it and twist it as Davis does? Every story stands on its own. Their common theme is Davis' willingness to play with subjects and styles, to say things that have never been thought before.
My mother has always said that I read so much that I should write. In this book, Davis showed me that I haven't the faintest idea how to write a story. I just want to sit back and admire writers' talents.
There are more than 50 stories in this book. They range from one sentence (see above) to more than 40 pages. For me, each was a way of looking at the world that I had not considered before.
If you have any interest in contemporary fiction or short stories, please try a few of Lydia Davis' stories. She is amazing.
I put that word on the page,
but he added the apostrophe.
p. 8
I tend to like short stories. So after I read an article about Lydia Davis, I naturally checked out a book of her stories. Although it took me awhile to get through this collection, the stories were well worth reading. I just got distracted by some other books along the way.
Davis has a way with words that leaves me flabbergasted. How do people take the English language bent it and twist it as Davis does? Every story stands on its own. Their common theme is Davis' willingness to play with subjects and styles, to say things that have never been thought before.
My mother has always said that I read so much that I should write. In this book, Davis showed me that I haven't the faintest idea how to write a story. I just want to sit back and admire writers' talents.
There are more than 50 stories in this book. They range from one sentence (see above) to more than 40 pages. For me, each was a way of looking at the world that I had not considered before.
If you have any interest in contemporary fiction or short stories, please try a few of Lydia Davis' stories. She is amazing.
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This is literally the weirdest book I've ever read. I read it for my English class, so maybe if I read it for entertainment I would feel differently, but I just don't know what to take out of this book. That being said, I still thought it was funny and entertaining, minus a few of the stories.
Interesting stories if somewhat detached (IMHO). A narrative distance exists here that's quite interesting... not a collection for everybody, but it's brilliant.