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A review by jasonfurman
Varieties of Disturbance: Stories by Lydia Davis
4.0
I really liked Break It Down because of Lydia Davis for the impeccable writing and the mostly odd and invariable disorienting stories. Varieties of Disturbance was very similar, in fact disappointingly similar given the 19 year gap in their publication dates (1986 vs. 2007). At its best, Varieties of Disturbance is outstanding. But at times it feels banal, tedious and pointless--especially some of the longer stories.
But to list a few that were memorably good:
"Collaboration with a Fly" ("I put that word on the page, but he added the apostrophe." -- yes that's the entire story)
"Kafka Cooks Dinner" (one of the longer stories, in the first person by Kafka as he worries about cooking dinner for Milena)
"Grammar Questions" (musings on grammatical challenges in talking about someone who is dying)
"We Miss You: A Study of Get-well Letters from a Class of Fourth-Graders" (another longer one, with a detailed taxonomy of letters written by a fourth-grade class to a sick classmate, that somehow sustains its interest from beginning to end)
"20 Sculptures in One Hour" (a series of precisely articulated thoughts on whether an hour is a long or short time to observe 20 paintings, with the observation that an hour seems short but three minutes works out to be quite long--yes it makes sense if you read it.)
"A Strange Impulse" (almost a fragment that leaves you to imagine the interesting story that might lie behind it)
But to list a few that were memorably good:
"Collaboration with a Fly" ("I put that word on the page, but he added the apostrophe." -- yes that's the entire story)
"Kafka Cooks Dinner" (one of the longer stories, in the first person by Kafka as he worries about cooking dinner for Milena)
"Grammar Questions" (musings on grammatical challenges in talking about someone who is dying)
"We Miss You: A Study of Get-well Letters from a Class of Fourth-Graders" (another longer one, with a detailed taxonomy of letters written by a fourth-grade class to a sick classmate, that somehow sustains its interest from beginning to end)
"20 Sculptures in One Hour" (a series of precisely articulated thoughts on whether an hour is a long or short time to observe 20 paintings, with the observation that an hour seems short but three minutes works out to be quite long--yes it makes sense if you read it.)
"A Strange Impulse" (almost a fragment that leaves you to imagine the interesting story that might lie behind it)