I'm enjoying her new book, but so far I think her texts adapted from Flaubert's letters and her brief accounts of dreams tend to outshine her more characteristic pieces.
― one way street, Monday, 18 August 2014 17:16 (ten years ago) link
Hopefully there will be a podcast of this event.
She's done some good interviews recently that are available online -- WNYC Leonard Lopate; KCRW Bookworm.
― the one where, as balls alludes (Eazy), Monday, 18 August 2014 23:05 (ten years ago) link
seems like something i would like. is almost no memory what i want? i found this because i just read i love dick and it's mentioned in this thread.
― flatizza (harbl), Sunday, 7 September 2014 00:12 (ten years ago) link
I prefer 'Samuel Johnson ..' but that's 50% because I read it first
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, 7 September 2014 05:42 (ten years ago) link
or at least because of all the things i read as a teenager in an attempt to be cool its the one i would be least tempted to dismiss today and to me at least that counts for something
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, 7 September 2014 06:32 (ten years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/books/review/05bkr-bythebook_davis.html?ref=review
― scott seward, Saturday, 4 April 2015 16:21 (nine years ago) link
She can read in Norwegian!
tick.jpg
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 4 April 2015 16:30 (nine years ago) link
i downloaded the big orange complete stories thing onto my phone and read it during brief idle moments like waiting for a bus or in a boring class. a+ recommended
― flopson, Saturday, 4 April 2015 16:45 (nine years ago) link
i downloaded the big orange complete stories thing onto my phone. I read it during brief idle moments like waiting for a bus or in a boring class. Or I read the book on my phone. We read books on phones and sometimes these phones are orange but not big. A+ recommended.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 4 April 2015 16:50 (nine years ago) link
thanks alfred
― flopson, Saturday, 4 April 2015 18:13 (nine years ago) link
it needs a title
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 4 April 2015 18:28 (nine years ago) link
http://lithub.com/lydia-davis-at-the-end-of-the-world/
― j., Wednesday, 8 April 2015 17:08 (nine years ago) link
The big orange short story collection (textured paper! rough pages!!) was my first encounter with her as anything other than an excellent translator & I foolishly sold it when money was tight because I knew I could get 5 bucks for it easy :/
― bernard snowy, Thursday, 9 April 2015 16:43 (nine years ago) link
i was in a really bad/weird mood last week and i couldn't read her. got so impatient and annoyed. that ever happen to you? not with her maybe, but with someone you ordinarily like? she felt so precious all of a sudden. and i'm usually so impressed when someone can maintain that same tone page after page but last week it was driving me up a wall. in my head i was shouting: she's the rich man's richard brautigan!
but it'll pass.
― scott seward, Saturday, 20 August 2016 20:18 (eight years ago) link
My friend basically got the hives from reading "the grouch and old mother" and was furious at me for recommending it.
Although this friend is also someone who's always telling other people what they shouldn't be eating and why not, which is one topic of that story and a recurring topic in Davis's stories.
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Saturday, 20 August 2016 22:04 (eight years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/10/feel-compassion-for-beleaguered-proust?CMP=twt_b-gdnreview
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 13 November 2017 23:28 (six years ago) link
That book of letters is OK. But it doesn't deliver the comedy of a noise-maddened Proust I was hoping for. I did like the way he'll go on for pages about some fabric or whatever, but mentions in one sentence that he no longer has a secretary because the guy fell out of a plane into the sea, and offers no further details.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Tuesday, 14 November 2017 03:44 (six years ago) link
'ESSAYS' next -- later this year. The best of her essays on Reading & Writing, beginning with 'A Beloved Duck Gets Cooked: Forms & Influences I'— Simon Prosser (@HamishH1931) March 1, 2019
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 1 March 2019 18:01 (five years ago) link
Nearly here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374148850
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 16 October 2019 14:30 (four years ago) link
Have not yet connected with her own stories, but love her translation of Swann's Way---can't read French, haven't read previous translations, but as a stand-alone experience, it's amazing.
― dow, Wednesday, 16 October 2019 16:31 (four years ago) link
otm, i switched to her translation halfway through reading another mustier one and the difference was shocking
― flopson, Wednesday, 16 October 2019 18:27 (four years ago) link
sry i did that for madame bovary
― flopson, Wednesday, 16 October 2019 18:28 (four years ago) link
also i love her short stories
What I've read of her criticism has been really great. Her tastes in lit are very similar to mine too.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 17 October 2019 14:39 (four years ago) link
have you ever read joy williams?
― plax (ico), Thursday, 17 October 2019 17:09 (four years ago) link
they may not be as similar as I sometimes think because I read them at the same time. Joy Williams is quite gothic.
― plax (ico), Thursday, 17 October 2019 17:10 (four years ago) link
i love joy williams. she should be hipper imo, it's really hard to find her books
― flopson, Thursday, 17 October 2019 17:37 (four years ago) link
she's kinda the anti-Lydia Davis tho lol
Yeah I guess, but they are both really interested in dreams and dream interpretations and they both have a large interest in gaps and ommissions.
― plax (ico), Thursday, 17 October 2019 19:09 (four years ago) link
I will check Joy Williams out, thanks!
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 17 October 2019 21:47 (four years ago) link
it's been a while since i've read either and there was a long gap between reading them so don't remember too specifics, but just in terms of prose style williams' sentences are so knotty long and wild whereas davis' are immaculate short and cute
― flopson, Thursday, 17 October 2019 22:01 (four years ago) link
I was so into Gordon Lish's baroque-ification of Carver's posthumous collection Cathedral that I followed up with other authors he edited, this was my intro to Williams. She's great, I read a collection of hers in a couple of days
― i could chug a keg of you (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 17 October 2019 23:21 (four years ago) link
Sorry, what's Williams' connection to Carver?
― What a ridiculous clusterfuck of totally uncool jokers (jed_), Thursday, 17 October 2019 23:55 (four years ago) link
Oh, they have/had the same editor?
I've been there, too. it is hard to shake the regrets. it can take a decade or more of quietly mourning for the loss. (sighs)
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 18 October 2019 00:07 (four years ago) link
it’s still in print. i can buy you a copy if u want bro
― flopson, Saturday, 19 October 2019 15:03 (four years ago) link
lol
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 October 2019 15:05 (four years ago) link
The original paperback collections I bought for a buck apiece
xyzzzz u r herne hill right? i'm leaving on wednesday (moving to islington) and discovered I have two copies of joy williams escapes if u want one? otherwise its going to oxfam. not sure how i'd get it to you i guess dm me if ur interested.
― plax (ico), Sunday, 27 October 2019 20:22 (four years ago) link
Hi plz indeed I am. Let me try and DM you my address now
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 28 October 2019 10:22 (four years ago) link
*plax
Just did it now, did you get it.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 28 October 2019 10:25 (four years ago) link
got it!
― plax (ico), Monday, 28 October 2019 11:26 (four years ago) link
Thanks 👍
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 28 October 2019 11:47 (four years ago) link
my pleasure. hope you enjoy it. I read an interview with her once where she said something about how her difficulty with writing dialogue was solved when she realised that she could make her characters say whatever she wanted them to. it might have been in her paris review interview which is very good and worth reading. I think she is very good, honored guest is the collection I like the most and escapes is patchier but the good stories are very good and there's a couple that I have read more than several times.
― plax (ico), Monday, 28 October 2019 13:00 (four years ago) link
👏👏👏
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 28 October 2019 13:59 (four years ago) link
Omg did you get this?
― plax (ico), Saturday, 16 November 2019 01:28 (four years ago) link
Hey plax sorry should've updated. Yes thank you v much for this. Hope the move went well.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 16 November 2019 15:47 (four years ago) link
Lol, I don't know why this suddenly seemed urgent late last night!
― plax (ico), Saturday, 16 November 2019 16:35 (four years ago) link
Hope you enjoy it