Lydia Davis

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.

otm, i switched to her translation halfway through reading another mustier one and the difference was shocking

sry i did that for madame bovary

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.

have you ever read joy williams?

they may not be as similar as I sometimes think because I read them at the same time. Joy Williams is quite gothic.

i love joy williams. she should be hipper imo, it's really hard to find her books

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.

I will check Joy Williams out, thanks!

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

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

Sorry, what's Williams' connection to Carver?

Oh, they have/had the same editor?

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 :/

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)

it’s still in print. i can buy you a copy if u want bro

lol

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.

Hi plz indeed I am. Let me try and DM you my address now

*plax

Just did it now, did you get it.

got it!

Thanks 👍

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.

👏👏👏

Omg did you get this?

Hey plax sorry should've updated. Yes thank you v much for this. Hope the move went well.

Lol, I don't know why this suddenly seemed urgent late last night!

Hope you enjoy it

essays 1 is incredible. i read the ‘lydias tips for writing’ one last night

essays 1 is an insane book. the thing i've enjoyed most after the end of the story

Agreed. I read the essays on writing three weeks ago; they had their effect.

might buy this for the lockdown.

essential for any writer. it’s incredible how much insight into the craft she gives

hi, flopson!

hey :)

every writer should publish their lecture notes for the fancy MFA classes they teach imo

oh god i guess i was wrong to hold out on this

What's amazing is how continuous they are with her actual fiction (opening and expanding its themes) but simultaneously how straightforwardly demystifying they are

i just started reading essays one and it’s really good. i am in quarantine and it’s going to be a very pleasing time chewer upper

lydia could (and did, and still can) get it

https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/a-letter-from-lydia-davis-on-independent-bookshops

New collection not available on Amazon