by Lydia Davis
First published 2014
A professor stares at thirty-two small chocolates in a gift box. The simple present should bring pleasure, but instead it creates paralysis. She imagines every possible way to consume them. Should she eat one now, save them for later, share them with colleagues? Each option branches into more possibilities until the decision becomes impossible. This moment captures the essence of Davis's fifth collection, where the smallest disruptions to daily routine reveal unexpected complexity. The stories range from single sentences to longer explorations of mundane chaos. Some take the form of complaint letters. Others emerge from dreams or from Flaubert's correspondence. In "Bloomington," an entire story consists of one observation about never having been somewhere before. Each piece finds mystery within predictable patterns. Davis observes daily life with sharp attention and sly humor. She reveals how the familiar can become foreign, how simple choices can feel overwhelming, how ordinary moments contain hidden depths of meaning and confusion.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
289 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux