by Lydia Davis
First published 2007
Davis crafts brief fictions that capture the mind's restless movements through ordinary days. A woman lies awake dissecting the nature of sleeplessness itself. Fourth-graders navigate their small social dramas. Someone weighs whether to rescue a caterpillar from certain death. Another person rides the bus and notices everything. Kitchen tasks become ordeals worthy of Kafka. The stories range from sociological observations to compressed poems, each one catching thoughts we almost had ourselves. Davis examines the five senses, questions of good taste, and the mechanics of storms both meteorological and marital. She offers instructions for sexual encounters and unlocks supposed secrets to happiness. Every piece rearranges how we see familiar territory. The collection moves between forms freely, finding bizarre truths hiding behind our assumptions about daily life.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: compressed-narratives, ordinary-extraordinary
Period: 21st-Century
219 pages · Paperback · Picador