Essays One

Essays One by Lydia Davis

Kafka had an influence on Lydia Davis' writing style. That says enough. She had a career translating books (primarily from the French) as well as writing (especially short stories.) The essays here bounce around various styles, with a lot of free association and stream of conscious writing. Sometimes a piece of SPAM email can inspire a short story. Other times short story may end up looking more like a poem. It is all good. She said she has another book devoted to translation, but it still gets ample mention here. Both translation and writing involve a significant amount of editing and rewriting. It is an art to distill the meaning in the appropriate format.