The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis: Complete Collection by Lydia Davis
Often with short story collections, I will try to list the titles of the stories. However, that would go on for pages with this collection. There a lot of stories in here. Some are long, while many are just a few words long. For the short ones, the overhead of the audiobook is distracting. The story and narrator are announced. The few words of the story are read. Then it is announced that the story is complete. There is more "overhead" than story. I feel reading would work better for these.
The long stories can also be fairly unconventional. One "story" is a detailed analysis of letters written to a young classmate who has been injured. The different closings for the letters are tabulated. The length of letters are compared and grouped by gender. Other various components and mechanics are analyzed in detail. It seems a long exercise in something that is not typically analyzed.
While there are some duds, the super short stories do often hit their mark. Why go on for pages, if you can get the same thought out in a few words? Some of the stories feel at least partially autobiographical. Others have inspiration from some everyday event or correspondence. Some of the Kafka influence can be seen.
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