#606 The Letter to the Foundation- Lydia Davis

#606 The Letter to the Foundation- Lydia Davis

This is a fictional thank you letter from an author to a foundation that has rewarded her with a grant. It’s scatterbrained, frantic, way too much personal information, and it was written many years after the grant had already expired. You can see from this letter why. She is the most unorganized and unfocused person you can imagine. It’s a wonder she got a grant in the first place. The foundation community for would certainly have had second thoughts if this was her application letter.

Seriously, this letter made me both nervous and angry. It was like listening to someone on speed tell you their life story. 

Rating: 7-6-6-6 Total= 25

#571 The Seals- Lydia Davis

#571 The Seals- Lydia Davis

This is a touching story. I found a lot more depth in this piece than I have in the others from her collection. It's not only because of the uncharacteristic length, but here gives us something more than idle observations, or clever concepts. This is something real.

A girl/woman(?) is riding a train thinking about the sister that has just died. Siblings can be very close, but when there is a fourteen-year age gap and a different father involved, there will always be a search for definition. What does that relationship mean and what did I mean to that person?

As the train ride goes on, the narrator is having some kind of internal eulogy for those she has lost, not only for her sister but for her parents as well. She is taking stock of her own life by remembering her sister and remembering things of their lives.

“The first New Year after they died felt like another betrayal—we were leaving behind the last year in which they had lived, a year they had known, and starting a year that they would never experience.”

This is my favorite of this collection (can’t and won’t) thus far.

Notable Passage: “Once she was gone, every memory was suddenly precious, even the bad ones, even the times I was irritated with her, or she was irritated with me. Then it seemed a luxury to be irritated.”

Rating: 8-8-8-7 Total- 31

#543 The Cows- Lydia Davis

#543 The Cows- Lydia Davis

These are some meditative thoughts while watching cows:

-Their attention is complete, as they look across the road: They are still and face us. Just because they are so still, their attitude seems philosophical.

-Because there are three, one of them can watch what the other two are doing together.

-I see only one cow, by the fence. As I walk up to the fence, I see part of a second cow: one ear sticking sideways out the door of the barn. Soon, I know, her whole face will appear, looking at me.”

Reading this I am reminded of a book I once found in a “Free Book” pile on a lower Manhattan sidewalk called Thoughts While Tending Sheep. This W.G Ilefeldt work was a meditative look inside the mind of the narrator as he went about living a pastoral existence. It was a philosophical story about feeling connected to the world around him, and he had these thoughts while tending sheep. It was a fun book, and it has stuck with me for the last few decades, at least enough to remember it now.

This story is nothing like that. It is just observations of cows, with little to no insight into what these observations mean to the observer or why we should care about it now. I have no doubt that sitting on a farm and watching cows can be a peaceful, spiritual experience, but reading about it in such a dry, step-by-step manner is not meditative, or minimalist—its boring.

Rating: 5-5-3-3 Total= 16

#512 I’m Pretty Comfortable, But I Could Be a Little More Comfortable- Lydia Davis

#512 I’m Pretty Comfortable, But I Could Be a Little More Comfortable- Lydia Davis

Ok, I’m stretching the definition of “Short Story” for this one, but hey—with a thousand days to play with, why not have some fun? This is a rambling list of everyday situations, occurrences, observations that we, as privileged members of twenty-first century America may think about during the course of the day—minor annoyances that, if rectified, might make the day go just a little bit smoother.

-The shower is too cold

-A man is coughing during the concert

-I’m a little tense

-I bought sour cream by mistake

-This apple has brown spots on it

-The clock is ticking very loudly

and a little self-awareness thrown in

-I cant decide whether to go on reading this book

As you can see by the title, these aren’t major problems but, c’mon you know how annoying they are! I guess the reader will have a variety of reactions to each individual item, but will probably go one of two ways on full reading—it will either make the reader tense and anxious about all the small things to think about, or it will calm the reader down and see exactly how small and petty these trifles actually are. Hopefully, most will see the latter.

Rating: 6-7-6-6 Total= 25

#487 The Landing- Lydia Davis

#487 The Landing- Lydia Davis

A nervous passenger recounts her experience during an emergency airplane landing. The landing itself is not much of a story, but the narrator’s fearful thoughts makes up the core of the story. It doesn’t appear that they are in all that much danger, but she is phobic and so goes through some of the steps of grief and acceptance.

“Our lives might be almost over. This required an immediate reconciliation with the idea of death, and it required an immediate decision as to the best way to leave this world. What should be my last thoughts on this earth, in this life?”

That would make for a fun dinner party conversation, or possible the topic of a thesis paper in psychology: If you could choose, what would be your last thought before you die?

Rating: 7-7-6-6 Total= 26

#466 The Dreadful Mucamas- Lydia Davis

#466 The Dreadful Mucamas- Lydia Davis

Mucama is the Spanish word for maid. This is a journal or running thoughts of a maid’s employer. She herself is condescending and entitled, but the maids are actually pretty insolent. It seems that they inherited the maids from someone else, but we don’t see why they aren’t just fired.

“Con el corer del tiempo, todo se selucionara” (With the passage of time, everything was resolved). Maybe, maybe not.

I enjoy reading this collection, most of which are small “dreams” or passing thoughts written out as one-page works. I enjoy it because it’s a little different, and sometimes different is good. The minimalism makes for easily digested ideas, without clutter. I am not quite sold however, that this is an enduring form of writing. Like hor d’oeuvres served at a cocktail party, they taste good going down, but are easily forgotten. Maybe, that the point. Perhaps with the passage of time…I’ll see the whole picture and feel differently.

Rating: 6-8-6-5 Total= 25

#445 Eating Fish Alone- Lydia Davis

#445 Eating Fish Alone- Lydia Davis

A woman eats fish, but not that often and only when she eats alone. She has a list of fish that is acceptable to consume socially, healthily, and environmentally. She puts a lot of thought into the fish she eats, and is very delicate in the manner in which she goes about her meals.

Usually, when she eats out the wait staff and the kitchen staff is too busy to give full answers to her questions about the fish. She does her best to manage anyway. One particular night, a restaurant was serving marlin. She didn’t remember how marlin tasted, and although it wasn’t on her list, she decided to try to anyway. The waitress asked on behalf of the chef if she enjoyed her meal. Even though she thought it a bit chewy she gave a pleasant if vague reply.

“I thought of the waste, and the care with which the chef prepared, over and over again, the vegetables that no one ate. At least I had eaten his vegetables, and he would know that I had liked them. But I was sorry I had not eaten all of his marlin. I could have done that.”

Rating: 7-6-7-6 Total= 26

#407 The Two Davises and the Rug- Lydia Davis

#407 The Two Davises and the Rug- Lydia Davis

This collection by Davis, can’t and won’t, is a different kind of short fiction collection than any of the others so far. Most of the “stories” are simple, one phrase, one sentence, one paragraph pieces, some listed as dreams. I probably wont use many of them here, unless I find one or two that are exceptional. Perhaps, I’ll use a few in one post.

This piece isn’t one of the dreams, but it is rather short. Two Davises, a man and a woman live in the same town, one a man, and one a woman. They are not related and do not know each other, until one day the female Davis decides to sell her rug. It’s a bold colored rug from he son’s room. They both have the same feelings for the rug, they are strongly ambivalent. They like it, then aren’t sure. Being very strong opinioned people, it is odd that they can be so unsure of they feelings about something so trivial.

I started stressing out over the indecision myself.

Rating: 7-7-7-6 Total= 27