Almost no memory : stories

Lydia Davis's collection Almost No Memory is a richly inventive array of playful philosophical investigations, involuted domestic disputes, and fables of the dark fantastic. With wittily restrained intensity, she again portrays the contemplative self-caught in the paradoxical world. In 'Pastor Elaine's Newsletter,' a harried mother studies a Bible passage; in 'Foucault and Pencil,' a troubled analyst on her way home from a session attempts to distract herself with a difficult French text; in 'Glenn Gould,' a former pianist tries to justify her dependence on a certain television show. The stories in Almost No Memory reveal an empathic, sometimes shattering understanding of human relations, as Davis, in a spare but resonant prose all her own, explores the limits of identity, of logic, and of the known and the knowable. Lydia Davis's collection Almost No Memory is richly inventive array of playful philosophical investigations, involuted domestic disputes, and fables of the dark fantastic. With wittily restrained intensity, she again portrays the contemplative self caught in the paradoxical world. In 'Pastor Elaine's Newsletter,' a harried mother studies a Bible passage; in 'Foucault and Pencil,' a troubled analyst on her way home from a session attempts to distract herself with a difficult French text; in 'Glenn Gould,' a former pianist tries to justify her dependence on a certain television show. The stories in Almost No Memory reveal an empathic, sometimes shattering understanding of human relations, as Davis, in a spare but resonant prose all her own, explores the limits of identity, of logic, and of the known and the knowable. Lydia Davis's new collection, Almost No Memory, is a richly inventive array of playful philosophical investigations, involuted domestic disputes, and fables of the dark fantastic. With wittily restrained intensity, she again portrays the contemplative self caught in the paradoxical world. In "Pastor Elaine's Newsletter," a harried mother studies a Bible passage; in "Foucault and Pencil," a troubled analysand on her way home from a session attempts to distract herself with a difficult French text; in "Glenn Gould," a former pianist tries to justify her dependence on a certain television show. The stories in Almost No Memory reveal an empathic, sometimes shattering understanding of human relations, as Davis, in a spare but resonant prose all her own, explores the limits of identity, of logic, and of the known and the knowable. Stories by an experimental writer, ranging in length from a sentence to several pages. One story describes the way a few ill-chosen words can turn a minor dispute into high drama, another is on the bad luck of an explorer who accomplishes a perilous expedition, only to die on his way home. By the author of The End of the Story Philosophical inquiry, examinations of language, and involuted domestic disputes are the focus of Lydia Davis's inventive collection of short fiction, Almost No Memory . In each of these stories, Davis reveals an empathic, sometimes shattering understanding of human relationships.