Almost No Memory: Stories

This will sound snobbish, but there's no avoiding it: Lydia Davis' work is not for everybody, because most people aren't bright enough, complicated enough maybe, to understand her humor. But for those who can, this is the stuff. To name just one, "Lord Royston's Tour" is the funniest and best story in the English language. I made a fool of myself giggling at it in a laundromat. . .

All of the stories in this book have an awe inspiring precision and simplicity that hides some of the real work that I'm sure went into these pieces. Check out End of The Story if you want to see her talents put into the novel form...a sadly under appreciated book if ever there was one...I think Lydia Davis is one of the best contemporary writers and translators in the U.S. I can't wait to read her translation of Proust which is due out in the next year or so...

Davis has an acute sense-memory, it seems, and her erudite, yet brilliantly emotive, prose stays with you for days and days. You keep going back to it, reading a story here, reading one there, until you realize, without regret, that you've read the whole thing a hundred blessed times.

Lydia Davis' short story collections (and this is more than ever the case for Almost No Memory) offer up one complex delight after another, managing to do so while achieving, in their final and interesting cohesion, a variousness that, for this reader, is sorely missed in the greater portion of what gets herded into the 'Literary Fiction' category these days. This is what, thank God, can still be meant by great writing.

I've never written a review before but I had to after reading the only customer review listed for Almost No Memory. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not in her book group. These stories are fantastic -- each one is a grab at life; each one sings a truth. Just read a few sentences (or a few stories; many are quite short) in the bookstore and see for yourself. If the writing doesn't grab you right away, then you'd probably line up with the disappointed book groupers. If it does . . . enjoy!