The End of the Story

I started reading "The End Of The Story" as I read any other novel, but soon realized it needs... and deserves... more attention. And so when I finished the book, I went back and read the beginning again, to capture what I had missed. Really, "The End Of The Story" is more than a novel, it is a glimpse inside an intelligent and complex person. An obsessed person, yes, but who among us has not been obsessed at one time or another? It is one of the best books I've ever read.

Lydia Davis has written a breath-taking book about how writing transforms both a writer and her subject. A wonderfully written study of how the process of creating a written record about her unlikely obsession with a younger man eventually freed her from it. I recommend this book to everyone I meet.

This book has an inflectionless prose style, that takes a little patience at first, but after awhile begins to produce a hypnotic effect. By the end of the book I was in love with the prose style. Also, the parts about the writing of the novel, which are included within the novel itself, are hilarious.

I love lydia davis. I love her surgical deconstruction of relationships, obsession and, for that matter, any and all matters of the heart. More people should buy this book and even if they don't lydia davis remains a god to us her loyal fans.