Mixed bag, and disappointing after my delighted dive through her Essays Two: On Proust, Translation, Foreign Languages, and the City of Arles. Warning: if you have arthritis in your hands, consider an e-book version: this hefty and very fat book will not lie flat, and requires both hands to brace it open.

I loved Essays Two because I'm a Francophile and have a fascination for the challenges of translation. In this one, she gives a great deal of attention to close analysis of writers I have never heard of - her scope of reading is astoundingly broad. Between that and the dedication she expends on her daily notebooks, I don't know how she has time to write! But write she does, rigorously, stringently, with a focus on the use and meaning of every syllable. For example: since she knows that the word "dilapidated" is based on the root lapis (which means stone), she deems it inappropriate to use that adjective to describe anything but a building - so don't try to get away with an impoverished man's "dilapidated trousers." Still, you have to admire the scrupulousness.

I'm not especially attracted to tricks in writing stories: can you write a story in two sentences? A poem in a single word? A story that can be read from top to bottom... or from the last sentence to the first? She herself likes to play with these challenges, but they make me feel as though the gamesmanship overpowers - and even disrespects - the story and possibly the reader. Nevertheless, she knows what she's doing and why, so the essays about the craft of writing are worthwhile, with abundant suggestions for additional sources and writers to investigate.

I skimmed a lot, enjoyed a lot - just not as much as Essays Two. I did order Virginia Tufte's Artful Sentences because I need all the help I can get with how to use rhythms and accents and word choice and structure to make a sentence sing. That recommendation alone made this worth reading. ( )

Great thought-provoking essays with the dry and self-doubting wit that I love in Davis. Mostly about writers, writing, language, and translation but with many other topics too. A few essays were a little too deeply literary for me to really comprehend , but even those felt good to follow along with in a loose way. My favorite essay was the last in the book, about memory, called “Remember the Van Wegenens.” ( )

It is always glorious to see how Lydia Davis's mind works. While she is highly and deservedly praised for her wonderful short stories, this large collection of her essays is fascinating in that the reader starts to get a clue of how wide-ranging her interests and knowledge are ... I'm in awe.
She is also known for her translating work, and the essays around those efforts are a deep look into the lives and writings of authors. Her essay about translating Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert was simply spellbinding. Davis went deep into the many letters of Flaubert, where he wrote about the sections of the book as he was writing and editing them. My late, reading-obsessed wife, Vicky, would have been over the moon with these essays.
Being a book nerd all my adult life, her essays on the practice of writing, writers, and visual artists were mighty tasty. She explains her personal approach to research, writing, and editing very clearly and does a fine job of showing examples. Covering both original creative work, or showing the art of translating, she would show a paragraph at several different point in time, as it evolved and became clearer, more expressive, and was obviously a more pleasurable read. Her voice is very clear and understandable as she describes the mechanics, forms, and influences that go into good writing and translation.
This thick volume is a great pleasure to dive into, time and time again. ( )

Began December 2019 ( )