Almost No Memory
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Almost No Memory
by Authors:
Lydia Davis
Released: 01 September, 2001
ISBN: 0312420552
Paperback
Sales Rank: 170,266
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List price:
$12.00
Our price:
$9.00
(You save: $3)
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| Book > Almost No Memory > Customer Reviews: |
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Average Customer Rating: 
Almost No Memory >
Customer Review #1:
 Goodnes Gracious!
All of the stories in this book have an awe inspiring precision and simplicity that hides some of the real work that Im 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 cant wait to read her translation of Proust which is due out in the next year or so...
Almost No Memory >
Customer Review #2:
The Best Short Story Writer of the 90s
Since the short story renaissance of the late 1970s and early 80s, Lydia Davis and Mary Robison are my favorite short story writers (along with Mary Robison). Almost No Memory is her best collection. After I read it, I went back and read Break It Down, and found that disapointing. It was a worthwhile read, but Almost No Memory is the one to get. The story, "The Professor" is brilliant. It has a way of sticking in your mind, I think because it combines stark angularity with unexpected lyricism. And funny - I love the quip about the porfessor sharpening pencils and asking everyone to be quiet. "Glenn Gould" "Foucault and Pencil" "Mr. Knockly" and "The Cats in the Prison Recreation Hall" are also great. Paul Auster marries great short story writers. Siri Hustvedts Iris stories in The Blindfold are also worth checking out. They are less experimental, but you can see the influence of Kafka (and also Jean Rhys, I think). With Davis I suspect that Beckett is very important. This book, and her novel, The End of the Story, are the Davis books you should pick up first.
Almost No Memory >
Customer Review #3:
 Some stories resonate, others dont
While Lydia Davis can crystallize so much in a short short, her metafictional style begins to cloy. It may be the first person point of view, or the use of present tense, or the constant references to what the character is writing at that moment, but so many of these stories sound like they flow from the authors journal, rather than from a planned fictional arc. Frequently they are mere moments, rather than stories in which something happens, and leave this reader--who picked up the book looking for something more daring--longing for the traditional. Overall, this was disappointing.
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Almost No Memory >
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