The End of the Story : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Amazing work, my favorite book
Review: From the moment I read the first lines I found myself saying, "aaaahhhh, yes..." Lydia Davis has created an incredibly precise yet simultaneously fluid and organic work that details not only great love but also the processes of passion. It is familiar and surprising, a rare treat.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing work, my favorite book
Review: From the moment I read the first lines I found myself saying, "aaaahhhh, yes..." Lydia Davis has created an incredibly precise yet simultaneously fluid and organic work that details not only great love but also the processes of passion. It is familiar and surprising, a rare treat.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Book
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Lydia Davis, Where Language is Down
Review: Something I've gotten really into; the idea that a novel doesn't need a story. Lydia Davis asks the reader to engage her in a dialogue with the language, usage, tone and cadence of her writing.
This doesn't come as a shock; Davis' work has always been careful not to involve her audience in the kind of gratification employed by some of her colleagues in the hih-brow writing world. Take "Samuel Johnson..." a very deconstructive collection, more like a poetic undertaking than a collection. Unfortunately, her own personal indulgences shine through in this, her most recent book, and it is more of a paranoid meandering than a globular entity.
And, fortunately, her conservative embrace of the literary world, often seen through a jaundiced (French translator's) eye, is much more of a likeable read. It will remain acessible, so long as those who chose to take it on will exhibit the same amount of patience that Davis has in writing this book.

Rating:
Summary: Vague.
Review: This book came highly recommended by a friend, but I thought it was self-absorbed, minimalist drivel. I found myself skimming through it, a thing I seldom do. Be advised that if you don't like her writing, you'll hate it.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book for Writers
Review: 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.