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Title: Break It Down by Lydia Davis ISBN: 1-85242-421-4 Publisher: Serpent's Tail Pub. Date: April, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Uneven- yet often brilliant
Comment: "Break it Down" is a varied collection of pieces- some as short as a paragraph, some of short stroy length, but none of them are at all like anything else you've ever read.
Some pieces seem to be simple narrative of the author's life- a small detail, dwelled on in depth and worked over until every bit of meaning is wrung out of them. Some merely evoke a mood, or a feeling.
The title story- "Break it Down"- is a man's internal monologue, reflecting on (at first) the cost of a relationship, as he tries to make sense of it, and eventually its meaning to him, and how it affected him. It is a startling honest and accurate- to this reader, at least- portrayal of the thoughts and feelings that accompany a relationship, and that mark its end. It is also a stralingly accurate portrayal of (and, one would have to assume, understanding of) a man's internal monologue given that it's being told by a woman. Or perhaps men and women are more alike in this regard than most of us suspect.
Regardless, it's a brilliant story, and by itself justifies purchase of this book. The rest is just icing on the cake.
Rating: 4
Summary: Often personal, often objective...a wide scope of style
Comment: I find it difficult to properly address the broad spectrum of writing in Lydia Davis' Break It Down. There are traditional stories like "Story," "What an Old Woman Will Wear," and the title story as well.
There are complex, compact, and hauntingly accurate micro-stories like "In a House Beseiged," "What She Knew," "The Fish," "City Employment," and the chilling, "The Mother."
Last, there are strange mind trips like "Liminal: The Little Man", and "French Lesson I" that challenge not only the art of writing fiction, but also expand and stretch the meaning of words and language. Davis tries very hard to get the reader to understand her complex thoughts regarding the liminal, the barely persceptible. She also guides the reader through a French lesson, where at the story's end, non-French speakers will understand the story in French. It's mind-boggling.
I give her four stars, because many of the stories miss their mark. There are either too contrived, or they are not at the level of the rest of the book. I would prefer to give her 4.5 stars, as she most assuredly deserves it.
Rating: 3
Summary: Creative but inconsistent
Comment: Quite a bit of "Break it Down" is amazingly good. Amazingly good because most of the stories are brief, to the point and blatant with a slight quirk to them. Not all the stories in "Break it Down" are remarkable, however, and Davis seems to get swallowed in her repetitive cycle of a confused, quietly angry woman. 3/5 (Buy "Almost No Memory," its far better)
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Title: Almost No Memory : Stories by Lydia Davis ISBN: 0312420552 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 08 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Samuel Johnson Is Indignant: Stories by Lydia Davis ISBN: 0312420560 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The End of the Story by Lydia Davis ISBN: 1852424206 Publisher: Serpent's Tail Pub. Date: April, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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Title: Dialogues in Paradise by Can Xue, Ronald R. Janssen, Jian Zhang, Ron Janssen, Canxue ISBN: 0810108313 Publisher: Northwestern University Press Pub. Date: June, 1989 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989 by Samuel Beckett, S. E. Gontarski ISBN: 0802134904 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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