Break It Down: Stories (FSG Classics)

The thirty-four stories in this seminal collection powerfully display what have become Lydia Davis’s trademarks—dexterity, brevity, understatement, and surprise. Although the certainty of her prose suggests a world of almost clinical reason and clarity, her characters show us that life, thought, and language are full of disorder. Break It Down is Davis at her best. In the words of Jonathan Franzen, she is “a magician of self-consciousness.” Publishers Weekly It looks like an open-and-shut case when a London warehouse is burglarized and suspicion points at night watchman Jim Thorpe as an accomplice. But the struggling law student vehemently denies taking part in the crime, despite the efforts of detective-inspector Bell to make him confess. Slowly, Bell becomes convinced that Thorpe is innocent, especially after the young man begins an investigation of his own that results in his being stalked and viciously beaten. At the heart of the mystery is a letter stolen from the warehouse that incriminates Sir Thomas Barnham, a Member of Parliament, in a shady land deal. Is Barnham guilty of setting up the burglary and the murders that followed? Thorpe travels from a Spanish resort to the upper echelons of power to find the truth, in this absorbing and well-crafted mystery. (July 11) In "Break It Down," the main character tries to determine if the money he spent on a euphoric 10-day romance was worth the pleasure -- and then, when the romance is over, whether it was worth the pain. In "Story," the narrator is so obsessed with contacting her lover that she finds it impossible to enjoy herself. She can neither work nor sleep, and she canʹt get her lover out of her mind. She worries if heʹs deceiving her. She wonders if he still loves her -- and if he does love her, just how much? In "The Letter," the narrator searches for her ex-husbandʹs old white Volvoʹs "beautiful soft shape." His face floats before her as she pauses in her work, and she returns to her translating to stave off the pain. When she finally does receive a letter from him, she minutely analyzes his handwriting in the hope that she can understand what he was really feeling when he wrote to her. In the end, she sniffs the stationery to see if any of his aroma lingers on the paper -- but all she is able to smell is the ink. The remaining stories -- some of them one-sentence observations, many two-or there-page vignettes -- seem, at best, like prose poems. At worst, they might be remnants from any number of writing workshop exercises. Many have to do with old ladies, sisters, houses, cockroaches and mice. Some manage to be poignant pictures, while other leave the reader asking, "Why?" or "What for?" “These stories... offer a peephole into a distinct fictional world... they attest to the author's gift as an observer and archivist of emotion.” —The New York TimesThe thirty-four stories in this seminal collection powerfully display what have become Lydia Davis's trademarks—dexterity, brevity, understatement, and surprise.Although the certainty of her prose suggests a world of almost clinical reason and clarity, her characters show us that life, thought, and language are full of disorder. Break It Down is Davis at her best. In the words of Jonathan Franzen, she is “a magician of self-consciousness.”Praise for Lydia Davis“Davis is one of the most precise and economical writers we have.” —Dave Eggers, McSweeney's“An American virtuoso of the short story form.” —Salon“The best prose stylist in America.” —Rick Moody“[Davis has] a capacity to make language unleash entire states of existence.” —Siddhartha Deb, The New York Times Story -- The Fears Of Mrs. Orlando -- Liminal: The Little Man -- Break It Down -- Mr. Brudoff's Visit To Germany -- What She Knew -- The Fish -- Mildren And The Oboe -- The Mouse -- The Letter -- Extracts From A Life -- The House Plans -- The Brother-in-law -- How W.h. Auden Spends The Night In A Friend's House -- Mothers -- In A House Besieged -- Visit To Her Husband -- Cockroaches In Autumn -- The Bone -- A Few Things Wrong With Me -- Sketches For A Life Of Wassilly -- City Employment -- Two Sisters -- The Mother -- Therapy -- French Lesson1 -- Once A Very Sutpid Man -- The Housemaid -- The Cottages -- Safe Love -- Problem -- What An Old Woman Will Wear -- The Sock -- Five Signs Of Disturbance. By Lydia Davis. Previously Published In Her Other Collections And Various Periodicals.