Can't and Won't Stories

Paperback (31 Mar 2015)

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Publisher's Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
The New York Times - Los Angeles Times - The Boston Globe

Her stories may be literal one-liners: the entirety of "Bloomington" reads, "Now that I have been here for a little while, I can say with confidence that I have never been here before." Or they may be lengthier investigations of the havoc wreaked by the most mundane disruptions to routine: in "A Small Story About a Small Box of Chocolates," a professor receives a gift of thirty-two small chocolates and is paralyzed by the multitude of options she imagines for their consumption. The stories may appear in the form of letters of complaint; they may be extracted from Flaubert's correspondence; or they may be inspired by the author's own dreams, or the dreams of friends.

What does not vary throughout Can't and Won't, Lydia Davis's fifth collection of stories, is the power of her finely honed prose. Davis is sharply observant; she is wry or witty or poignant. Above all, she is refreshing. Davis writes with bracing candor and sly humor about the quotidian, revealing the mysterious, the foreign, the alienating, and the pleasurable within the predictable patterns of daily life.

Book information

ISBN: 9781250062437
Publisher: Picador USA
Imprint: Picador USA
Pub date:
DEWEY: 813.54
Language: English
Number of pages: 304
Weight: 268g
Height: 212mm
Width: 139mm
Spine width: 23mm