Lydia Davis

[Gnj]

Lydia Davis has fast become one of my all-time favourite authors.

She is the winner of the 2013 Man Booker International Prize, and possibly one of the most original authors out there, having been described as 'the master of a literary form largely of her own invention.'

Her short stories, some of which are only one sentence long, capture those small moments in our day to day lives that most of us would just walk by. I am always fascinated by how Davis can play with words, being able to jolt us out of our dreamlike states in just a few sentences. I don't think I've ever read a writer like her.

Just to give an example of her writing, below is one of her more popular short stories entitled 'The Thirteenth Woman:'

In a town of twelve women there was a thirteenth. No one admitted she lived there, no mail came for her, no one spoke of her, no one asked after her, no one sold bread to her, no one bought anything from her, no one returned her glance, no one knocked on her door, the rain did not fall on her, the sun never shone on her, the day never dawned for her, the night never fell for her; for her the weeks did not pass, the years did not roll by; her house was unencumbered, her garden unattended, her path not trod upon, her bed not slept in, her food not eaten, her clothes not worn; and in spite of all this she continued to live in the town without resenting what it did to her.

What I find particularly interesting about this short story is how it is composed of just two sentences. If you look at the second sentence, it is filled with commas and semi-colons - it almost feels as if the words are running into each other.
In one of her interviews, Lydia Davis stated that after writing this piece she felt that the story spoke about a woman who was probably quite young, thereby conveying that feeling of being invisible at that age, and that no one really notices you or cares.

It is this type of enduring yet common day emotion that I feel Davis captures particularly well, in such simple yet almost poetic sentences. I myself feel inspired to pick up the pen and write every time I read some of her works. Rarely have I come across an author who has encouraged me to do just that - a lot of the time I read a writers work and feel like I will never be able to write that well. Her work has taught me how powerful a word can be if it is used correctly and that ideas can be found from all around us; the most mundane chores that make up our day to day lives can have a deep and insightful message when put upon paper.

Are there any other Davis fans out there?