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Can't and won't / Lydia Davis.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014Edition: First editionDescription: xi, 289 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0374118582 (hardcover)
  • 9780374118587 (hardcover)
Other title:
  • Cannot and will not
Uniform titles:
  • Short stories. Selections
Genre/Form:
Contents:
A story of stolen salamis -- The dog hair -- Circular story -- Idea for a sign -- Bloomington -- The cook's lesson -- At the bank -- Awake in the night -- At the bank: 2 -- The two Davises and the rug -- Contingency (vs. necessity) -- Brief incident in short a, long a, and schwa -- Contingency (vs. necessity) 2: on vacation -- A story told to me by a friend -- The bad novel -- After you left -- The bodyguard -- The child -- The churchyard -- My sister and the Queen of England -- The visit to the dentist -- Letter to a frozen peas manufacturer -- The cornmeal -- Two undertakers -- I ask Mary about her friend, the depressive, and his vacation -- The magic of the train -- Eating fish alone -- Can't and Won't -- Pouchet's wife -- Dinner -- The dog -- The grandmother -- The dreadful mucamas -- Reversible story -- A woman, thirty -- How I know what I like (six versions) -- Handel -- The force of the subliminal -- Her geography: Alabama -- The funeral -- The husband-seekers -- In the gallery -- The low sun -- The landing -- The language of the telephone company -- The coachman and the worm -- Letter to a marketing manager -- The last of the Mohicans -- Grade two assignment -- Master
An awkward situation -- Housekeeping observation -- The execution -- A note from the paperboy -- In the train station -- The moon -- My footsteps -- How I read as quickly as possible through my back issues of the TLS -- Notes during long phone conversations with mother -- Men -- Negative emotions -- I'm pretty comfortable, but I could be a little more comfortable -- Judgment -- The chairs -- My friend's creation -- The piano -- The party -- The cows -- The exhibition -- Letter to a peppermint candy company -- Her geography: Illinois -- Odon von Horvath out walking -- On the train -- The problem of the vacuum cleaner -- The seals -- Learning medieval history -- My school friend -- The piano lesson -- The schoolchildren in the large building -- The sentence and the young man -- Molly, female cat: history/findings -- The letter to the foundation -- The results of one statistical study -- Revise: 1 -- Short conversation (in airport departure lounge) -- Revise: 2 -- Left luggage -- Waiting for takeoff -- Industry -- The sky above Los Angeles -- Two characters in a paragraph -- Swimming in Egypt -- The language of things in the house -- The washerwomen -- Letter to a hotel manager -- Her birthday -- My childhood friend -- Their poor dog -- Hello dear -- Not interested
Old woman, old fish -- Staying at the pharmacist's -- The song -- Two former students -- A small story about a small box of chocolates -- The woman next to me on the airplane -- Writing -- Wrong thank-you in theater -- The rooster -- Sitting with my little friend -- The old soldier -- Two slogs lads -- The woman in red -- If at the wedding (at the zoo) -- The gold digger of Gold fields -- The old vacuum cleaner keeps dying on her -- Flaubert and point of view -- Family shopping -- Local obits -- Letter to the president of the American Biographical Institute, Inc. -- Nancy Brown will be in town -- Ph.D.
Awards:
  • Man Booker International Prize, 2013
Summary: A fifth collection by the author of the National Book Award finalist, Varieties of Disturbance, includes pithy one-liners, exploratory observations and letters of complaint, including "A Small Story About a Small Box of Chocolates," in which a professor is stymied by her choices.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Fiction Davis Lydia Checked out 07/15/2024 33111007549138
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A new collection of short stories from the woman Rick Moody has called "the best prose stylist in America"

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.

Includes bibliographical references.

A story of stolen salamis -- The dog hair -- Circular story -- Idea for a sign -- Bloomington -- The cook's lesson -- At the bank -- Awake in the night -- At the bank: 2 -- The two Davises and the rug -- Contingency (vs. necessity) -- Brief incident in short a, long a, and schwa -- Contingency (vs. necessity) 2: on vacation -- A story told to me by a friend -- The bad novel -- After you left -- The bodyguard -- The child -- The churchyard -- My sister and the Queen of England -- The visit to the dentist -- Letter to a frozen peas manufacturer -- The cornmeal -- Two undertakers -- I ask Mary about her friend, the depressive, and his vacation -- The magic of the train -- Eating fish alone -- Can't and Won't -- Pouchet's wife -- Dinner -- The dog -- The grandmother -- The dreadful mucamas -- Reversible story -- A woman, thirty -- How I know what I like (six versions) -- Handel -- The force of the subliminal -- Her geography: Alabama -- The funeral -- The husband-seekers -- In the gallery -- The low sun -- The landing -- The language of the telephone company -- The coachman and the worm -- Letter to a marketing manager -- The last of the Mohicans -- Grade two assignment -- Master

An awkward situation -- Housekeeping observation -- The execution -- A note from the paperboy -- In the train station -- The moon -- My footsteps -- How I read as quickly as possible through my back issues of the TLS -- Notes during long phone conversations with mother -- Men -- Negative emotions -- I'm pretty comfortable, but I could be a little more comfortable -- Judgment -- The chairs -- My friend's creation -- The piano -- The party -- The cows -- The exhibition -- Letter to a peppermint candy company -- Her geography: Illinois -- Odon von Horvath out walking -- On the train -- The problem of the vacuum cleaner -- The seals -- Learning medieval history -- My school friend -- The piano lesson -- The schoolchildren in the large building -- The sentence and the young man -- Molly, female cat: history/findings -- The letter to the foundation -- The results of one statistical study -- Revise: 1 -- Short conversation (in airport departure lounge) -- Revise: 2 -- Left luggage -- Waiting for takeoff -- Industry -- The sky above Los Angeles -- Two characters in a paragraph -- Swimming in Egypt -- The language of things in the house -- The washerwomen -- Letter to a hotel manager -- Her birthday -- My childhood friend -- Their poor dog -- Hello dear -- Not interested

Old woman, old fish -- Staying at the pharmacist's -- The song -- Two former students -- A small story about a small box of chocolates -- The woman next to me on the airplane -- Writing -- Wrong thank-you in theater -- The rooster -- Sitting with my little friend -- The old soldier -- Two slogs lads -- The woman in red -- If at the wedding (at the zoo) -- The gold digger of Gold fields -- The old vacuum cleaner keeps dying on her -- Flaubert and point of view -- Family shopping -- Local obits -- Letter to the president of the American Biographical Institute, Inc. -- Nancy Brown will be in town -- Ph.D.

A fifth collection by the author of the National Book Award finalist, Varieties of Disturbance, includes pithy one-liners, exploratory observations and letters of complaint, including "A Small Story About a Small Box of Chocolates," in which a professor is stymied by her choices.

Man Booker International Prize, 2013

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