My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
Samuel Johnson is Indignant
by
Lydia Davis
From one of our most imaginative and inventive writers, a crystalline collection of perfectly modulated, sometimes harrowing and often hilarious investigations into the multifaceted ways in which human beings perceive each other and themselves. A couple suspects their friends think them boring; a woman resolves to see herself as nothing but then concludes she's set to...more
Paperback, 216 pages
Published
September 1st 2002
by Picador
(first published 2001)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
995)
I think plot can be an overrated thing. I suspect Lydia Davis might share this sentiment.
Looking through some of the reviews for the book from people I know on goodreads.com the major criticism seems to be the super short stories. For example this one:
SAMUEL JOHNSON IS INDIGNANT:
that Scotland has so few trees.
I don't know exactly what this story 'means' but I love that she thinks it's a self-contained piece. yeah it's only a sentence but I get more of a k...more
Looking through some of the reviews for the book from people I know on goodreads.com the major criticism seems to be the super short stories. For example this one:
SAMUEL JOHNSON IS INDIGNANT:
that Scotland has so few trees.
I don't know exactly what this story 'means' but I love that she thinks it's a self-contained piece. yeah it's only a sentence but I get more of a k...more
view all 37 comments
I first learned about Lydia Davis from Michael Silverblatt's Bookworm radio show (podcasts available online here: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw, changed my life here in lonely Japan with no books to read and no one to talk to about books), and he said that she ought to be read at the rate she appears in the little mags, one short piece per every few weeks, and I agree. This is a writer to be savoured. That hasn't stopped me from gorging myself on her writing for the last couple of months t...more
My overall rating comes in at 2.5 stars. Here's why:
Begin with the not completely irrelevant observation that I plunked down $17 to buy my copy of this book, having been seduced at least in part by McSweeney's hype. Seventeen dollars.
Next, observe that here are some of the book's contents: (Note that each page is quoted in its entirety.)*
Page 14: CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE FROM HERODOTUS
These are the facts about the fish in the Nile:
page 44: SAMUEL ...more
Begin with the not completely irrelevant observation that I plunked down $17 to buy my copy of this book, having been seduced at least in part by McSweeney's hype. Seventeen dollars.
Next, observe that here are some of the book's contents: (Note that each page is quoted in its entirety.)*
Page 14: CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE FROM HERODOTUS
These are the facts about the fish in the Nile:
page 44: SAMUEL ...more
Oh Lydia, you lured me. You teased me with the two or three short story gems that I happened to read first. That bar was set high and I had only high hopes for the future. My heart was won over but alas, big plans for our reader/writer love affair were dashed and destroyed as I read on and the stories went dooooownhill.
Fear not dear Ms. Davis, I will not give up on you. Our affair is not over yet Lyds, I have Varieties of Disturbances and will give you another chance. Be warned ...more
Fear not dear Ms. Davis, I will not give up on you. Our affair is not over yet Lyds, I have Varieties of Disturbances and will give you another chance. Be warned ...more
I started reading this as if I had found my muse, a writer's voice who said the things I'd always been urged to say, but couldn't say all that well. Isn't that a sign of great writing -- when someone else is saying what you wish you could? Short, tight, brilliant constellations of words. I was mesmerized, and, at the same time, thought maybe the moment had come to finally pick up my own pen. Driving home from the library I was forming my first Davis-inspired lines. But something must have happen...more
I enjoyed the pieces where she messes with language and grammer. It reminded me of Tender Buttons, and I could have read a whole book like that. But I didn't care for the more straight-forward fiction pieces. She does thing to keep the reader detached from the action and emotionally distant from the characters, which is an interesting stylistic choice, but not to my taste.
i really enjoyed this book. it made me feel that i was reading an answer key to a creative writing class. these stories feel like exercises. the point is rarely plot driven, but more as if there is something specific to be achieved. i thought that this would become really tiresome, but davis is very intelligent, and funny and sad and a very good writer.
A joy to read. Sweet like dried fruit, not candy. No, really. While many authors process reality so it's delectable and you want to suck on the words all day, Lydia Davis has a way of preserving the texture of a single moment or entire relationship so it's nummy, chewy, and yet immediately recognizable for what it was while fresh, alive, or being lived.
I don't know why, maybe because they look alike but I can't stop thinking about Laurie Anderson whenever I read Lydia Davis. They both have this blunt, bone-dry sense of humor and a completely awesome disregard for what's "supposed" to happen in their art.
I got a free ticket to hear Lydia Davis lecture in Portland, so that's why I sought out her book. Obviously the distinctive thing is her form - short short stories, some only a sentence long, that tend to push at the boundary between poetry and prose, and yet are firmly prose even where they take on a kind of poetic form. The lecture was pretty dull, she read it in a monotone while sitting in a big overstuffed chair on a stage, and one of the questions from a rather hostile Portland audience w...more
On the surface a very unassuming collection of tiny stories, the real genius of Lydia David's prose is how completely she can create a character in just a few words. There are so many individual characters in this book - dozens and dozens of individuals wholly unlike each other, similar to people almost all of us must known, archetypes but not stereotypes. Since I read this in one sitting, the variety of characters she creates struck me particularly deeply - I have such admiration for people w...more
Ain't nobody writes short stories like Ms. Davis. See those five stars? That's right, five. And because she's a genius, she breaks rules, and will twist your cranium at times, but most of all she will move you. I'm a big fan of McSweeney's, who first showed me the Light (of Lydia). I didn't figure out the title out until many years after I read this (probably because my historical knowledge is patchy at best). Who is Samuel Johnson? And why is he indignant? Read Davis, do a Wiki search on Johns...more
Adrianne Mathiowetz
rated it
Recommends it for:
Miranda July
Recommended to Adrianne by:
Peter Horan
I tried to go through and dog-ear all of my favorite stories from this book: the ones with the most articulate, simple lines, hilarity, or just plain spoke-to-me-ness. (A few years ago I realized this kind of thing can come in handy later, during dark times -- I know pages like these will snap me out of any foreseeable funk. This can be especially convenient in the middle of an argument.) It turns out, I dog-eared nearly every story.
It begins with a bang.
Boring Friends
...more
It begins with a bang.
Boring Friends
...more
If you are only going to read one of Lydia Davis' story collections, this would be the one to read. It contains my favorite Davis story, "The Old Dictionary". Here's a hint, though. Do not read her stories back-to-back. Read one or two and then put it down and read something else. Let her language be something to cleanse your palette. Her stories are so short that if you read 5 or 6 in a row their power is greatly diminished. Sort of like poetry.
This isn't a sit down and read it all at once book. At least it wasn't for me. I wouldn't say that it was deep (maybe because the deep stuff went over my head), but more weird and amusing. In this collection, I was always just waiting for the twist. Of course some of the stuff is so short, you don't have to wait very long:
“Spring Spleen
I am happy the leaves are growing large so quickly.
Soon they will hide the neighbor and her screaming child.”
See....more
“Spring Spleen
I am happy the leaves are growing large so quickly.
Soon they will hide the neighbor and her screaming child.”
See....more
This is one of the oddest books I have ever read. I enjoyed it very much, I think because it made me think very carefully about each sentence. Some of the short stories are no more than two sentences long and yet I am still thinking about them. It is as though she carefully chose each word and because she wasn't careless in choosing them, she didn't need many.
Well I've heard so much about her and finally I've completed one of her books. I enjoyed much of it, and I do love short or flash fiction. She is not exactly flash compared to others I've read. I think she is very good, but it didn't grab me immensely. Lots of smart, clever, interesting, some math, some personality quirkiness. I'm going to keep reading her next book I have from the library. One thing for sure is she has managed to successful with short stories, and what I understand that is near...more
I really loved Lydia's previous book "Almost No Memory," and this was classic Davis, but it was hard to get through the whole thing. Wanted it to be done more than I wanted to be reading it. Still there were some fun, interesting snippets and bits I enjoyed.
Read this many moons ago, when it was on the ALA books to read for the year it came out, back in the day when I had time to read everything. I rememb it being very clever, funny, bizarre, all the stuff I like in my short story reading.
These are really funny. But I don't think you'll actually laugh while reading them. No excitement. There will just be an imperceptible shift in your awareness of funny things.
You should have married a man who didn't drink or smoke. And who also had no hands or feet. Or arms or legs.
You should have married a man who didn't drink or smoke. And who also had no hands or feet. Or arms or legs.
Confession: I love her and do not have objective judgement with regard to her work, take with grain of salt.
She is master of the short story, some just a few lines. The precision of language is poetic without the formality.
Her words and ideas linger, I find I am having mini discussions with myself about the relevance and uncomfortable, sometimes brutal truths she unearths.
She is master of the short story, some just a few lines. The precision of language is poetic without the formality.
Her words and ideas linger, I find I am having mini discussions with myself about the relevance and uncomfortable, sometimes brutal truths she unearths.
Eleanor
added it
Many great stories here. They are so fabulously condensed, they at times read as prose poetry. Some funny, some poignant; some ask you to linger; others are forgettable. Some seem to come from or would make excellent writing prompts. Certainly here there is no formula, except the unexpected. I will read more Lydia Davis.
This was one of the 2002 RUSA Notable Books winners. For the complete list, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/a...
I love you, Lydia Davis. You are funny and insightful and witty and glorious.Let's run away together and make little flash-fiction together for the rest of our lives.
Obviously excellent but not as good as Varieties of Disturbance because she seems not yet fully committed to her style at this point.
Yes, "A Mown Lawn" is wonderful. Language is different after a few pages of L. Davis.
Read as part of The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis.
I don't know what to say. Funny and great.
"Samuel Johnson is indignant because Scotland has so few trees." That was my favorite story in the book. Sadly, I hated most of it with a passion. The short shorts were pretty witty, and in that sense, fun. But the repetition and play on language bit I did not dig. This book was recommended to me by a Professor who said it was in a similar style as my own writing. It has inspired me to be way more clear in my own writing so as to avoid that comparison in the future. No disrespec...more
fantastic collection of short stories...
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Share This Book
Lydia Davis,acclaimed fiction writer and translator, is famous in literary circles for her extremely brief and brilliantly inventive short stories. In fall 2003 she received one of 25 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” awards. In granting the award the MacArthur Foundation praised Davis’s work for showing “how language itself can entertain, how all that what one word says, and leaves unsaid, can hold a...more
More about Lydia Davis...
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Samuel Johnson Is Indignant:
that Scotland has so few trees.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
that Scotland has so few trees.”
