Can’t and Won’t: Stories, Lydia Davis, 2014

A new collection of short and very short pieces from this master of the brief, telling observation.  With the exception of two fairly long pieces, Davis uses her very sharp sense of observation and her concise, plain, and vivid language to capture the moment.  Her characters are often compulsive, obsessed, stuck, and insecure even when faced with the mundaneness of their everyday lives.  They endlessly circle the minor problem revealing ever more of themselves and this world we live in.  Eschewing the grand gesture and the great issue, Davis delves deeply into the human condition, its contingent qualities and its inevitable end.  Favorite story is Local Obits in which she gives one line summaries of lives which had ended and been summarized in her local, upstate NY newspaper. This was a project which I had begun several years ago with the Vermont Standard, cutting out the leads of the local obits and planning to create a collage.  Davis’ treatment of this idea is much superior, and more importantly, fully realized.  Dry humor, irony, wit, compassion for her fellow dunderheads—these qualities ensure that she will long be a necessary writer for our times.