Author(s): Lydia Davis

Literature | Writing

'A writer as mighty as Kafka, as subtle as Flaubert, and as epoch-making, in her own way, as Proust'(Ali Smith)

Lydia Davis gathered a selection of her non-fiction writing for the first time in 2019 with Essays. Now, she continues the project with Essays Two, focusing on the art of translation, the learning of foreign languages through reading, and her experience of translating, amongst others, Flaubert and Proust, about whom she writes with an unmatched understanding of the nuances of their styles. Every essay in this book is a revelation.

Review:

"As a translator, Davis is known for fidelity, clarity, and, in the case of Proust, decluttering . . . Yet the collection is not, mostly, about problems with other people's translations but the process of working on her own--a kind of shop talk we're allowed to listen in on . . . Davis once said in an interview that she would find it 'almost morally or ethically wrong' to deliberately impose her own style on a translation. Her scrupulousness is, perhaps, a counterbalance to the translator's power, and to the peremptory instinct that prompts translation in the first place." --Elaine Blair, The New York Review of Books

"Whatever the topic, Davis is always superb company: erudite, adventurous, surprising . . . Davis extracts endless thrills from the painstaking process [of translation]. Her essays do a beautiful job of transmitting that satisfaction to the reader . . . A book that contains an incredible amount of life-enhancing morsels." --Molly Young, The New York Times Book Review

"When Davis breaks down the work of writing, she can be very funny, often at her own expense . . . The pieces in Essays Two brim with daring experiments . . . There is an element of knight-errantry, quest, romantic fatalism as she pursues the elusive foreign language, and often a distant century ." --Ange Mlinko, London Review of Books

[Essays Two] offers overwhelming proof of the benefits to a writer of a practice of translation . . . [R]eaders with no interest in translation, little taste for essays and zero desire to become writers themselves will nonetheless find themselves burning through its 571 pages with equal parts confusion (What on earth is happening to me?) and relief (Thank God this is happening to me!), and, finally, recognition that the mind we're meeting on the page is awake to the world in ways that feel necessary and new. Essays Two joins Essays One (2019) . . . the two volumes conspiring to a singular astonishment of pleasures. --Wyatt Mason, The New York Times

We come away from Essays Two with renewed respect for a writer whose grasp of languages is profound, and whose capacity to shape-shift from one to another is quite exceptional. --Phillip Lopate, The Times Literary Supplement

[Essays Two is] a guide . . . to new dimensions of thought. Davis makes translation seem like a sublime exercise of mind and self. --Adam Colman, The Boston Globe

While writing about writing can sometimes wander into theoretical, navel-gazing territory, Davis's approach here is thrillingly concrete. Several pieces describe, in vivid, granular detail, her process for translating the first volume of Proust. She pops the hood and lets us see how the literary gears turn. --Cornelia Channing, Vulture

"In this riveting and erudite collection (after Essays One), Davis documents the adventures and challenges of her work as a translator, moving with ease between the technical challenges posed by a complex text and her personal relationship with literature . . . Thorough, idiosyncratic, and inimitable, Davis is the kind of intelligent and attentive reader a book is lucky to find. Readers, in turn, are lucky to have this collection, a worthy addition to the Davis canon." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"I think a good rule for living is always read Lydia Davis . . . Davis on writing is generous and specific in a way that reveals how much smarter she is than almost everyone without being the least bit alienating." --Jessie Gaynor, Lit Hub

A celebration of the beautiful and bewildering intermittences of language . . . Davis is a literary treasure. --Jonathan Russell Clark, Star Tribune

"A vivid portrait of the translating life. Davis is known for both her precise, uber-concise short fiction and her translations of Proust, Flaubert, and others. In this immersive collection, she offers a second (following Essays One) in-depth exploration of foreign languages and the art of translation. . . . For those wondering what translators do and how they do it, this collection is a must." --Kirkus Reviews

Author Biography: Lydia Davis is the author of Collected Stories, one novel and six short story collections, the most recent of which was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government for her fiction and her translations of modern writers, including Gustave Flaubert and Marcel Proust. She won the Man Booker International Prize in 2013.