‘Can’t and Won’t’: Davis’ collection goes straight to the heart

Lydia Davis, who is the 2015-2016 writer-in-residence for the University of Iowa's Magid Center, appears to think about short stories broadly even as she executes them briefly.

Her seventh and most recent collection, 'Can't and Won't,' published in 2014, contains stories in a variety of forms, including lightly altered translations from Gustav Flaubert's correspondence, recounting of dreams (both her own and those of others), unusual letters of complaint, and even jottings made during a phone conversation. They are frequently funny and always reward a second look.

The vast majority of stories are short, with some begun and ended in a single line. Here, for example, is 'Bloomington,' a story quoted on the book's dust jacket and one of my favorite in the collection:

'Now that I have been here for a little while, I can say with confidence that I have never been here before.'

And here is 'The Language of the Telephone Company:'

''The trouble you reported recently is now working properly.''

It might be easy to dismiss such stories as gimmicks or wisecracks, but in each of these cases, the stories reveal Davis' deep command of and connection to language. 'Bloomington' manages to evoke questions of memory and experience in a single, beautifully balanced sentence, while 'The Language of the Telephone Company' lays bare the often tortured locutions of automated (and so-called) customer service.

'Can't and Won't' includes longer pieces, as well, but additional length does not constrain Davis to traditional forms. 'The Cows,' for example, is 16 pages of close observations about three (and eventually four) cows in a field. One section reads: 'Standing with their back ends close together now, they face three of the four cardinal points of the compass.'

The story, like others in the book, has something of the rhythm and substance of poetry.

'Can't and Won't' confirms that Davis has a sharp eye and a sharp pencil, both of which cut to the heart of whatever she observes and describes.

Book reading

What: Lydia Davis reads from her work

Where: University of Iowa, Van Allen Hall, Lecture Room 2, 30 N. Dubuque St., Iowa City

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Cost: Free