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Samuel Johnson Is Indignant: Stories
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312420567
ISBN: 0312420560
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 216
Publication Date: September 01, 2002
Publisher: Picador
Studio: Picador
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Editorial Review:
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 too high a goal; and a funeral home receives a letter rebuking it for linguistic errors. Lydia Davis once again proves in the words of the Los Angeles Times "one of the quiet giants in the world of American fiction."
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - At her best, Lydia Davis is awesome. That's about 50% of this book.
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 JOHNSON IS INDIGNANT:
that Scotland has so few trees. ... Read More
Rating: - From the sparse to the enigmatic - this a very good collection of original fiction
Lydia Davis writes short fiction...sometimes really short fiction. In this very good to great collection of short work, Davis has delivered a book both interesting in content and interesting in composition of the collection.
The bulk of the stories in this collection are short stories that feed the mind and fulfill the need for a quick literary fix; and these are intermixed with short short fiction - usually a paragraph in length - that work as a brief interlude between the longer pieces. ... Read More
Rating:  - Almost criminally awful.
Lydia Davis, Samuel Johnson Is Indignant (McSweeney's, 2005)
I once again find myself wondering what it is about the Cult of McSweeney's that makes anyone think that anyone at this press has even the barest modicum of taste-- or whether, in this case, they are even capable of recognizing and classifying content. While one cannot doubt that roughly one-third of the fifty-six pieces here do, in fact, classify as "stories," the rest, which range in length from one sentence to about a page and ... Read More
Rating: - The definition of "Hit or Miss"
Half the pieces (most can't really be called "stories") will make you think or laugh. The other half will make you go "meh."
Half the stories are brimming with wit and intelligence. The other half sound like pseudo-literary versions of rejected MadTV jokes.
Oh well. There should be enough good stuff to please anyone. Plus, McSweeneys deserves all the support you can give, as they are putting out the best work and in the best format.
Rating: - A quietly eccentric humor
...that captures the essence of human experience. Urgent - natural - inevitable. A good variety of forms - entertaining for the minimalists in particular.
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