Lydia Davis, The Collected Stories ** 1/2

Similar to my experience with Barry Hannah's story collection, I read The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis with high expectations that almost guaranteed some level of disappointment.

Because her stories tend to be very short and to focus on a feeling rather than a narrative, I felt almost like I was reading a book of poetry, even though her prose style is not notably "poetic." I expected her to experiment with the form more than she does. Most of the stories were fundamentally traditional in nature, albeit with the compression of poetry.

Andrew Mango, Atatürk *** 1/2

Although advertised as a biography of Atatürk, founding father of the Turkish Republic, the book works best as "the best account...of the decline of the Ottoman Empire." The author does not attempt a psychological biography of the man, but rather describes Atatürk through his actions on the public stage. The result reads more like a history book than a biography. Mango does a good job of describing the large-scale political context for the action -- most notably the rise of nationalism in Europe and the complications it caused in the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire. I didn't have the patience to keep track of the nitty-gritty details or the large cast of characters, but I feel like I understand how the Republic came about and why.

The book covers Atatürk's rise more thoroughly than his years as (basically) a dictator. I would like to know more about how he managed to leave behind a functioning democracy where most others would have left a failed state. The secret, I suspect, may be his relationship with İsmet İnönü, another war hero and prime minister to Ataturk's president. I'd be interested in reading a biography of İsmet, whose tenure in Turkish politics extends beyond Ataturk's into the early 1970s.


I bought this book in Istanbul, from a bookstore on Divan Yolu.