The Cows

Fiction & Literature, Essays & Letters, Essays, Literary Theory & Criticism, Literary
Cover of the book The Cows by Lydia Davis, Sarabande Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Lydia Davis ISBN: 9781936747610
Publisher: Sarabande Books Publication: September 7, 2012
Imprint: Sarabande Books Language: English
Author: Lydia Davis
ISBN: 9781936747610
Publisher: Sarabande Books
Publication: September 7, 2012
Imprint: Sarabande Books
Language: English
Winner of the Man Booker International Prize

"You read Lydia Davis to watch a writer patiently divide the space between epiphany and actual human beings by first halves, then quarters, then eighths, and then sixteenths, into infinity," says The Village Voice. Indeed, Lydia Davis is mathematician, philosopher, sculptor, jeweler, and scholar of the minute. Few writers map the process of thought as well as she, few perceive with such charged intelligence.

The Cows is a close study of the three much-loved cows that live across the road from her. The piece, written with understated humor and empathy, is a series of detailed observations of the cows on different days and in different positions, moods, and times of the day. It could be compared to some sections of Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" or to Claude Monet's paintings of Rouen Cathedral.

Forms of play: head butting; mounting, either at the back or at the front; trotting away by yourself; trotting together; going off bucking and prancing by yourself; resting your head and chest on the ground until they notice and trot toward you; circling each other; taking the position for head-butting and then not doing it.

She moos toward the wooded hills behind her, and the sound comes back. She moos in a high falsetto before the note descends abruptly, or she moos in a falsetto that does not descend. It is a very small sound to come from such a large, dark animal.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Winner of the Man Booker International Prize

"You read Lydia Davis to watch a writer patiently divide the space between epiphany and actual human beings by first halves, then quarters, then eighths, and then sixteenths, into infinity," says The Village Voice. Indeed, Lydia Davis is mathematician, philosopher, sculptor, jeweler, and scholar of the minute. Few writers map the process of thought as well as she, few perceive with such charged intelligence.

The Cows is a close study of the three much-loved cows that live across the road from her. The piece, written with understated humor and empathy, is a series of detailed observations of the cows on different days and in different positions, moods, and times of the day. It could be compared to some sections of Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" or to Claude Monet's paintings of Rouen Cathedral.

Forms of play: head butting; mounting, either at the back or at the front; trotting away by yourself; trotting together; going off bucking and prancing by yourself; resting your head and chest on the ground until they notice and trot toward you; circling each other; taking the position for head-butting and then not doing it.

She moos toward the wooded hills behind her, and the sound comes back. She moos in a high falsetto before the note descends abruptly, or she moos in a falsetto that does not descend. It is a very small sound to come from such a large, dark animal.

More books from Sarabande Books

Cover of the book Mr. Dalloway by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book The Do-Over by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book Solarium by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book Fire Year by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book You Have Given Me a Country by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book The Spoons in the Grass Are There to Dig a Moat by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book All the Fierce Tethers by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book Thrown by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book This Is Not Your City by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book Drowned Boy by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book If a Stranger Approaches You by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book Easy Math by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book One Word by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book Bright Scythe by Lydia Davis
Cover of the book Red Holler by Lydia Davis
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy