# Varieties of Disturbance > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Varieties_of_Disturbance > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Varieties_of_Disturbance.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Disturbance > Source revision: 1297803071 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 2007 short story collection by Lydia Davis Varieties of Disturbance First edition Author Lydia Davis Language English Genre Short stories, flash fiction Publisher FSG Publication date 2007 Publication place United States Media type Print (hardback & paperback) Pages 240 ISBN 978-0-374-28173-1 Preceded by Samuel Johnson Is Indignant Followed by The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis ***Varieties of Disturbance*** is [Lydia Davis](/source/Lydia_Davis)'s fourth collection of short stories. The book, published in 2007 by [FSG](/source/Farrar%2C_Straus_and_Giroux), was a finalist for the [National Book Awards](/source/National_Book_Awards) for Fiction that year.[1] The 57 short stories therein include ones published in a number of literary magazines, compilations, and pamphlets as well as new work, and range in length from several pages to couplet-length. ## Contents - "A Man from Her Past", first published in *Bomb* - "Dog and Me", first published in *NOON* - "Enlightened", first published in *Columbia* - "The Good Taste Contest", first published in *NOON* - "Collaboration with Fly" - "Kafka Cooks Dinner", first published in *Fence,* some of which's material was taken from *[Letters to Milena](/source/Letters_to_Milena)* by [Franz Kafka](/source/Franz_Kafka), tr. Philip Boehm (New York: [Schocken Books](/source/Schocken_Books), 1990) - "Tropical Storm", first published in *Tolling Elves* - "Good Times", first published in *The Unmade Bed,* (ed. Laura Chester; Boston: [Faber & Faber](/source/Faber_%26_Faber), 1992) - "Idea for a Short Documentary Film" - "Forbidden Subjects", first published in *Avec* - "Two Types", first published in *32 Poems* - "The Senses", first published in *Gulf Coast* - "Grammar Questions", first appeared in *110 Stories* (ed. Ulrich Baer; New York: [New York University Press](/source/New_York_University_Press), 2002), reprinted in [Harper's](/source/Harper's_Magazine) August 2002 - "Hand" - "The Caterpillar", first published in *NOON* - "Childcare", first published in *Shiny* - "We Miss You: A Study of Get-Well Letters from a Class of Fourth-Graders" - "Passing Wind", first published in *Shiny* - "Television", first published in *Conjunctions* and *John Cheney's Literary Magazine* (sections 1 and 2), appeared in *The Pushcart Prize, 1989-1990* (ed. Bill Henderson, New York, [Pushcart](/source/Pushcart_Press), 1989) - "Jane and the Cane", first published in *NOON* - "Getting to Know Your Body", first published in *NOON* - "Absentminded", first published in *NOON* - "Southward Bound, Reads *[Worstward Ho](/source/Worstward_Ho)*", first published in *The World* (footnotes only, under the title "Going South While Reading *Worstward Ho*"), also appeared under the title "Going South, Reads *Worstward Ho*" in *New and Used* by Marc Joseph (London: Steidl Publishing, 2006) - "The Walk" - "Varieties of Disturbance", first published in *A Little Magazine,* reprinted in *[Harper's](/source/Harper's_Magazine)* April 1993 - "Lonely", first published in *Tolling Elves* - "Mrs. D and Her Maids" - "20 Sculptures in One Hour", first published in *Hambone* - "Nietszche" - "What You Learn About the Baby", excerpts first published in *Tolling Elves*, excerpts also appeared in *Cradle and All* (ed. Laura Chester; Boston: Faber & Faber, 1989) - "Her Mother's Mother", first published in *American Letters & Commentary* as "Her Mother's Mother: 1" and "Her Mother's Mother: 2" - "How It Is Done", first published in *Hambone,* also appeared in *New York Sex* (ed. Jane DeLynn, New York: [Painted Leaf Press](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Painted_Leaf_Press&action=edit&redlink=1), 1998) - "Insomnia", first published in *NOON* - "Burning Family Members", first published in *Conjunctions* - "The Way to Perfection", first published in *Insurance* - "The Fellowship", first published in *Tolling Elves* as "The Fellowship: 1" and "The Fellowship: 2" - "Helen and Vi: A Study in Health and Vitality" - "Reducing Expenses", first published in *Conjunctions* - "Mother's Reaction to My Travel Plans" - "For Sixty Cents", first published in *Northern Lit Quarterly* - "How Shall I Mourn Them?", first published in *Shiny* - "A Strange Impulse" - "How She Could Not Drive", first published in *Notus* as "Clouds in the Sky" - "Suddenly Afraid", first published in *Bomb* - "Getting Better", first published in *32 Poems* - "Head, Heart" - "The Strangers" - "The Busy Road", first published in *Tolling Elves* - "Order" - "The Fly", first published in *Tolling Elves* - "Traveling With Mother" - "Index Entry" - "My Son", first published in *The World* - "Example of the Continuing Past Tense in a Hotel Room" - "Cape Cod Diary", first published as a pamphlet by [Belladonna Books](/source/Belladonna_Books) (Brooklyn, 2003) - "Almost Over: What's the Word?", first published in *Bomb* - "A Different Man", first published in *Quick Fiction* ## Critical reception Siddhartha Deb, writing for *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*, called the book "Haunting, dreamlike and yet indisputably real" and praised her exacting use of language in the style of European [postmodernism](/source/Postmodernism).[2] Michael Miller also praised the collection for *[The Believer](/source/The_Believer_(magazine)),* admiring Davis' humor and precise writing style.[3] Asali Solomon, with *[Paste](/source/Paste_(magazine)),* called the collection's short stories "addictively powerful, rapid encounters with tragedy, humor and existential confusion in the span of a page or a line."[4] ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["National Book Awards 2007"](https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2007/). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Deb, Siddhartha (2007-05-27). ["Just So Stories"](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/books/review/Deb-t.html). *The New York Times*. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0362-4331](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved 2024-07-16. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Miller, Michael (2007-05-01). ["A Review of: Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis"](https://www.thebeliever.net/lydia-daviss-varieties-of-disturbance/). *The Believer Magazine*. Retrieved 2024-07-16. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Solomon, Asali (2007-05-30). ["Lydia Davis: Varieties of Disturbance"](https://www.pastemagazine.com/books/lydia-davis/lydia-davis-varieties-of-disturbance). *Paste Magazine*. Retrieved 2024-07-16. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Varieties of Disturbance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Disturbance) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Disturbance?action=history)). 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