One Great Short Story To Read Today: Lydia Davis’s “happiest Moment”

According to nan powers that beryllium (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of nan Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for nan third twelvemonth successful a row, nan Literary Hub unit will beryllium recommending a azygous short story, free* to publication online, each (work) time of nan month. Why not publication on pinch us? Today, we recommend:

Lydia Davis, “Happiest Moment”

Lydia Davis hardly needs an introduction: a brilliant astatine her form, she is capable to communicate, and devastate, successful less words than seems possible. She is an excavator and a stylist, an anthropological writer pinch nary fluff and nary bullshit, who buffs down her stories, slashing ungraded and excess, until they are conscionable pearly bony gleaming backmost astatine you. So galore of her miniature stories tally done my mind each nan time, “Head, Heart”, a classic, is ever there. But “Happiest Moment” conjures truthful overmuch pinch truthful little, a communicative wrong a communicative wrong a story, that lets nan scholar beryllium crossed clip and space: we are talking pinch an author, we are successful a classroom, we are connected a vacation, we are happily remembering, we are listening, we are reading, we are eating nan repast ourselves. It becomes our happiest infinitesimal too, getting to beryllium successful this story, watching nan hubby grin to himself, getting to person a small taste, not of duck, but of what existent emotion tin be.

The communicative begins:

If you inquire her what is simply a favourite communicative she has written, she will hesitate for a agelong clip and past opportunity it whitethorn beryllium this communicative that she publication successful a book once: an English connection coach successful China asked his Chinese student to opportunity what was nan happiest infinitesimal successful his life.

Read it here.

*If you deed a paywall, we urge trying pinch a different/private/incognito browser (but listen, you didn’t perceive it from us).