On "Extracts from a Life"

Lydia Davis is one of my favorite writers. Perhaps it’s because I’m a fan of brevity and wit, but I have a feeling impatience may also have something to do with it. In any event, in her story “Extracts from a Life,” Davis sets up a biographical narrative constructed of fragmented snapshots, or extracts, as the title suggests, of the life of Shinichi Suzuki. Each section is given an italicized subtitle, such as ‘Childhood,’ and ‘My meeting with Tolstoy.’ These sections are based on real-life historical occurrences in Suzuki’s life, some even drawing direct quotations from his life. It is difficult to say how to read this story. Upon first reading, it was not apparent to me that this was based on a real, historical person, with real historical events specific to Suzuki’s life. Without this knowledge, the story seemed to be bringing together disparate parts in an odd, unsettling synthesis: violins and classical music, Tolstoy, Japanese poetry, idioms and aphorisms, and Albert Einstein. However, after discovering that the Shinichi in this story is in fact Shinichi Suzuki, it blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction. This story appropriates a different form of nonfiction than we have previously imagined. Rather than using a dictionary entry or an musical album’s liner notes, “Extracts from a Life,” appropriates history, sometimes word for word (The sentence “Plenty of people often think, “I’d like to do this, or that,” seems to be written by Suzuki, as a loose internet search revealed). Because of these facts, I am left questioning which parts of the story are fact and which are fiction, and if it even matters. It is Davis’ arrangement of these seemingly disparate facts that make up the fiction, correct?