Draft:The End of the Story (novel)

The End of the Story is a novel by American author Lydia Davis, published in 1995. It tells the story of an unnamed writer who reflects on the development and aftermath of a romantic relation between herself and a twelve years younger man. It is her only novel-format work to date.

Synopsis

The novel begins with a short description of the narrator’s last time seeing her former lover, and then her last, unsuccesful attempt at finding him. A few years later, the narrator is processing her memories of the relation for her book.

That seemed to be the end of the story, and for a while it was also the end of the novel — there was something so final about the bitter cup of tea. Then, although it was still the end of the story, I put it at the beginning of the novel, as if I needed to tell the end first in order to go on and tell the rest. It would have been simpler to begin at the beginning, but the beginning didn’t mean much without what came after, and what came after didn’t mean much without the end.

The book then alternates between a past tense account of the progress of the love affair, and a present tense reflection on the act of writing and memory.