Two American Scenes

"Two remarkable prose stylists — friends since high school — transform found material from the nineteenth century into mesmerizing poem-essays. It was given to me, in the nineteenth century, to spend a lifetime on his earth. Along with a few of the sorrows that are appointed unto men, I have had innumerable enjoyments; and the world has been to me, even from childhood, a great museum.— Lydia Davis. Bad rapids. Bradley is knocked over the side; his foot catches under the seat and he is dragged, head under water. Camped on a sand beach, the wind blows a hurricane. Sand piles over us like a…