Rebecca Curtis Reads Haruki Murakami

丽贝卡·柯蒂斯(Rebecca Curtis)读

The New Yorker: Fiction

小说

2021-09-02

1 小时 1 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Rebecca Curtis joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey,” by Haruki Murakami, which was published in The New Yorker in 2020. Curtis is the author of the story collection “Twenty Grand: and Other Tales of Love and Money.”

单集文稿 ...

  • This is the New Yorker fiction podcast from the New Yorker magazine.

  • I'm Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at the New Yorker.

  • Each month we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss.

  • This month, we're going to hear confessions of a Shinagawa monkey by Haruki Murakami, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel, which was published in the New Yorker in June of 2020.

  • The monkey used the opener to pop the cap off one of the beers and poured out two glasses silently.

  • We clinked our glasses together in a little toast.

  • Thanks for the drinks, the monkey said, and happily gulped the cold beer.

  • I drank some as well.

  • Honestly, it felt odd to be seated next to a monkey sharing a beer, but I guess you get used to it.

  • The story was chosen by Rebecca Curtis, who's the author of the story collection 20 and other tales of Love and money.

  • Hi, Rebecca.

  • Hi.

  • Hi.

  • So Murakami was one of the first writers you thought about when we were planning this taping.

  • What is it about his writing that you're drawn to?

  • There's a lot of different things.

  • One thing is his stories seem effortless, more so than many other stories I can think of.

  • Murakami's writing always seems just like he sat down and wrote it and never edited or thought hard about a phrase.

  • The narrative, whether it's first person or third person, feels so relaxed and casual and natural.

  • Something about that casualness makes it feel very real.