Etgar Keret joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss "You Are Now Entering the Human Heart," by Janet Frame, from a 1969 issue of the magazine. Keret has published several short-story collections, including "The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God," "The Girl on the Fridge," "Suddenly, a Knock on the Door," and "Fly Already." His memoir, "The Seven Good Years," was published in 2015.
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 you are now entering the Human Heart by Janet Frame, which was published in the New Yorker in March of 1969.
Teacher is not afraid, are you?
The attendant persisted.
He leaned forward, pronouncing judgment on her, while she suddenly jerked her head and lifted her hands in panic to get rid of the snake.
The story was chosen by Edgar Carrot, whose short story collections include suddenly a knock on the door and fly already.
Hi, Ecgar.
Hi.
So what made you choose a story by Janet Frame to read today?
Well, first of all, I love her short fiction.
I think that there is something very free in it.
Whenever she writes, you really feel that she's not aiming for some kind of goal or she's not trying to initiate a specific kind of dialogue with her readers, but she just kind of floats or levitates, you know, this kind of feeling of floating in zero gravity.
And this is always what I aspire for when I write, to forget about everything and just be.
Do you think that was how she actually wrote, or is that an effect that she pulls off?
I'm naive.
I think this is how she actually wrote.
And actually, to be honest, you know, there is something.
There are many writers who are much more famous and well read from Janet Frame.