2016-03-01
49 分钟Jonathan Franzen joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss David Means's "The Spot," from a 2006 issue of the magazine.
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 a story by David Means, the spot, which was published in the New Yorker in 2006.
Here we are, Schenk thought, or maybe said outside the hotel, waiting out yet another John, delayed by his guilt and his doubts and the time it takes to check his morality at the door, driving north, praying for forgiveness, taking a raincheck on his deeper principles, while the dull fields fly eagerly past the bug speckled windows.
The story was chosen by Jonathan Franzen, whose fifth novel, Purity, came out last year.
He's been publishing fiction in the New Yorker since 1999.
Hi, John.
Hello, Deborah.
Thanks for coming back on the podcast.
It's a testament to how long the podcast has been around.
It's been a while that last time you read some short comic pieces by Ian Frazier and Veronica gang, and this time you've chosen something a little more.
Serious, although not entirely without its humor.
It is, no, not humorless.
David is always funny, but definitely in a darker register.
Yes, you mentioned that the story, the spot, is just one of those stories that stays with you.
What do you think gives it that kind of persistence?
A lot of David's fiction stays with me.
Full disclosure, he and I are old friends, and I did have very particular reasons for choosing this story at this particular time.
But in general, I have to say, his stories stay with me.