Lionel Shriver Reads T. C. Boyle

Lionel Shriver阅读T. C. Boyle

The New Yorker: Fiction

小说

2015-09-01

49 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Lionel Shriver joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss T. C. Boyle’s  “Chicxulub,” from a 2004 issue of the magazine.

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 TC Boyle's story Chicxulu, which was published in the New Yorker in 2004.

  • The meteor, which was an estimated 60 yards across, never actually touched down.

  • The force of its entry.

  • The compression and superheating of the air beneath it caused it to explode some 25,000ft above the ground.

  • But then the term explode hardly does justice to the event.

  • The story was chosen by Lionel Shriver, who is the author of twelve novels, including we need to talk about Kevin, which won the Orange Prize for fiction in 2005.

  • Hi Lionel.

  • Hi.

  • You told me when we were talking about doing this that you were a huge fan of TC Boyle's work.

  • You'd reviewed several of his books.

  • When did you first become aware of his writing?

  • I think the first book of his I read was the tortilla curtain.

  • If I'm remembering correctly, that was about 1999, and I was struck by it.

  • Not only is it a compelling book, but it's a rare novel about immigration that I think does justice to the topic that is both sides of the debate.

  • I think he's a great technical writer, but the emphasis is always on content, and those are the authors to whom I am most drawn in this particular story.

  • In Chicxulub, do you see a similar combination of technical information and content and approach?

  • Yes, I think this story is a brilliant illustration of a melding of form and content.