Thomas McGuane reads James Salter's "Last Night," and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman.
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 last night by James Salter.
He had known her when she was in her twenties, long legged and innocent.
Now he had slipped her, as in a burial at sea, beneath the flow of time.
Last night was published in the New Yorker in 2002.
It was chosen by Thomas McGuin, seven of whose stories have been published in the magazine.
McWane's many novels include the Bushwhacked Piano, 92 in the Shade, and the Cadence of Grass.
He's also written screenplays and several books of nonfiction.
He joins me from the studios of Peak Recording and sound in Bozeman, Montana.
Hi, Tom.
Good morning, Deborah.
So James Salter has published a couple of non fiction pieces in the magazine, but last night is the only story of his that's been in the New Yorker so far.
When you chose it, were you just looking for a story by Salter, or was this story in particular very memorable for you?
Well, I picked the story because in some ways, because I wanted to find out why I'd been so moved by it.
I wanted to find out if I had been reasonably moved.
And so it was one I kind of wanted to pick apart rather than just being kind of crushed by it because it's a very powerful story, I think.
Now, before he became a writer, Salter was a fighter pilot in the US Air force who flew more than 100 combat missions in the korean war.
And his first novel, the Hunters, was about that experience.