Jonathan Lethem Reads James Thurber

乔纳森·莱瑟姆读詹姆斯·瑟伯的作品

The New Yorker: Fiction

小说

2008-03-03

18 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

Jonathan Lethem reads James Thurber's short story "The Wood Duck" and discusses Thurber with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman.

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.

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

  • Today we'll hear the Wood Duck, written by James Thurber and published in 1936.

  • I explained the irony, I think I explained the profound symbolism of a wild duck's becoming attached to a roadside stand.

  • My wife strove simply to understand the duck's viewpoint.

  • She didn't get anywhere.

  • The Wood Duck was chosen by Jonathan Leatham, the author of Motherless Brooklyn and the Fortress of Solitude.

  • He has been contributing stories and essays to the New Yorker for the past five years.

  • Welcome, Jonathan.

  • Thanks for having me.

  • So the wood duck is a relatively early piece of the thurber canon, and it seems unusual to me, and it's not purposefully comical.

  • Line by line, it's quite a simple story.

  • And yet it was the first thing that you thought of when we talked about doing this program.

  • Why was that?

  • Well, I've always loved this particular story.

  • I grew up reading Thurber, and hes just a favorite of mine generally, and I think almost across the board overlooked as an american short story writer.

  • So I suppose I like the wood duck because it helps make a case for him.

  • The fact that hes suppressing his comic instincts helps represent that argument that I feel that hes really one of the great short story writers.

  • But I also am just a sucker for animal stories.