Curtis Sittenfeld Reads “The Prairie Wife”

The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Newyorker, New, Authors, Fiction, Yorker, Arts

4.3 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2017

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kirsten’s commute is when she really focusses on whether she has the power to destroy Lucy Headrick’s life. Yes, the question hums in the background at other moments, like when Kirsten is at the grocery store and sees a cooking magazine with Lucy on the cover—it’s just so fucking weird how famous Lucy is—but it’s in the car that Kirsten thinks through, in a realistic way, which steps she’d take.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is the writer's voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.
0:09.9	I'm Debra Treesman, fiction editor at The New Yorker.
0:13.0	On this episode of The writer's voice, we'll hear Curtis Sittenfeld read her story,
0:17.5	The Prairie Wife, from the February 13th and 20th, 2017 issue of the magazine.
0:23.2	Sittenfeld has published five novels, including Prep, Sisterland, and Eligible, which came out last year.
0:29.6	Now here's Curtis Sittenfeld.
0:33.4	The Prairie Wife.
0:36.1	The understanding is that after Casey's iPhone alarm goes off at 6.15 a.m.,
0:42.3	Kirsten wakes the boys, nudges them to get dressed, and herds them downstairs, all while Casey is showering.
0:50.5	The four of them eat breakfast as a family, deal with teeth brushing and backpacks, and Casey,
0:56.6	who is the principal of the middle school in the same district as the elementary school
1:00.8	Jack and Ian attend, drives the boys to drop off. Kirsten then takes her shower in the newly
1:07.2	quiet house before leaving for work. The reality is that at 6.17, as soon as Casey shuts the bathroom door, Kirsten grabs her own
1:17.8	iPhone from her nightstand and looks at Lucy Hedrick's Twitter feed.
1:23.0	Clearly, Kirsten is not alone. Lucy has 3.1 million followers. She follows a mere 533 accounts,
1:32.0	many of which belong to fellow celebrities. Almost all of Lucy's vast social media empire,
1:38.3	which of course is an extension of her lifestyle brand empire, whatever the fuck a lifestyle brand is, drives Kirsten crazy.
1:46.8	Its content is fake and pandering and boring and repetitive.
1:51.9	How many times will Lucy post variations on the same recipe for buttermilk biscuits?
1:57.5	And Kirsten devours all of it every day.
2:03.5	Facebook and Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest, the blog, the vlog, the TV show. Every night, Kirsten swears that she won't devote
2:10.5	another minute to Lucy, and every day she squanders hours. The reason that things go wrong so early in the morning she has realized is this.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.