Domestic Rearrangements

Selected Shorts

Symphony Space

Arts, Fiction, Books, Society & Culture

4.4 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A routine that never changes can get old. So this week on Selected Shorts, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories that shake up domestic life, teaching the characters something new about themselves and their circumstances. In “Scaffolding Man,” by Jenny Allen, performed by Patricia Kalember, a woman in a drab marriage is intrigued by a “hot” stranger. In "Myrna's Dad," by Cyn Vargas, a father’s changing occupations hide a family secret. The reader is Krystina Alabado. And in “Overtime,” by Hilma Wolitzer (Meg’s mom), read by Becky Ann Baker, a happy couple gets a jolt when the man’s ex moves into their apartment. After the story, Meg interviews Hilma about what gave her the idea and her writing in general.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Move the couch here, put that picture on another wall, or if moving furniture around isn't
0:12.6	doing much for you, why not rearrange your life?
0:15.6	Do a whole fun, shway thing.
0:17.5	I'm Meg Wallitzer.
0:19.1	Next on Selected Shorts, when life gets boring, it's time to shake things up a bit.
0:23.7	Stay with us.
0:26.0	We're listening to Selected Shorts, where our greatest actors transport us through the
0:30.1	magic of fiction.
0:31.6	One short story at a time.
0:42.8	Humans are creatures of habit, and we crave our creature comforts.
0:46.9	I'm someone who gets up early to walk the dog, then knocks back a couple of glasses of unsweetened
0:52.1	Japanese ice-cream tea. Then I play a few online scrabble games with strangers, trying to
0:57.5	win at least one game before I settle in to work on my novel.
1:01.7	And then, once I finally win a game, which can take a while, I work, work, work, and
1:06.5	before I know it, the light has drained from the sky.
1:09.4	It's time to think about dinner, and about which British mystery to watch, and about what
1:13.1	tomorrow's schedule holds.
1:15.1	Hint, it most definitely holds a dog walk.
1:17.9	Our Japanese ice-cream tea, scrabble, work, and the next installment of the same British
1:22.8	mystery, in which we learn that the child was actually the one who set fire to the estate
1:27.9	that had been in the family for centuries.
1:30.8	But let's face it, a routine that never changes can get old.
	...

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