This is The New Yorker Fiction Podcast from The New Yorker Magazine.

I'm Debra Treesman, 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 a story by David Means, the spot,

which was published in The New Yorker in 2006.

Here we are, Shank Thought, or maybe said outside the hotel waiting out

yet another John delayed by his guilt and his doubts and the time it takes to check his morality at the door,

driving north, praying for forgiveness, taking a rain check on his deeper principles while the

dull fields fly eagerly past the bugs-beckled windows.

The story was chosen by Jonathan Franzen, whose fifth novel, Purity, came out last year.

He's been publishing fiction in The New Yorker since 1999.

Hi, John.

Hello, Debra.

Thanks for coming back on the podcast.

It's a testament to how long the podcast has been around.

It's been a while.

Last time you read some short comic pieces by Ian Frazier and Veronica Gang, and this time you've

chosen something a little more serious.

Although not entirely without its humor, it is-

No, not humorous.

David is always funny, but definitely in a darker registry.

You mentioned that the story, the spot, is just one of those stories that stays with you.

...