Jonathan Lethem Reads V. S. Pritchett

The New Yorker: Fiction

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Yorker, Wnyc, Literature, Books, New, Fiction, Arts

4.6 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2013

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this month's fiction podcast, Jonathan Lethem reads "The Rescue," by V. S. Pritchett, which was first published in The New Yorker in 1973 and can be found in Pritchett's "Complete Collected Stories." (Lethem's most recent fiction in the magazine, "The Gray Goose," was excerpted from his new novel, "Dissident Gardens.") In his discussion with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman, Lethem says that Pritchett is a "total sorcerer," a writer who lets readers into a world that seems stable and then "pulls the rug out from under" them, changing where the story is going and what they think of the characters. "The Rescue," which is narrated by a sixteen-year-old girl whose mother brings home an awkward boy named Ellis to help her plan the town's annual pageant, is, according to Lethem, a perfect model for the way Pritchett tends to "overturn expectations."

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Fiction Podcast from The New Yorker Magazine.
0:03.8	I'm Debra Treesman, Fiction Editor at The New Yorker.
0:06.6	Each month we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss.
0:11.4	This month we're going to hear The Rescue by VS Pritchett.
0:14.9	Once when I turned round as I got to the door and caught him looking at me,
0:18.2	he dropped five books he had in his hands.
0:20.7	There was a noise that made everyone stare, a thrilling noise like a tire burst.
0:25.9	The story was chosen by Jonathan Leatham, whose own fiction has been appearing in The New Yorker since 2003.
0:31.5	His latest piece in the magazine The Grey Goose was excerpted from his novel, Decident Gardens, which just came out.
0:37.7	He joins me from the studios of KSPC at Pomona College in California.
0:42.2	Hi Jonathan.
0:43.3	Hi Debra, how are you?
0:44.5	I'm good.
0:46.1	So you chose a story by VS Pritchett today.
0:48.4	Can you tell me about your connection to his work and how you first came across it?
0:52.5	I'm fairly recent to his work.
0:54.4	I had always gathered that he was one of those short story writers like Frank O'Connor or Mavis Gallant,
1:00.8	who I would find really elegant and beautiful.
1:04.3	And I picked up the complete story and I've been delving into it.
1:08.8	And it's, you know, now I'm obsessed with them.
1:10.9	I've been assigning them to my students and analyzing them and trying to figure out how he does what he does.
1:15.8	He's just a total sorcerer.
	...

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