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 John Chiever's story, The Enormous Radio.

Did you hear that Irene asked? What? The radio? A man said something while the music was still going on. Something dirty.

The story was chosen by Nathan Englander, whose stories have been appearing in the magazine since 1999.

His most recent collection is what we talk about when we talk about Anne Frank.

Welcome back Nathan. That's so good to be back. Thanks for having me.

Several years ago you read a story by Isaac Bachevich Singer on the podcast.

And now you've gone to very different territory with John Chiever. Are you a lifelong Chiever fan?

I am actually a super gigantic Chiever fan. As a reader I'm a massive fan of the story.

As a writer I just think it's an education to read him. He always lets you know what world you're in.

And there's something I love about that so deeply.

No, when you picked this particular story, The Enormous Radio, you said that it was very unchieverish.

Even though it was absolutely in his voice, what did you mean by that?

If I picked your Chiever in my head it suddenly, you know, people drinking high balls.

I guess what I love about it is voice wise it remains just wholly chiever.

He's all over it, having written it.

But structurally and even the spirit of it, it's almost Kafka-esque or science fiction.

It would make an extraordinary Twilight Zone episode.

It's probably one of the first stories in which he brought supernatural elements into a seemingly very realistic narrative.

Yeah and it's funny because there's so many stories and I think those are the ones that stand out.

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