Said Sayrafiezadeh Reads Thomas Beller

The New Yorker: Fiction

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

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

4.6 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2011

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Said Sayrafiezadeh reads Thomas Beller's "A Different Kind of Imperfection," and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. "A Different Kind of Imperfection" was published in the February 11, 1991, issue of The New Yorker and can be found in "Seduction Theory." Said Sayrafiezadeh is the author of the memoir "When Skateboards Will Be Free."

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Fiction Podcast from The New Yorker Magazine.
0:06.0	I'm Deborah Treesman, Fiction Editor at The New Yorker.
0:09.0	Each month, we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss.
0:14.0	This month, we're going to hear a different kind of imperfection by Thomas Beller.
0:19.0	His father and mother were extremely good looking, particularly his mother.
0:23.0	His father had been born in Vienna.
0:26.0	He had a certain monkey quality to him.
0:29.0	The story was chosen by Saeed Sarifizade, two of whose stories have been published in the magazine.
0:35.0	He's the author several plays, and the memoir, When Skateboards, will be free.
0:39.0	Hi, Saeed.
0:40.0	Hi, Deborah.
0:41.0	So you and Tom Beller are friends or colleagues?
0:44.0	We are.
0:45.0	I didn't know if that was going to come out.
0:47.0	You used to write for his website, Mr. Beller's Neighborhood.
0:50.0	We met playing basketball, and then he invited me once to write for his Mr. Beller's Neighborhood.com website.
0:58.0	Was that when you first read his fiction?
1:00.0	Had you read him before?
1:01.0	No, I didn't even know he was a writer and didn't know much about his success until he invited me, and then I read it.
1:09.0	I realized going through his collection of stories, I hadn't read them all, and I feel like a terrible friend for that for all these years.
1:18.0	If you have a lot of friends who are writers, it's hard to think about.
1:20.0	Right.
	...

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