Sarah Shun-lien Bynum Reads Yiyun Li

The New Yorker: Fiction

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

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

4.6 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2017

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Extra,” by Yiyun Li from a 2003 issue of the magazine.

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.
0:09.6	Each month we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss.
0:14.8	This month we're going to hear Extra by Yee-Yun Lee, which was published in The New Yorker
0:19.3	in December of 2003.
0:21.5	Granny Lynn Gaspes.
0:23.1	She has never had a husband in her life, and the prospect of a dead husband frightens her.
0:29.2	Yet Auntie Wong makes the decision for her right then and there, between two fish stands,
0:34.0	and in a short time she finds Granny Lynn a match.
0:37.5	The story was chosen by Sarah Swanyen Bynum, who's the author of two novels,
0:42.1	Miss Hempel Chronicles and Madeline is Sleeping, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2004.
0:48.6	Hi Sarah.
0:49.9	Hi Deborah.
0:51.6	So Extra was, it was the first story by Yee-Yun Lee that was published in The New Yorker back in 2003,
0:57.5	and I believe it was only the second story that she'd published anywhere.
1:01.3	Was it the first piece of hers that you read?
1:04.0	It was. It was, and I remember feeling excitement both because of the work itself, and also because
1:11.0	we had just missed each other at Iowa, but I had already sort of heard about this wonderful writer
1:17.8	who was coming out of the program.
1:20.8	What impression did the story make on you when you read it?
1:23.6	The story felt very poignant to me because the character of Granny Lynn, and I imagine
1:32.0	the story is taking place somewhere in the 90s, maybe the mid 90s or so.
	...

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