Sometimes I listen to
The New Yorker Fiction podcast (also available on iTunes, of course). An author picks a story from the The New Yorker archives to read aloud, and then discuss with The New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman. Recently I listened to Tobias Wolff read a story by Denis Johnson called "Emergency," or, as I think of it, "A Knife in the Eye." Why did no one ever tell me what a great writer Denis Johnson is? How did I miss this? The story was magical, wistful, sad, and most of all, hilarious. It is from
Jesus' Son, which I must read immediately. Fuckhead, here I come.