Anatomy of a Short Story

The New Yorker's Lee Ellis interviews Paul La Farge (who visits Albany on Thursday) about his short story "Another Life," and what makes it tick.

We posted a link last week to "Another Life," a story of marital infidelity that appeared in the New Yorker in July. Link here.

La Farge:  I knew roughly what was going to happen in “Another Life” before I began, but I didn’t know that it would be divided into two parts, and I didn’t see it until I had written the sentence, “I want another life,” which is what the husband thinks just before he goes off on his adventure.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/06/this-week-in-fiction-paul-la-farge.html#ixzz27OYZ1ZpC

Read More......

Paul La Farge's short story in the New Yorker

If you'd like an introduction to Paul La Farge, who visits us this coming Thursday, Sept. 27, you can read his July 2012 short story about life, death, sexual infidelity, strained literary conversation, writing and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the New Yorker online:

ANOTHER LIFE
by Paul La Farge

A husband and wife drive to Boston. The husband is sick. He takes extra-strong cold medication just before getting into the car, and all the way to Boston he worries that he is going to fall asleep at the wheel and crash into the median. Or maybe the husband secretly wants to crash rather than go to his father-in-law’s birthday party, which is what he and his wife are driving to Boston for....

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2012/07/02/120702fi_fiction_lafarge#ixzz278PqXYc0

Read More......