"It was not love, and it was certainly not a momentary weakness. It was an attempt to ward off chaos."The New Yorker's monthly fiction podcast gives me a fluttery feeling whenever I see a new episode materialize in my itunes. When the shows are good, they're very good- the voices, the story, the language and the analysis. When they don't work, it's usually because the reading is halting or stilted, and I often don't finish those episodes.
I'm posting this one because the story, a quasi-personal history by Sergei Dovlatov, amazed me with its deceptively straightforward writing. Dovlatov finds a way to write about mixed emotions, odd circumstances, and contradictory characters in a way that feels realistic, sometimes humorous, and quietly reverent.
It's read by David Bezmozgis with an accent carrying Russian and Canadian inflections (I think?). His pacing harmonizes perfectly with the story.
Download MP3
Page for the podcast episode on the New Yorker website.
PHOTO: BOLSHAKOV
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