Longreads Pick
[Fiction] A wedding in an alternate universe:
“‘That’s the good news,’ Dad said. ‘He’s gone ahead and asked for your hand. And we’ve agreed to it.’
“My mother put down the knife and finished off her champagne. I wanted no more of mine.
“‘Well, don’t be so excited,’ said Dad. ‘Do you understand what I’m saying? You’re going to be a wife. You’re going to live with Mr. Middleton, and he’s going to take care of you, for the rest of your life. And, one day, when we’re very old, he’ll help out your mother and me, too.'”
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Published: Jun 1, 2007
Length: 34 minutes (8,596 words)
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Nieman Storyboard’s “Why’s This So Good” explores what makes classic narrative nonfiction stories worth reading.
This week, Andrea Pitzer examines Susan Orlean’s “Orchid Fever,” which was originally published in The New Yorker on Jan. 23, 1995.
Orlean builds her study of obsession out of a vocabulary of desire and devastation, ranging from the apocalyptic to the sexually charged. Laroche’s own “passions boil up quickly and end abruptly, like tornadoes.” In the Fakahatchee, the rocks have crevices, the trees have crotches, and the orchids invite erotic speculation. Mere friction is enough to ignite the grass, literally setting cars on fire, leaving behind “pan-fried tourists” and the carcasses of burned-out Model Ts.
“Why’s This So Good?” No. 31: Susan Orlean Maps Obsession
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[Fiction] A favor from an ex, with a catch:
DENNIS
Let me guess. Is this about money? Now that I have it? Or do you suddenly need me on some emotional level heretofore unrealized?
Pause.
JOSH
Yes. I need money.
Silence.
“Turnabout.” — Daniel Reitz, Guernica
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Featured Longreader: Leo Lincourt’s #longreads page. Leo is a woefully under-published nonfiction writer, and technologist, who enjoys investigating eclectic arcana, time travel, and a good scientific street brawl. See his story picks from CBS News, Chicago Magazine, Dissent Magazine, plus more.
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Longreads Pick
[Fiction] A favor from an ex, with a catch:
“DENNIS
Let me guess. Is this about money? Now that I have it? Or do you suddenly need me on some emotional level heretofore unrealized?
Pause.
JOSH
Yes. I need money.
Silence.“
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Published: Jan 1, 2012
Length: 19 minutes (4,849 words)
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[Fiction, not single-page] A father, his sons, and what he teaches them:
When we got home from school Paps was in the kitchen, cooking and listening to music and feeling fine. He whiffed the steam coming off a pot, then clapped his hands together and rubbed them briskly. His eyes were wet and sparkled with giddy life. He turned up the volume on the stereo and it was mambo, it was Tito Puente.
“Watch out,” he said, and spun, with grace, on one slippered foot, his bathrobe twirling out around him. In his fist was a glistening, greasy metal spatula, which he pumped in the air to the beat of the bongo drums.
“Lessons.” — Justin Torres, Granta
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Longreads Pick
[Fiction, not single-page] A father, his sons, and what he teaches them:
“When we got home from school Paps was in the kitchen, cooking and listening to music and feeling fine. He whiffed the steam coming off a pot, then clapped his hands together and rubbed them briskly. His eyes were wet and sparkled with giddy life. He turned up the volume on the stereo and it was mambo, it was Tito Puente.
“‘Watch out,’ he said, and spun, with grace, on one slippered foot, his bathrobe twirling out around him. In his fist was a glistening, greasy metal spatula, which he pumped in the air to the beat of the bongo drums.”
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Published: Dec 1, 2008
Length: 11 minutes (2,801 words)
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[Fiction] Life behind the cash register, and other possibilities:
A proper mental Saturday it is, what with New Sue off with her hernia and the Lukes of Hazzard gone AWOL, so Muggins Here’ll have to cover for everyone else’s break. Not New Sue and Beverly are still giving me the silent treatment ‘cause I can’t let them take the bank holiday off, but it’s water off a duck’s back by this point. By ten o’clock the queues are looping back, and it’s like all Greenland’s one of those swilling dreams you get with ‘flu. Full of eyes, drilling into me. Philpotts can’t get close enough to fire off a ‘What are half your team doing without their name-badges, Pearl?’ but I need the loo – no chance, not ‘til all the breaks are over. This beardy customer’s spitting, ‘Twenty-three minutes I’ve been in this queue!’ I tell him, ‘It certainly is a busy morning’ so in he leans, breath all pilchardy, and says, “Then hire – more – staff!”, like I’m backwards, like Gary used to do sometimes.
“Muggins Here.” — David Mitchell, Guardian (Aug. 2010)
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Longreads Pick
[Fiction] Life behind the cash register, and other possibilities:
“A proper mental Saturday it is, what with New Sue off with her hernia and the Lukes of Hazzard gone AWOL, so Muggins Here’ll have to cover for everyone else’s break. Not New Sue and Beverly are still giving me the silent treatment ’cause I can’t let them take the bank holiday off, but it’s water off a duck’s back by this point. By ten o’clock the queues are looping back, and it’s like all Greenland’s one of those swilling dreams you get with ‘flu. Full of eyes, drilling into me. Philpotts can’t get close enough to fire off a ‘What are half your team doing without their name-badges, Pearl?’ but I need the loo – no chance, not ’til all the breaks are over. This beardy customer’s spitting, ‘Twenty-three minutes I’ve been in this queue!’ I tell him, ‘It certainly is a busy morning’ so in he leans, breath all pilchardy, and says, ‘Then hire – more – staff!’, like I’m backwards, like Gary used to do sometimes.”
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Published: Aug 13, 2010
Length: 11 minutes (2,884 words)
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