Said Sayrafiezadeh's guest appearances

Said Sayrafiezadeh

The New Yorker: Fiction

Your Favorite Book

Grace Paley

Shirley Jackson

Dorothy Parker

Mary Gaitskill

Ben Marcus

Vladimir Nabokov

George Saunders

Sam Lipsyte

Colm Toibin

Tobias Wolff

Jonathan Safran Foer

Colm Tóibín

Salman Rushdie

Richard Ford

Amos Oz

OwlTail

We've got another big famous classic on our hands! This week's guest is Said Sayrafiezadeh, author of new collection AMERICAN ESTRANGEMENT. These stories explore the insidousness of boredom, apathy, frustration, and alienation while navigating day to day life in America. Some stories thrive in the mundane, such as a reception desk at an art museum. Others explore a nation just outside the realm of current reality, imagining borders between states as stifling as those between countries. All are detailed, incisive stories that do not span genres, but at times press at their delineations in new and intriguing ways. Said cites George Orwell's classic novel NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, or 1984, as an all time favorite book, dating back to an initial reading experience as a young teen. But this book, read in classrooms all over the western world, has garnered polarizing opinions. Are the ideas of Big Brother, Newspeak, Doublethink, and Orwellian regimes just too saturated in popular culture? Or are there new and overlooked insights that can be gained from NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, years after its publication?  Said reflects on his upbringing in the Socialist Worker's Party and how it influences his reading of the book. In his own work he discusses turning to fiction and how he discerns what to render as real or unreal. How can we convey boredom without being boring? How does a decades-old book continue to influence works to come? All these are discussed, and more, in this week's episode of Your Favorite Book. Note: there are spoilers in this episode! To avoid discussions of the ending, please skip over minutes 41 to 47 of this episode. Find Said and buy his book on his website at https://www.sayrafiezadeh.com/ Follow the podcast on twitter and instagram @yfbpodcast

We've got another big famous classic on our hands! This week's guest is Said Sayrafiezadeh, author of new collection AMERICAN ESTRANGEMENT. These stories explore the insidousness of boredom, apathy, frustration, and alienation while navigating day to day life in America. Some stories thrive in the mundane, such as a reception desk at an art museum. Others explore a nation just outside the realm of current reality, imagining borders between states as stifling as those between countries. All are detailed, incisive stories that do not span genres, but at times press at their delineations in new and intriguing ways. Said cites George Orwell's classic novel NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, or 1984, as an all time favorite book, dating back to an initial reading experience as a young teen. But this book, read in classrooms all over the western world, has garnered polarizing opinions. Are the ideas of Big Brother, Newspeak, Doublethink, and Orwellian regimes just too saturated in popular culture? Or are there new and overlooked insights that can be gained from NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, years after its publication?  Said reflects on his upbringing in the Socialist Worker's Party and how it influences his reading of the book. In his own work he discusses turning to fiction and how he discerns what to render as real or unreal. How can we convey boredom without being boring? How does a decades-old book continue to influence works to come? All these are discussed, and more, in this week's episode of Your Favorite Book. Note: there are spoilers in this episode! To avoid discussions of the ending, please skip over minutes 41 to 47 of this episode. Find Said and buy his book on his website at <a href="https://www.sayrafiezadeh.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.sayrafiezadeh.com/</a> Follow the podcast on twitter and instagram @yfbpodcast

1984 with Said Sayrafiezadeh (Author of American Estrangement)

Thomas Beller

Said Sayrafiezadeh reads Thomas Beller's "A Different Kind of Imperfection," and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. "A Different Kind of Imperfection" was published in the February 11, 1991, issue of The New Yorker and can be found in "Seduction Theory." Said Sayrafiezadeh is the author of the memoir "When Skateboards Will Be Free."

Said Sayrafiezadeh reads Thomas Beller's "A Different Kind of Imperfection," and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. "A Different Kind of Imperfection" was published in the February 11, 1991, issue of The New Yorker and can be found in "Seduction Theory." Said Sayrafiezadeh is the author of the memoir "When Skateboards Will Be Free."

Said Sayrafiezadeh Reads Thomas Beller
