Strange But True: Aimee Bender and Etgar Keret
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The strange worlds of two contemporary authors.
"The five crying men stand at the fence, crying. 'Look at the sad, large rage of the doomed men,' they think. 'Who knew that a cow was so beautiful? Why was I not a farmer? Why not a field hand? Why an office building?.'" – Aimee Bender, “Deathwatch.”
The strange worlds of two contemporary authors.
A special evening at Symphony Space celebrated the startling fiction of two young authors, the American Aimee Bender, and the Israeli Etgar Keret. Impulsive, fantastical, and sardonic, are just some of the adjectives that come to mind. Bender and Keret are friends—and mutual admirers—so it was easy to create a program with two complementary stories by each. And we hear directly from the writers themselves, also. In remarks from the stage at Symphony Space Bender said of her first story, “Drunken Mimi,” that “even to put the word “mermaid” on the page in a serious story felt like running free in scarves through the streets.”
Bender is the author of three books: the story collections THE GIRL IN THE FLAMMABLE SKIRT which was a New York Times Notable Book, and WILLFUL CREATURES, as well as the novel, AN INVISIBLE SIGN OF MY OWN. “Drunken Mimi” is read by Bernadette Quigley, making her SELECTED SHORTS debut. She made her Broadway debut in Brain Friel’s Tony Award-winning “Dancing at Lughnasa.” Other stage credits include “Ah! Wilderness!” “Public Enemy” and “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” as well as Symphony Space’s annual “Bloomsday on Broadway” event. Film and TV appearances include “In America,” “The House Is Burning,” “Before and After” and “Law and Order.”
“Drunken Mimi” is followed by Etgar Keret’s “Your Man,” a macabre first-person narrative with a character who combines modern peevish self-absorption with the grand mania of someone in an Edgar Allen Poe story. It is introduced by Aimee Bender, who describes the way Keret’s work reaches for “the scary, the painful, the unexpectedly emotional,” and how “we walk into the dark with him, and in it we discover something new.” The delicious read by actor and writer David Rakoff makes it easy to take that walk.
Keret expressed his admiration for Bender in a characteristically whimsical letter that host Isaiah Sheffer read at Symphony Space. In it, he imagines their stories having a chance encounter on the street and recognizing kindred spirits. This is followed by the program’s third story, Keret’s “Shooting Tuvia,” about an irritating but ultimately indomitable pet, and by Bender’s “DeathWatch,” a darkly comic tale of fate and free will.
Drunken Mimi by Aimee Bender, read by Bernadette Quigley
Your Man by Etgar Keret, read by David Rakoff
Shooting Tuvia by Etgar Keret, read by David Rakoff
Death Watch by Aimee Bender read by Bernadette Quigley
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit Symphony Space
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
The strange worlds of two contemporary authors.
A special evening at Symphony Space celebrated the startling fiction of two young authors, the American Aimee Bender, and the Israeli Etgar Keret. Impulsive, fantastical, and sardonic, are just some of the adjectives that come to mind. Bender and Keret are friends—and mutual admirers—so it was easy to create a program with two complementary stories by each. And we hear directly from the writers themselves, also. In remarks from the stage at Symphony Space Bender said of her first story, “Drunken Mimi,” that “even to put the word “mermaid” on the page in a serious story felt like running free in scarves through the streets.”
Bender is the author of three books: the story collections THE GIRL IN THE FLAMMABLE SKIRT which was a New York Times Notable Book, and WILLFUL CREATURES, as well as the novel, AN INVISIBLE SIGN OF MY OWN. “Drunken Mimi” is read by Bernadette Quigley, making her SELECTED SHORTS debut. She made her Broadway debut in Brain Friel’s Tony Award-winning “Dancing at Lughnasa.” Other stage credits include “Ah! Wilderness!” “Public Enemy” and “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” as well as Symphony Space’s annual “Bloomsday on Broadway” event. Film and TV appearances include “In America,” “The House Is Burning,” “Before and After” and “Law and Order.”
“Drunken Mimi” is followed by Etgar Keret’s “Your Man,” a macabre first-person narrative with a character who combines modern peevish self-absorption with the grand mania of someone in an Edgar Allen Poe story. It is introduced by Aimee Bender, who describes the way Keret’s work reaches for “the scary, the painful, the unexpectedly emotional,” and how “we walk into the dark with him, and in it we discover something new.” The delicious read by actor and writer David Rakoff makes it easy to take that walk.
Keret expressed his admiration for Bender in a characteristically whimsical letter that host Isaiah Sheffer read at Symphony Space. In it, he imagines their stories having a chance encounter on the street and recognizing kindred spirits. This is followed by the program’s third story, Keret’s “Shooting Tuvia,” about an irritating but ultimately indomitable pet, and by Bender’s “DeathWatch,” a darkly comic tale of fate and free will.
Drunken Mimi by Aimee Bender, read by Bernadette Quigley
Your Man by Etgar Keret, read by David Rakoff
Shooting Tuvia by Etgar Keret, read by David Rakoff
Death Watch by Aimee Bender read by Bernadette Quigley
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit Symphony Space
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
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