Andrew O’Hagan Reads Donald Antrim

In this episode of The New Yorker Fiction Podcast, Deborah Treisman interviews author Andrew O'Hagan about his choice of Donald Antrim's short story, "An Actor Prepares," for the program. O'Hagan praises Antrim's writing style, highlighting its Chekhovian precision and embrace of the unusual. The discussion explores the story's transgressive nature, its blend of comedy and underlying grief, and Antrim's skillful orchestration of language and character. They analyze the unreliable narrator, the significance of setting the story around a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and the story's abrupt ending, which leaves the characters in a state of unresolved anarchy.