Rites of Passage: Stories from The Paris Review

The Review is famous for discovering new writers (Jack Kerouac, Philip Roth, Adrienne Rich, T. C. Boyle, Jeffrey Eugenides, Joy Williams, Jay McInerney, David Foster Wallace, Edward P. Jones, Emma Cline, Ottessa Moshfegh, among others) and for its interview series, Writers at Work. Founded in Paris in 1953 by expatriates George Plimpton and Peter Matthiessen, the Review moved its headquarters to New York in the late fifties, where it has remained and where it has continued to embrace new talent and delve into the workings of established writers.

Our first work is an essay by Umberto Eco. Eco (1932 - 2016) was an internationally acclaimed Italian author best known for his novels The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum, The Island of the DayBefore, The Prague Cemetery, and Numero Zero. Eco also published numerous nonfiction essay collections and works of literary criticism, and taught at institutions including the University of Turin, Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University of Bologna, where he served as professor emeritus. In this humorous piece, “How to Travel with a Salmon” (Paris Review, 1994) written in a satirical and curmudgeonly tone, Eco is travelling with a really big fish—and gets into some really big trouble. Reader Jin Ha‘s stage credits include the original company of “Hamilton: An American Musical” in Chicago, and Julie Taymor’s 2017 Broadway revival of “M. Butterfly. “ Ha was recently featured in NBC’s “Jesus Christ Superstar: Live in Concert.” Ha is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts (MFA).

In our second story, “Marabou,” by Joy Williams (Paris Review, 1993), a mother mourns her dead son in the company of his difficult friends. Williams’ characters are often confounded by their own emotions while finding their way to and from grief.

Joy Williams’ work includes the short story collections Taking Care, Escapes, Honored Guest, and 99 Stories of God, and the novels State of Grace, The Changeling, Breaking and Entering, and The Quick and the Dead, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She also wrote a book of essays titled Ill Nature, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Williams is a winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story. Additional awards and honors include the Harold and Mildred Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and she was elected to the Academy in 2008. Her most recent collection of short stories, The Visiting Privilege, was published in 2015. Williams was honored with The Paris Review’s Hadada Award for Lifetime Achievement in April 2018.

The story is read by Michael Emerson. Emerson has won two Emmy awards for his work on “The Practice” and “Lost,” and is also known for his starring role on” Person of Interest.” Additional screen credits include “The X-Files,” “Saw,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “ Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Parenthood,” “Arrow,” and “Mozart in the Jungle.” On Broadway he has appeared in “The Iceman Cometh” and “Hedda Gabler;” Off-Broadway credits include “Gross Indecency,” “Bach at Leipzig,” and “Wakey,Wakey.” He will appear in the forthcoming mini-series “The Name of the Rose.”

Our third story, George Fox’s “The Twenty-Sixth Second,” was published in The Paris Review in 1971, but feels older, perhaps because it involves a secret kept since the end of World War II, one that threatens a stable marriage. George Fox’s stories and articles have appeared in Esquire, Playboy, and The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel, Without Music, was published in 1971 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Not much is known about Fox, but in 2002 a collection entitled Inside Man was released that included “The Twenty-Sixth Second.”

The reader is a favorite SHORTS leading lady, Linda Lavin. Lavin won a Tony Award, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics’ and Helen Hayes Awards, for her performance in “Broadway Bound” in 1987. She is a six-time Tony nominee for her roles in “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife,” “Collected Stories” and “The Lyons.” Other theatre credits include “The New Century,” “Other Desert Cities,” and” Too Much Sun.” She is a two-time Golden Globe winner for her role as Alice on the nine year hit TV series of the same name. Lavin’s film credits include “The Intern,” “Wanderlust,” “A Short History of Decay,” “The Backup Plan,” “The Muppets Take Manhattan,” and “See You in the Morning. “ In 2010 she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Our final story, “The Hat,” is by Nobel Laureate Patrick Modiano. It was published in The Paris Review in 2017. “The Hat” is told in bemused retrospect by the son of a minor film actress, and recounts her movements the day the Nazis occupied Paris. Host Leonard is the reader, and commented on how provocatively indirect the story is—we’re in the presence of a grim historical moment, but the story is a collection of images and vignettes—a glimpse of the past through the present. Modiano is a celebrated French novelist and winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. His debut novel, La Place de l'étoile, won the Prix Fénéon and the Prix Roger-Nimier in 1968. Additional works include Rue des boutiques obscures, winner of the Prix Goncourt; Les Boulevards de ceinture, winner of the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française; Dans le café de la jeunesse perdue; and most recently, Souvenirs dormants. He is the recipient of the 2010 Prix mondial Cino Del Duca from the Institut de France for lifetime achievement, and the 2012 Austrian State Prize for European Literature, among other honors.

Robert Sean Leonard won the Tony Award for his performance in “The Invention of Love,” and earned nominations for his work in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “Candida.” He has also appeared on Broadway in “The Speed of Darkness,” “Arcadia,” “The Iceman Cometh,” “The Music Man,” and “Sunday in the Park with George,” among other roles both on and Off-Broadway. His film credits include “Dead Poets Society,” “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,” “Swing Kids,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “The Age of Innocence,” “In the Gloaming,” “The Last Days of Disco,” “The Killer,” “Tape,” and “A Painted House.” His television credits include featured roles on “House” and “Falling Skies,” among others. Most recently, Leonard starred in Edward Albee’s “At Home at the Zoo” at the Signature Theatre.

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