Gia Tolentino
Appearances
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
Happy anniversary and see you next week.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
Joan Didion's essay on Martha Stewart, read for us by an actor, and I'm here with staff writer Gia Tolentino. Gia, tell me why you picked this story out of so many thousands that we've published over 100 years. Why Joan Didion? And why this piece about Martha Stewart?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
Her memoir about losing her husband and daughter.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
It remains surprising to me that she decided to take the song.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
I think we threw ideas at Joan Didion constantly hoping for the best, that we would get lucky once in a blue moon. And for some reason, she bid on this.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
I think when you read the piece. When you read the piece, you really... When you read the piece, she's really interested in this kind of domestic... god-goddess notion.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
Of the pieces that Joan Didion wrote for The New Yorker, there were some reporting pieces from California. The other critical piece that she wrote was about Ernest Hemingway and about Hemingway's sentences and perfectionism of sentences. The defense of perfectionism. Exactly. What a link between Martha Stewart and Papa Hemingway.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
Gia, you mentioned that Martha Stewart hit a bump, shall we call it. She was convicted on charges related to insider trading investigations, and she spent several months in prison. But when she got out of jail, she rebounded like crazy. Could Joan Didion have written the same profile of Martha Stewart just a few years later?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
That's from Joan Didion's essay on Martha Stewart, headlined Everywoman.com. Excerpts were read for us by actor Amy Warren, and Gia Tolentino wrote about Didion's essay, and you can find both pieces at newyorker.com slash takes. That's newyorker.com slash takes, T-A-K-E-S. More in a moment.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
We also asked the cartoonist Roz Chast for her take on the magazine's centennial. And Roz wanted to write about one of her illustrious forebearers, the late George Booth, who contributed cartoons to The New Yorker for decades and decades, half his life or more. Booth is known for his dogs. He was for sure the world champion dog cartoonist.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
But that doesn't really do justice to him as an observer of us humans. Like Roz Chast herself, George Booth drew a world full of stressed-out, schlumpy people dealing with the weirdness of everyday existence. Here's Roz Chast.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
Listen, I am not one for anniversary journalism or even birthdays. You reach a certain age, and it's hard to remember what all the fuss is about. But when you reach 100, well, at 100 you get to make a fuss. And the debut issue of the New Yorker magazine appeared on newsstands dated February 21st, 1925. Throughout this year, we're going to be celebrating the centennial in many ways.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
And one of them is to highlight a few of the gems from the New Yorker's archive. And we've asked some of our writers to pick a piece that means something special to them. And so we'll start off today with Gia Tolentino, who's the author of the bestselling book, Trick Mirror. And Gia picked a story by one of the great genius observers of American life, the late Joan Didion.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Celebrating 100 Years: Jia Tolentino and Roz Chast Pick Favorites from the Archive
You can find Roz Chast on George Booth, as well as Gia Tolentino on Martha Stewart by the great Joan Didion, and much more at newyorker.com slash takes, newyorker.com slash takes. And you can subscribe to The New Yorker at our website as well, newyorker.com. We'll be sharing many more takes on The New Yorker Centennial in the weeks to come. I'm David Remnick. Thanks for joining us.