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Todd
Do not let Etgar Keret deceive you. The Israeli writer who's worked in film, illustration, animation, and radio, is a storyteller in all senses of the word. Like a conman, he'll promise you a simple story and then the next thing you know your emotional reserves have been completely emptied. It's a literary bait and switch, and he'll get you every time.
Here, in “Todd,” a story that also challenges the boundaries between literature and reality, Etgar directly engages with the wonderful deception of fiction itself. The titular friend asks the narrator, who resembles Etgar—an Israeli short story writer who frequently appears on NPR—to write a story that'll help him get girls into bed. The narrator must then explain that writing doesn't work that way: "A story isn't a magic spell or hypnotherapy," the narrator claims, and yet that is exactly what happens here.
About Recommended Reading:
Great authors inspire us. But what about the stories that inspire them? Recommended Reading, the latest project from Electric Literature, publishes one story every week, each chosen by a great author or editor. In this age of distraction, we uncover writing that's worth slowing down and spending some time with. And in doing so, we help give great writers, literary magazines, and independent presses the recognition (and readership) they deserve.
About the author:
Etgar Keret's writing has been published in The New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and Zoetrope among other publications. More than 40 short films have been made based on his stories. His work has been translated into 31 languages and published in over 35 countries. He received the Chevalier Medallion of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2010. His short story collections include The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God & Other Stories, The Nimrod Flipout, The Girl On The Fridge, and most recently, Suddenly, a Knock on the Door.
Here, in “Todd,” a story that also challenges the boundaries between literature and reality, Etgar directly engages with the wonderful deception of fiction itself. The titular friend asks the narrator, who resembles Etgar—an Israeli short story writer who frequently appears on NPR—to write a story that'll help him get girls into bed. The narrator must then explain that writing doesn't work that way: "A story isn't a magic spell or hypnotherapy," the narrator claims, and yet that is exactly what happens here.
About Recommended Reading:
Great authors inspire us. But what about the stories that inspire them? Recommended Reading, the latest project from Electric Literature, publishes one story every week, each chosen by a great author or editor. In this age of distraction, we uncover writing that's worth slowing down and spending some time with. And in doing so, we help give great writers, literary magazines, and independent presses the recognition (and readership) they deserve.
About the author:
Etgar Keret's writing has been published in The New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, and Zoetrope among other publications. More than 40 short films have been made based on his stories. His work has been translated into 31 languages and published in over 35 countries. He received the Chevalier Medallion of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2010. His short story collections include The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God & Other Stories, The Nimrod Flipout, The Girl On The Fridge, and most recently, Suddenly, a Knock on the Door.
- GenresShort Stories
12 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 25, 2013
24 people want to read
About the author
Etgar Keret
140 books2,451 followersBorn in Ramat Gan in 1967, Etgar Keret is a leading voice in Israeli literature and film. His books have been published in over four dozen languages and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Le Monde and The New Yorker, among others. His awards include the Cannes Film Festival's "Caméra d'Or" (2007), the Charles Bronfman Prize (2016) and the prestigious Sapir Prize (2018). Over a hundred short films and several feature films have been based on his stories. Keret teaches creative writing at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Since 2021, he has been publishing the weekly newsletter "Alphabet Soup" on Substack.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
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September 28, 2016This is a story about a writer with a friend asking him to write a story about this friend. It is fun to listen to the conversation between the writer and his friend.
October 24, 2021
Reflections and lessons learned:
“Maybe that’s what I should write… that loyalty and dependability are overrated…”
Ahhh… meta/circular literature before we get to ‘the’ story… a narrative about writing a story for a character (that I can easily project onto an old friend), and an author that are debating the potential impact of the story… I’ve never liked the name Todd
Too short to be insightfully engaging? I’d be intrigued to try a few more from this series if easily available
“Maybe that’s what I should write… that loyalty and dependability are overrated…”
Ahhh… meta/circular literature before we get to ‘the’ story… a narrative about writing a story for a character (that I can easily project onto an old friend), and an author that are debating the potential impact of the story… I’ve never liked the name Todd
Too short to be insightfully engaging? I’d be intrigued to try a few more from this series if easily available
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews