{"id":141912,"date":"2020-01-07T13:00:34","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T18:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=141912"},"modified":"2020-01-07T13:41:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T18:41:07","slug":"redux-a-piece-of-a-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/07\/redux-a-piece-of-a-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: A Piece of a Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked pieces delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Salman Rushdie. Photo \u00a9 Rachel Eliza Griffiths.<\/p><\/div>\n

This week at The Paris Review<\/em>, we\u2019re celebrating new beginnings. Read on for Salman Rushdie\u2019s Art of Fiction interview<\/a>, Grace Paley\u2019s \u201cA Piece of a Beginning<\/a>,\u201d and Linda Gregg\u2019s poem \u201cAfter the Beginning<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you enjoy these free interviews, stories, and poems, why not\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0The Paris Review<\/em>\u00a0and read the entire archive? You\u2019ll also get four new issues of the quarterly delivered straight to your door\u2014and if you subscribe via our\u00a0special bundle<\/a>, you\u2019ll get a tote bag, too! And don\u2019t forget to listen to\u00a0Season 2<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0The Paris Review Podcast<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Salman Rushdie, The Art of Fiction No. 186<\/a>
\nIssue no. 174 (Summer 2005)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

Were you writing fiction at the same time?<\/p>\n

RUSHDIE<\/p>\n

I was beginning. I was very unsuccessful. I hadn\u2019t really found a direction as a writer. I was writing stuff that I didn\u2019t show anyone, bits that eventually came together into a first novel-length thing that everybody hated. This was before Grimus<\/em>, my first published novel. I tried to write the book in a Joycean stream of consciousness when really it needed to be written in straight, thrillerish language.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Piece of a Beginning<\/a>
\nBy Grace Paley
\nIssue no. 167 (Fall 2003)<\/em><\/p>\n

One day she fell flat on her face right out of American middle age into amazing age itself, oldness, a condition she thought she\u2019d like if it could last as long as childhood had. But already, the days themselves were shorter, a wintering fact.<\/p>\n

Then, people assuming wisdom began to ask her lots of questions. Some were slipped under the door; some were mailed. Close friends phoned or faxed. For some reason no one e-mailed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the Beginning<\/a>
\nBy Linda Gregg
\nIssue no. 101 (Winter 1986)<\/em><\/p>\n

The woman is preparing her body for sleep.
\nShe hangs the hair forward
\nand it almost touches her feet.
\nAfter brushing, she throws it up and back
\non to her shoulders. Then splashes water
\non her face twenty times.
\nThere is someone inside her happier
\nthan she is, waking as she goes to sleep \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you like what you read,\u00a0get a year of<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u2014four new issues, plus instant access to everything we\u2019ve ever published.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, we\u2019ve lowered the paywall on Salman Rushdie\u2019s Art of Fiction interview, a \u201ctidbit\u201d by Grace Paley, and a poem by Linda Gregg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31006],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redux"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRedux: A Piece of a Beginning by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This week, we\u2019ve lowered the paywall on Salman Rushdie\u2019s Art of Fiction interview, a \u201ctidbit\u201d by Grace Paley, and a poem by Linda Gregg.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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