Selected Shorts: “Homewreckers” – March 19, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of Selected Shorts, titled “Homewreckers,” explores the intricacies and foibles of marriage through two distinct short stories: James Thurber’s “The Breaking up of the Winships” and Louise Erdrich’s “The Big Cat.” Hosted by Meg Wolitzer, the episode features lively readings from acclaimed actors and concludes with an insightful conversation between Wolitzer and Erdrich.

Theme:
Marriage under strain from the small, often ridiculous, but potent forces that shape partnership. The episode reveals how the mundane and the absurd can tip the balance in intimate relationships—from a debate over Donald Duck to the cacophony of familial snoring.

Key Discussion Points & Story Summaries

The Price of Small Quarrels: “The Breaking up of the Winships” by James Thurber

Read by Christine Nielsen
Main Segment: [04:52] – [21:23]

• Premise:
  The story recounts the fraught dissolution of Gordon and Marcia Winship’s marriage—sparked by a comical argument about whether Greta Garbo or Donald Duck is the greater artist.

• Escalation from the Trivial:

  • The couple’s fight starts over differing opinions about Garbo’s film "Camille" ([05:15]).
  • Marcia is a Garbo devotee; Gordon is indifferent, favoring detachment and, provocatively, Donald Duck ([06:22]).
  • Their disagreement turns absurdly combative (“Donald Duck is ten times as great as Garbo will ever be!” – Gordon, [07:20]), escalating resentments and leading to mutual scorn and separation.
  • Attempts by their unnamed friend to mediate only reinforce how irreconcilable their incompatibilities have become.

• Public Humiliation and Stubbornness:

  • At a party, Marcia misconstrues Gordon’s lighthearted discussion with a novelist as an intentional slight, reigniting the quarrel ([09:15]).
  • The narrative highlights how “the resentment of the misunderstood husband” and the wounding of pride can trump rationality.

• Notable Quotes:

  • “Quiet, for God’s sake. You’re yelling like a prize fight manager.” — Gordon ([01:00], [07:07])
  • “Well, that speech just about perfectly represents the shallowness of his intellect and the small range of his imagination.” — Marcia ([07:34])
  • "I cannot conscientiously live with her again. I believe that he is great, that the man who created [Donald Duck] is a genius. Probably our only genius." — Gordon ([11:56])
  • “Her belief in Garbo's greatness was a thing she could not deny and would not deny simply for the sake of living under the same roof with Gordon Winship.” — Narrator ([12:54])

• Outcome:
  The marriage crumbles not from betrayal or disaster but from stubborn pride and trivial disagreements, with both parties irrevocably wounded by what began as a minor quarrel.

The Long Conversation: Reflections & Transition

Meg Wolitzer Commentary: [21:23] – [23:59]

• Thurber is celebrated for turning comic escalation into an art, and Nielsen’s reading captures that legacy.
• Wolitzer muses on marriage as “one long conversation checkered by disputes,” and how story and character—not plot—anchor our enduring memories ([02:30]).
• Quote:
  “What you may remember most about your marriage, for better or worse... is what it was like to be talking to that other person, whether in Sacramento or standing in front of a dishwasher on the floor.” — Meg Wolitzer ([02:57])

Living with Noise and Nostalgia: “The Big Cat” by Louise Erdrich

Read by Keir Dullea
Main Segment: [25:47] – [51:35]

• Premise:
  A man recounts how the snoring women in his wife Elida’s family, including Elida herself, came to dominate his married life, shaping not only his sleep but the trajectory of his relationships.

• Marriage, Divorce & Remarriage:

  • The narrator’s inability to sleep due to Elida’s and her family’s thunderous snoring becomes a motif for marital sacrifice and endurance ([25:47]–[28:00]).
  • After a divorce from Elida, he enjoys blissful sleep and quickly remarries Lorraine, who “slept like a drunk kitten” ([29:35]).
  • Despite contrasting lifestyles and personalities between Elida and Lorraine, the narrator remarks on the subtleties of marital routines, habits, and irritations.

• Lingering Attachments & Emotional Complexity:

  • Monthly meetings with Elida (about their daughter, Valerie) turn fraught once the narrator remarries.
  • A forbidden kiss leads to an affair; "We were extremely happy for ten months" ([39:39]).
  • Their daughter, Valerie, inadvertently discovers the affair, bringing to a head the familial tensions and longing for cohesion:
    • “I could have had you both together. Instead I’d been trying to get used to you apart.” — Valerie ([41:21])

• Money, Guilt, and Self-Awareness:

  • Lorraine accuses the narrator of being after her money; he insists otherwise, yet admits to taking a settlement.
  • Watching a montage Elida once made of his “bit-part” acting career, the narrator confronts regret, guilt, and the narrative of his own life ([44:15]–[48:30]).

• Notable Quotes & Highlights:

  • “20 good years, one bad year, a thousand little issues come home to roost.” — Elida ([36:28])
  • “Maybe we should have an affair where we see each other only by day and never sleep together. You know, at night.” — Elida, whimsically proposing their arrangement ([39:31])
  • "The real snoring hit with abrupt ferocity. The orderly, mechanical regularity of the metalworking shop had been abandoned. Now it was more like a pack of wolves snarling over a kill." — Narrator ([50:26])
  • “It took some time for me to understand that Elida’s body had not been satiated on mine, that she wasn’t purring because she’d swallowed my heart.” — Narrator, grappling with his dream ([51:25])

• Final Reflections:
  The story ends with the narrator back in the snoring house, newly appreciative of his place in the family's peculiar symphony, and aware that happiness in marriage is as layered and discordant as a houseful of sleepers.

Author Interview: Louise Erdrich in Conversation

Segment: [52:44] – [57:24]

• On Story Origins:

  • Erdrich describes drawing on Minneapolis settings and “imagined” relationships.
  • She explains how the family’s legendary snoring became a metaphor for the “noise women make... that appalls men, appalls partners, you know, appalls people in the wider sense” ([53:34]).

• On Writing Fiction:

  • Quote:
    “Short stories came to me in the beginning, and it’s harder to write them sometimes. Now they come as more of a wave of emotion, the way poems do.” — Louise Erdrich ([55:09])
  • She reflects on using family and community as inspiration, saying her work’s significance to Native American representation comes from “my parents. It’s my tribe, my nation, the people around me.” ([57:02])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Marriage is one long conversation checkered by disputes.” — Meg Wolitzer quoting Robert Louis Stevenson ([02:16])
• “Oh, Pooty, you too.” — Marcia, in a moment both cutting and ridiculous ([07:12])
• “How many hours? I elaborated on the vivid images that accompanied the soundtrack. A lioness worrying the leg off a carcass...” — Narrator, “The Big Cat” ([50:48])
• “I feel like the snoring stands in for the noise we make as women in so many ways. That appalls men, appalls partners, you know, appalls people in the wider sense.” — Louise Erdrich ([53:34])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:27] — Episode intro and overview by Meg Wolitzer
• [04:52] — “The Breaking up of the Winships” (read by Christine Nielsen)
• [21:23] — Host reflection on Thurber and marriage
• [23:59] — Introduction to Louise Erdrich and “The Big Cat”
• [25:47] — “The Big Cat” (read by Keir Dullea)
• [51:35] — Reflection on “The Big Cat”
• [52:44] — Meg Wolitzer’s interview with Louise Erdrich

Tone & Insights

• The episode is witty, observant, and compassionate, blending comic absurdity with genuine emotional inquiry.
• Both stories emphasize that it is often the littlest things—quirks, habits, slights, or bodily noises—that shape the course of a partnership.
• The readings bring humor, heart, and pathos, reminding listeners that every marriage is its own inscrutable and fascinating story.

Conclusion

This episode of Selected Shorts masterfully examines how marriages unravel or endure, not exclusively through major betrayals or disasters, but often thanks to the accumulation of tiny blows and strange affections—the “long conversation” of life together. Through Thurber’s comic fatalism and Erdrich’s affectionate yet unsparing modern portrait, the show delivers a resonant look at what it really means to be somebody’s other half.