The Paris Review Podcast

Episode: S4E10 | "Foley’s Pond"
Date: February 21, 2024
Main Feature: Short story "Foley's Pond" by Peter Orner, read by Jim Fletcher

Episode Overview

This episode features a haunting, atmospheric reading of Peter Orner's short story, "Foley’s Pond." The narrative explores childhood guilt, grief, memory, and the legacy of small-town tragedy, centering on a group of 13-year-old boys, their secret hangout spot, and the drowning of a little girl.

Key Discussion Points & Story Highlights

1. Setting and Context (00:02)

• The story unfolds in a suburban neighborhood adjacent to a place called Foley's Pond in 1983.
• The narrator recalls a time when Nate Zamost, a classmate, took a week off school after his young sister, Barbara ("Babs"), drowned in the local pond.

2. Childhood Social Dynamics and Guilt

• Returning to school, Nate is greeted with a hesitant, respectful awkwardness by his peers, who “stood around in a ragged circle” (01:09) and avoided their usual game.
• There’s a palpable tension—boys unable to console or truly understand Nate’s guilt:

  "Instinctively we seemed to get it that our role was not to understand or even to console, but in the spirit of funerals, to act.” (01:23)

• A telling exchange:
  • Stu Rothstein tries to comfort Nate, saying:

    “Look, it’s not like it’s your fault. I mean, how could you have known she knew how to slide under the fence?” (02:04)

  • Nate’s reply:

    “I taught her.” (02:11)

  • This admission hangs unresolved, deepening the sense of guilt and responsibility.

3. Memory, Anger, and The Mystique of Foley’s Pond

• The narrator admits to feeling a private anger at Nate—not just for the tragedy, but for making “their” secret place public:

  "Foley’s Pond had always been a secret place, and now everybody in town knew all about it.” (03:00)

• The pond is depicted as a dangerous, almost mythic space—rumored to contain toxins, bodies, and secrets.

  “Once Ross Berger dove into Foley’s and came up with green hair and leeches on his thighs. Someone shouted, the sludge supports life. We all jumped in. It was like swimming in crude oil.” (04:05)

4. Rite of Passage and Lost Innocence

• The boys' adolescence is marked by bravado and secrecy, though this event fundamentally changes their relationship to both childhood and to Foley’s:

  “Had we been a little older, we may have drunk beers or smoked dope or brought girls so they could scream about not wanting to go anywhere near that disgusting water. We were 13 and conspiratorial, and what was said is now out of reach, as it should be.” (05:12)

5. The Aftermath of Tragedy

• The pain and horror are depicted in raw, unsentimental terms:

  “It took them 11 hours to find her. Foley’s was a lot deeper than anybody had thought.” (05:40)

• The trauma is especially vivid in the reaction of Nate’s mother, who cannot accept the reality of her daughter's death:

  “Mrs. Zamost didn’t scream, just shook her head and stepped backward into the dark.” (06:33)

6. Change and Erasure

• The episode closes with the transformation of the pond into a manicured, public park, the wildness tamed, but the sense of loss—and the story—lingering:

  "Foley's is a real park now. The park district manicured it... There's a wide wood chipped path off Bobolink that leads right to it. And they've installed tall bird feeders—long poles topped with small yellow houses." (06:54)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Boys at a Loss:

  "It wasn't like we weren't capable of understanding. Some of us even had sisters. But instinctively, we seemed to get that our role was not to understand or even to console, but in the spirit of funerals, to act." (01:18, Narrator)

• The Burden of Guilt:

  “I taught her.” (02:11, Nate)

• Adolescent Territory:

  “There was nothing beautiful about that pond, even in April, except that it was ours.” (04:51, Narrator) "How hidden we were, talking and talking about God only knows what." (05:02, Narrator)

• Unsettling Reality:

  "Mrs. Zamost didn’t scream, just shook her head and stepped backward into the dark." (06:33, Narrator)

Important Timestamps

• 00:02 – Story begins; childhood, the week after Barbara’s death
• 01:09–03:00 – Awkward return to school, conversations, and guilt
• 04:05–05:12 – Foley’s Pond stories, myths, and group identity
• 05:40–06:54 – The search, recovery, and family devastation
• 06:54–07:33 – The transformation of Foley’s Pond into a sanitized park

Episode Credits & Structure

• Story: “Foley’s Pond” by Peter Orner
• Reader: Jim Fletcher
• Production/Sound Design: John Delore
• Host/Editor: Emily Stokes
• Music: “Shadow” by Ernst Reissegar
• Source: First appeared in The Paris Review, issue 202 (Fall 2012)

For Further Reading

• The story can be read online at theparisreview.org.
• For more fiction, essays, and poetry, consider subscribing for access to the full archive.

Summary Tone:
Moody, reflective, and unsentimental, mirroring both Peter Orner’s prose and the restrained, evocative reading by Jim Fletcher. The episode is a quiet meditation on childhood, loss, and the places that shape us—and are in turn shaped by tragedy.