The Fiction Podcast: Tobias Wolff reads Stephanie Vaughn's "Dog Heaven."

The first and last of these compact tone paintings, "Rambling Till the Butcher Cuts Us Down" and "Dog Heaven," are wild, jazz-tinged fantasies.

In "Dog Heaven," for example, she goes on several paragraphs too long and diminishes the impact.

In "Dog Heaven" she ventured, audaciously, into the realm of offering solace to the small child faced with the death of a beloved pet.

Audio: Tobias Wolff reads Stephanie Vaughn's "Dog Heaven."

Dog Heaven (1927)

Hot Dog Heaven, 176 Kinderkamack Road, Emerson; (201) 261-0073.

Tobias Wolff reads Stephanie Vaughn's short story "Dog Heaven."

Tobias Wolff reads Stephanie Vaughn's short story "Dog Heaven," and discusses it with The New Yorker's fiction editor, Deborah Treisman.

"Dog Heaven" was published in The New Yorker in January, 1989, and is collected in "The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories."