In my MA program, we read a version of “What We Talk About” (called “Beginners” at that point) that showed all of Lish’s line edits to the story. I think it was from The New Yorker, but I couldn’t find it now. Our consensus was the Lish version was probably better, but we wouldn’t want an editor changing that much of one of our own stories.
It’s tricky for sure!
In my MA program, we read a version of “What We Talk About” (called “Beginners” at that point) that showed all of Lish’s line edits to the story. I think it was from The New Yorker, but I couldn’t find it now. Our consensus was the Lish version was probably better, but we wouldn’t want an editor changing that much of one of our own stories.