08-02-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 112: Lisa Lutz, 'The Last Word'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred and twelfth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The one-hundred and twelfth episode is a look at Lisa Lutz, 'The Last Word''.
"...some people were surprised that I could be writing such dark material and then lead the rest of my life..."
—Koethi Zan
It's easy to see why her friends were surprised that Koethi Zan was writing 'The Never List' in the wee hours of the morning before hustling her kids off to school and forging ahead in her career as an entertainment lawyer for MTV.
Zan is relaxed and happy as we set up to talk about her book. I admitted that I had my doubts about the book, but actually reading it conquered them. Even now, I wish I could be reading it and experiencing it again. It's a remarkable achievement and I wanted to find out how it came about.
In case you're wondering, there is a cement basement in Zan's life. It's where she wrote the book. One of the aspects I liked most of 'The Never List' was the complicated cutting-and-pasting that went on between past and present. There's a great deal of tension generated in the back-and-forth between the two. As we talked about how she built those passages, her method of composition came into focus.
'The Never List' is in a genre that is prone to lurid excess and even exploitation. But in spite of this, it never falls into that trap, by virtue of the fact that Zan always made sure that the women were the storytellers in this book. What's nice is that this is a book with a powerfully feminist perspective that never wears that on its sleeve. 'The Never List' has an intensely organic feel to it.
Readers who want to explore how Koethi Zan turned a genre upside-down can ignore the "Never download files from the Internet" rule on their own never lists by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
07-30-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 111: Koethi Zan, 'The Never List'
Here's the one-hundred and eleventh episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The one-hundred and eleventh episode is a look at Koethi Zan, 'The Never List'.
Andrew Sean Greer lives close to KQED, which proved to be fortunate. He was able to jump over in a jiffy, and we were able to pop up to the studio and sit down or a great conversation about 'The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells.'
When you read the novel, it's like jumping in a river; it has an intensely organic flow, and you really will not emerge until you've shot the rapids and gone over the falls. But as I thought back about what I'd read, I realized that there was a lot going on under the hood of this sleek novel. It's a river and a finely tuned machine that perfectly emulates a river.
I was particularly curious about Greer's perfectly balanced approach to the tools of science fiction her incorporated here. Yes, I admit that it was not until after we spoke that I realized the name Wells was no accident, but the traditional name check beloved by science fiction writers. Make no mistake; this book does not read in the least bit like a science fiction novel. Greer mentioned Karen Joy Fowler and her new novel, 'We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves,' as well as Kate Atkinson and 'Life After Life.'
I've been told that there's a run on "time traveling women," but I think that's not actually the case. While there are elements of "time travel" in this novel, and a nod to the Victorian master of socialist science fiction, to my mind, both this novel and Kate Atkinson are not about going back or forward in time.
Instead, I think that this novel is about how limited the time we have in our lives proves to be. Once we're born, the clock it ticking, just as it does in the studio when you're speaking to an author. You only have so much time to make something for yourself and something of yourself.
Greer described some aspects of how he crafted the novel, and there is one I hope to see a photograph of on his website. http://andrewgreer.com/ . It's always fascinating to heasr how a book is put together. When you read 'The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells' you won't think about anything outside the novel. When you're not reading it, you'll be able to step into the novel and get a better view of just where you stand. You can hear my conversation with Andrew Sean Greer by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
