09-21-14 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 174: Lauren Beukes, 'Broken Monsters'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred seventy-fourth episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the three-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning. This week, I seem to be on top of the game, but who knows what the hell might happen. I am hoping to stay back up and stumbling.
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.
"... it was him saying what he felt, but for me it was a revelation about what I felt..."
— Walter Mosley
I've spoken with Walter Mosey a few times and enjoyed them all, but once we sat down to talk about 'Debbie Doesn't Do it Anymore,' it seemed to me that from the very first moment, we were significantly upping our game. I have to say I was more than shocked; I loved the book that it didn't seem like a subject that would be ideal for a radio interview.
No matter, it was a book for shattering expectations. I'm sure that part of the issue is that most press outlets looked at the précis for the novel and were frightened or disinclined to discuss it based on the subject. Obviously with a podcast, I have no limitations, but I also like to broadcast my work on The Agony Column Literary Magazine for NPR affiliate KUSP. So I, too, had some reservations, which were quickly left behind by virtue of the facts that a) the novel is superb, and not that you expect [Surprise! You have to read it to get that!] and b) Mosley is an outstanding thinker and speaker.
There are a lot of great twists in the plot of the novel, none of which we really talked about. Instead, we spoke to the themes, including the great American theme of re-invention. Mosey brought up one of my favorite all-time literary characters in this context and it is very relevant; Herman Melville's 'Bartleby the Scrivener.' I suppose it is never too late have my "I would prefer not to." t-shirt made.
Anytime you talk to Walter Mosley, you can also address the million-and-one things he has in the hopper. To with, this time around, a new play, a new TV series for HBO, a new Easy Rawlins novel that is already getting accolades because I was (and I apologize for this) so slow in getting this interview posted. But quality speaks for itself. I'll let Walter Mosley prove that by letting him speak for himself, in this link to the MP3 audio file.
09-18-14 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 173: Walter Mosley, 'Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred seventy-third episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the three-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning. This week, I seem to be on top of the game, but who knows what the hell might happen. I am hoping to stay back up and stumbling.
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.
"..it's not my worldview, but it was the worldview at that time..."
Lisa See
Lisa See manages to pull off some tough scenes in 'China Dolls.' There are, of course, lots of fun spots, crazy nightclub acts and engaging nightclub owners and performers. But when Pearl Harbor happens... turns out we didn't act much better then than we did after 9/11. And See understood the parallels going in.
See's really an engaging speaker, and it was quite fun to talk to her before her appearance at Bookshop Santa Cruz. It's also great to hear her talk about how she wrote the novel. When we read it now, the structure seems utterly natural, but See told me it was not always what we read here. She gave me some great insights into how a novel can force itself to become something other than the author's original intentions, and how an author's inclinations can work themselves into a novel in spite of her intentions.
See's previous novel had been so dark, she told me, that she found herself layong on the couch just trying to return from the places her writing took her. For years, she said, her fans and readers had been telling her about these acts and the world she explores in 'China Dolls.' It sounded like a more fun project and then she hit on a voice. After that it seemed to write itself, until it was time for the book to re-write itself.
There is, of course, a lot of research that goes into a novel like this, and See shared with me her methods and talked about the rich sources out there. Even here in the early 21st century, the process of writing a novel can benefit from looking beyond the Internet.
09-16-14 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 172: Lisa See, 'China Dolls'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred seventy-second episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the two(three[?])-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning. This week, I'm way behind, but who knows what the hell might happen. I am hoping to get back up and stumbling. I have lots of great books in the hopper to review and lots of great interviews to podcast.
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 seventy-second episode is a look at Lisa See and 'China Dolls.'
"...one of the first books I ever wrote was a Bobbsey Twins novel..."
— Alan Cheuse
And alas, that novel is lost in time; Alan claims, at least he did in our live interview at Bookshop Santa Cruz, not to remember the title or the name under which it was written. And that, listeners is why it is always fun to talk to Alan Cheuse. The dean of book reviewing for NPR has a lot more up his sleeve than you would expect, as evidence in 'An Authentic Captain Marvel Ring and Other Stories,' his latest collection.
This conversation starts with Alan reading the full story "Nailed' from his collection. It's hilarious and exactly NOT the sort of story you'd expect him to write. We discussed the story after he read and he quickly offered an antidote for normal radio. All we need, he said is for someone to give NPR about a billion dollars. With that, we can get the kind of uncensored radio you can hear in these podcasts, and even more. If there were a place for writers to air their thoughts beyond the printed page, believe me they would come.
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
