KCRW's Bookworm

Marilynne Robinson, Part II

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 09:30:00 EST

Home (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Marilynne Robinson's recent novels concern two ministers and their families. Here, we discuss her most-troubled character, Jack Boughton, a man who would have been called a ne'er-do-well when words like ne'er-do-well were common...

Marilynne Robinson, Part I

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:58:00 EST

Home (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Marilynne Robinson had not published a novel in twenty years when she wrote Gilead, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. How peculiar, interesting and lovely that she should follow it so quickly with Home...

An American Bookworm in Paris, Part V

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:08:00 EST

Jerk, a play, from a story by Dennis Cooper, directed by GisÃ¨le Vienne
Our series closes with American writer Dennis Cooper, who lives and writes in Paris. His work is believed to continue the French lineage of poÃ¨te maudits (outlaw poets) a tradition that includes Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Sade.

Jonathan Carroll

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:16:00 EST

The Ghost in Love (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Although he would never want us to say so, Jonathan Carroll's novels are like metaphysical self-help books for the supernaturally inclined.

David Foster Wallace

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:30:00 EST

Web exclusive: The terrible and sad impact of David Foster Wallace's suicide caused us to want to remember him as he first appeared in the KCRW studios, fresh from the publication of his breakthrough novel, Infinite Jest. He was brilliant and charmingâand his death is an enormous loss to American literature.

Sarah Vowell

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:30:00 EST

The Wordy Shipmates (Riverhead)
What brought the indomitable Sarah Vowell to write a book about the Puritans? A couple of Thanksgiving episodes of The Brady Bunch and Happy Days, to be sure, but also...

An American Bookworm in Paris, Part IV

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:46:00 EST

GrÃ©goire Bouillier The Mystery Guest: An Account (Farrar Straus & Giroux) and Report on Myself (Houghton Mifflin)
Olivier Cadiot Colonel Zoo ( Green Integer)
Marc Cholodenko Mordechai Schamz (Dalkey Archive)
Finally at ease in Paris, the Bookworm encounters three French novelists and attempts to navigate the tangle of philosophy, artifice, intertextuality and hilarity that exemplifies the art of the new French novel.

Note: More installments of an American Bookworm in Paris will air over the next few months.

Diane Johnson

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:30:00 EST

Lulu in Marrakech (Dutton)
Here's a conversation about ambivalence, ambiguity and judgment in a comic or satiric novel. Usually, we would know exactly where the author stands, but not with Diane Johnson...

Francine Prose

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:30:00 EST

Goldengrove (Harper)
Francine Prose is full of surprises in speaking of her newest novel. It's narrated by a thirteen-year-old girl whose sister has drowned. It looks like a conventional coming-of-age-through-emotional-hardship book...

James Wood

podmaster@kcrw.org (KCRW.com) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:07:00 EST

How Fiction Works (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
This conversation is characterized by indirection. Critic James Wood seems to be responding to accusations made against him by other reviewers...