Review 'Fathers and Sons': A Ravishing Knockout of a Book August 23, 2006 • Author Gary Shteyngart says his favorite novel is Fathers and Sons. Ivan Turgenev's story of two young men and their families "explains just about everything you need to know about families, love, heartache, religion, duels and the institution of serfdom in 19th-century Russia." 'Fathers and Sons': A Ravishing Knockout of a Book Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5684676/5696880" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review The Funniest, and Scariest, Book Ever Written August 22, 2006 • Writer Charles Baxter offers praise for Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman, which can be confusing, comical and harrowing. "Novels like The Third Policeman can sometimes throw readers into a panic," Baxter says. "They ask, 'What on earth is this?"
Review On Learning to Appreciate John Cheever's Stories August 17, 2006 • The California-based novelist T.C. Boyle originally thought John Cheever's short stories were "antiquated," when he read them as a young writer. He soon realized how wrong he was, growing to recognize the enduring beauty of Cheever's writing. On Learning to Appreciate John Cheever's Stories Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5652619/5664251" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Seeing Flowers in a New Way, Through Loren Eiseley August 17, 2006 • Given his status as a political writer, Michael Lind may seem to come from left field with his must-read recommendation: Loren Eiseley's essay "How Flowers Changed the World," which takes an expansive view of botany's impact on humans. Eiseley, Lind says, is capable of cinematic constructs that are "breathtaking."
Review Hooked on the Most Important Food Writer Alive August 10, 2006 • Heat author Bill Buford finds "his McGee" indispensable — that is, Harold McGee's essential tome On Food and Cooking. "McGee is the most important person alive writing about food," Buford says. Hooked on the Most Important Food Writer Alive Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5634817/5634834" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Admiring Oe's Talent for Discomfort August 3, 2006 • Victor Lavalle, the author of slapboxing with jesus, says Kenzaburo Oe's novella "Prize Stock" explores themes of racism and brutality while avoiding simplistic escapes: "It's not a story about right or wrong, democracy versus anarchy, and you can't pick out the good guys."
Review Breece D'J Pancake's Short, Stunning Career July 27, 2006 • Breece D'J Pancake took his own life in 1979, not long after The Atlantic Monthly published his first stories. He was 26. Author Susan Straight often shares his work with twentysomething students. She wants them "to heed the fullness of his fictional world... his anger and exact prose."
Review Appreciating Buford's Passionate 'Heat' July 25, 2006 • Book critic Oscar Villalon offers his appreciation of Bill Buford's new memoir Heat. Inspired by Italian star chef Mario Batali, Buford experiences a trial by fire in the kitchen of one of New York's top restaurants. Appreciating Buford's Passionate 'Heat' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5526223/5581521" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Jonathan Ames' Personal Hardboiled Hero July 20, 2006 • Author Jonathan Ames extols the virtues of Dashiell Hammett's hardboiled classic, The Dain Curse. "I started reading Hammett about a dozen years ago, after a long and enjoyable romance with Chandler," Ames says. "I return and reread both writers all the time."
Review Terror and Tenderness in 'Suite Francaise' July 18, 2006 • The real-life story behind Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise is a compelling one: the author's manuscript lay unread for years after her death at the Auschwitz camp. But Nemirovsky's writing, notes author Elizabeth Strout, can stand up to its own tragic provenance. Terror and Tenderness in 'Suite Francaise' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5542557/5565974" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Zoe Heller on a Joseph Roth Classic July 13, 2006 • Zoe Heller realizes that her work may not have much in common with Joseph Roth. But Roth's The Radetzky March, she says, has a quality to it that she would not mind emulating. His writing makes Heller feel "a surge of renewed enthusiasm and energy for the business of novel-writing."
Review Why 'Lolita' Remains Shocking, And A Favorite July 7, 2006 • Author Bret Anthony Johnston offers his endorsement of the classic. Part of the genius in Vladimir Nabokov's tale of pedophilic love, says Johnston, is that the author makes his readers complicit. Why 'Lolita' Remains Shocking, And A Favorite Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5536855/5539319" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Why 'Lolita' Remains Shocking, And A Favorite Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5536855/5539319" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
Review Mosley's Intergalactic Coming-of-Age Tale: '47' July 6, 2006 • Walter Mosley, the creator of the bestselling Easy Rawlings mysteries, has accomplished something remarkable with his young-adult novel 47, according to author Steven Barnes: "He used the struggles of one frightened boy to represent [a] common yearning." Mosley's Intergalactic Coming-of-Age Tale: '47' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5531667/5538530" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Bizarre Soulmates: The Magic of 'His Dark Materials' July 5, 2006 • When cooking author Julie Powell is looking for a hit of adolescent intensity, she heads for Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Those books "suck me under and spit me out, feeling as drained and fulfilled as a hormone-crazed bookworm half my age," she says. Bizarre Soulmates: The Magic of 'His Dark Materials' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5535590/5535740" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Glorying in Sean Wilsey's Vivid Memoir July 4, 2006 • The combination of writing talent and juicy material on display in Sean Wilsey's memoir Oh the Glory of It All is what has author Curtis Sittenfeld singing its praises to others. The people and places described "come explosively and thrillingly alive," says the author of Prep. Glorying in Sean Wilsey's Vivid Memoir Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5521970/5521973" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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