Review Rushdie On Calvino's Absurd, Charming Masterpiece September 19, 2008 • The 12 short stories that make up Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics mix scientific erudition and wild fantasy to tell a wonderfully unique story of creation. Salman Rushdie calls it "possibly the most enjoyable story collection ever written." Rushdie On Calvino's Absurd, Charming Masterpiece Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/93376041/94818045" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review In Praise Of Drive-Ins And Doris Day August 22, 2008 • Movie Love In The Fifties offers a view of America as it was 50 years ago, a postwar nation whose struggle to understand race and sex and fashion was reflected in films that weren't all pitched to the appetites of teenage boys. In Praise Of Drive-Ins And Doris Day Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/93874755/93891578" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review 'Nightwood,' A Hymn To The Dispossessed August 7, 2008 • Djuna Barnes' novel of passion and grief, of exile and loneliness, spoke directly to Siri Hustvedt, both when she read it as a 24-year-old and when she re-read it nearly 30 years later.
Review In 'Replay,' A Life Full Of Second Chances July 10, 2008 • A man drops dead of a heart attack but awakens as a younger version of himself. He reaches 43 and dies (and returns) again. Author Brad Meltzer first read Ken Grimwood's novel, Replay, when he was 19. He never forgot it. In 'Replay,' A Life Full Of Second Chances Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/92131281/92423320" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Hitler's Coming; Time For Cocktails And Gossip July 1, 2008 • Jonathan Raban remembers his first encounter with the aging, aimless socialites of Evelyn Waugh's Put Out More Flags, a novel of cocktails, clandestine affairs and the looming threat of World War II. Hitler's Coming; Time For Cocktails And Gossip Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91699752/92103224" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review An Unflinching, 'Street' View of the American Dream June 16, 2008 • Twenty years ago, author and literature professor Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina was looking for an undiscovered classic for her African-American-fiction class. What she found was Ann Petry's The Street, and she's been teaching it ever since. An Unflinching, 'Street' View of the American Dream Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91556698/91562350" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review 'Golden Memories' of Father-Daughter Bonding June 13, 2008 • As a teenager, the scariest person in Jen Lancaster's life wasn't Freddie Krueger or Michael Myers, but Ronald Lancaster, her father — until the night they laughed themselves silly, courtesy of Jean Shepherd. 'Golden Memories' of Father-Daughter Bonding Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/89511074/91536987" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Pain, Betrayal and Love in Old Russia June 6, 2008 • Doctor Zhivago offers a day-by-day portrait of the lives of ordinary Russians through the Revolution of 1917. Nearly 40 years after reading it for the first time, Ursula Le Guin credits Boris Pasternak's sweeping epic for making her the novelist she is today. Pain, Betrayal and Love in Old Russia Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/91205874/91252414" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review A Slow, Glorious Trip Down the Mississippi May 23, 2008 • Tony Horwitz revels in the meandering adventures and wry observations of Old Glory, Jonathan Raban's story of floating "like a piece of human driftwood" through the heart of America. A Slow, Glorious Trip Down the Mississippi Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/90708472/90781873" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Belly Laughs — and Wampas — in 'Expertise' May 14, 2008 • Real out-loud laughter may be uncommon among adults, says Mary Roach, but she cracked up upon cracking open John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise. Even Hodgman's list of "Jokes That Have Never Produced Laughter" proved funny.
Review Taking Comfort in a 'Four-Story' Escape May 5, 2008 • Author Marisa de los Santos recalls the worries of her childhood, and the escape she found in The Four-Story Mistake, Elizabeth Enright's tale of four siblings living with their father and a housekeeper in a big, rambling house in the country.
Review The Disquieting Resonance of 'The Quiet American' April 21, 2008 • Can we learn from our past mistakes? Pico Iyer finds modern meaning in Graham Greene's novel about a naive American who arrives in a foreign place full of ideas about democracy, and how he can teach an ancient culture a better, "American" way of doing things. The Disquieting Resonance of 'The Quiet American' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/89542461/89817500" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review History Made Real in 'April Morning' April 18, 2008 • On April 19, 1775, a shot rang out on Lexington Green and the Revolutionary War began. Historical novelist Sally Gunning remembers the first time she read April Morning, Howard Fast's fictional account of the day, and the lasting impression the book had on her.
Review Finding a Familiar Loneliness in 'The Yearling' April 10, 2008 • Lois Lowry was 8 years old when she first encountered the loneliness and desperate poverty of the Baxter family in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' book, The Yearling. Finding a Familiar Loneliness in 'The Yearling' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/89255124/89541162" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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Review Brutality and Redemption in 'Sacred Hunger' March 24, 2008 • Sacred Hunger, a brutal portrait of human ruthlessness and redemption set on an 18th century slaving ship, inspired Ethan Canin to expand his ambitions as a writer. Brutality and Redemption in 'Sacred Hunger' Listen Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/87889471/88994438" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript
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