09-29-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 123: Connie Willis, Blackout & All Clear
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred and twenty-third 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 twenty-third episode is a look at Connie Willis, 'Blackout & All Clear,'.
"... there is this mad need to leave your story behind..."
—Marisha Pessl
Marisha Pessl strikes me more as a latter day Jane Austen than an heir to 'Jane Eyre', although her novel 'Night Film' partakes more of the latter than the former. She even mentions 'Jane Eyre' to me early in our discussion of her new novel.
One might imagine that Charlotte would make use of today's media in much the same way that Marisha Pessl has. There are lots of reasons to consider 'Night Film' part of a bigger work of "mashup' art, given all the online materials that Pessl and her publisher have created.
But I found it interesting and heartening that Pessl considers all the interview-fodder ancillary materials to be very much less important to her than the reading experience. The book demonstrates that in spades. It's a book that you don't want to finish, a book you in a sense do not want to end.
Pessl and I talked about the path required to create this book, which was not, as one might imagine, particularly straightforward. It involved a fair amount of travel and writing outside the novel — fifteen films worth! There was also a deep personal involvement in the book. Once you read the book, her comments take on a whole new dimension; and if you have read the book what she has to say will transform your vision of what you've read.
Here's the one-hundred and twenty-second 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 by painting your hair bright purple and uploading the video to YouTube.
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 twenty-second episode is a look at Marisha Pessl, 'Night Film'.
"It never happens on the page ... I have to plot really carefully."
—Jojo Moyes
When you read 'The Girl You Left Behind,' you'll simply be immersed in the worlds that Jojo Moyes creates. The characters are real, the stories are seamless and engaging. When you hear how the stories come together, you'll realize just how much hard work goes into a novel that is immensely easy to read.
Anyway you look at it, 'The Girl You Left Behind' is an amazing piece of work. Moyes crafts stories in two different timelines; each story requires lots of research. Yes, much of that investigation this time round did involve trips to France, so there's a certain reward to this research. But Moyes gets it right by dint of hard work — and it never, ever shows in the text.
I talked to Moyes about all the areas of research required to put this book together. Some of it harkened back to her days as an arts journalist, but much of it required footwork, reading and on-the-spot investigation.
But there's a lot more to this novel than just the facts that give it intense verisimilitude. Moyes gets the feelings right, and that, arguably is more important than the dates, times and materials. She's attracted to the tough questions that don't have any single, easy answer — which makes her books deeper, darker and more rewarding than you might expect. But she also knows the hardest trick all. Moyes knows how to pull off happiness in a convincing manner.
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
