Bookworm

Latest Episodes:

W. G. Sebald Dec 06, 2001

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Austerlitz (Random House)
What Thomas Mann was to the 1940's and Albert Camus to the 1950's probably places the German writer W. G. Sebald in relation to our new century. In this conversation, Sebald describes the source of his rare prose tone and explores the invisible presence of the concentration camps in his work.

Joan Didion Nov 29, 2001

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Political Fictions (Knopf)

We discover that the strategy underlying Joan Didion's essays also provides the foundation for her fiction. She rejects the human need for stories with clear resolutions and, instead, searches out the messy realities that stories conceal.

Richard Flanagan Nov 22, 2001

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Death of a River Guide (Grove)

In this novel, a drowning river-guide in Tasmania relives his life as it recedes before him. Author Richard Flanagan insists that reality in his island homeland is stranger still...

David Means: Assorted Fire Events Nov 15, 2001

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David Means, the young winner of the Los Angeles Times Fiction Award discusses his interest in redemption, an impulse that transforms his tightly calibrated realistic fiction into a moral tightrope-walk.

Henry Bromell Nov 08, 2001

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Little America (Knopf)

Author Henry Bromell, the son of a CIA agent, discusses the traps, secrets and patricidal rivalries that can turn father-son relationships into metaphors for espionage...

John Barth, Part II Nov 01, 2001

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Coming Soon!!!

(Houghton Mifflin)

More on the spectacular fictional inventions of John Barth-including dual narrators, Muse-author collaborations, and stories so complexly interconnected that they mirror the spiraling structure of the universe. (Part II of a two-part interview)

John Barth, Part Oct 25, 2001

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Coming Soon!!! (Houghton Mifflin)

A full-scale celebration of the career of John Barth, one of America's greatest comic writers. His experiments with form, his crazy circumlocutions and contractions of language and, in particular, his creation of double-gendered narration are explored, explained, exhibited and exclaimed over.(Part I of a two-part interview)

T. A. Shippey Oct 18, 2001

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J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (Houghton Mifflin) With the film of Lord of the Rings hard upon us, Professor Shippey recalls Tolkien and his interest in language and epic poetry. As a special treat, Shippey sings Tolkien's school song, which, disguised, makes its way into the Sagas of Middle Earth.

Salman Rushdie: Fury, Part II Oct 11, 2001

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In part two of this interview with Salman Rushdie, we consider the wilder aspects of Fury: the influence of science fiction, surrealism and film. Special attention is paid to the blurring distinction between humans and machines and the painful irony implicit in the difficulty of making such a distinction. (Part one aired October 4.)