Bookworm

Latest Episodes:

Robert Stone Jul 09, 1998

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Damascus Gate

(Houghton Mifflin).

Robert Stone explores the underlying holiness of all faith--from the fanatic's to the mystic's, from the con-man's to the addict's...

Dorothy Allison Jul 02, 1998

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Dorothy Allison, author of Cavedweller (Dutton). Dorothy Allison's arrival as a significant voice in mainstream American fiction provokes questions of identity and the limits of truthfulness. How far can she go?

Timothy O'Grady Jun 25, 1998

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Timothy O'Grady author of I Could Read the Sky (Harvill). A collaborative novel consisting of prose by Tim O'Grady and photographs by Steve Pike, I Could Read the Sky is a devastating account of the lives of Irish workers in England. O'Grady explores his own uprooted nature and how he discovered his &quotvoice.;"

Stephen Kessler Jun 18, 1998

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A Tribute to Julio Cort---r. Stephen Kessler, the translator of Save Twilight (City Lights), the first volume of Cort---r's poetry to appear in English, discusses the great South American fabulist--his life, his lunacy, his politics, his surrealism, and his cat.

Russell Banks: Cloudsplitter Jun 11, 1998

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The fictionalized life of abolitionist Frederick Douglass is the jumping-off point for a conversation about the white writer's contribution to a discussion of race....

Gore Vidal May 28, 1998

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The Smithsonian Institution

(Random House)

The urbane Gore Vidal on the emotional center of his newest "invention"...

Aharon Appelfeld May 21, 1998

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Aharon Appelfeld, author of The Iron Tracks (Schocken). The Israeli writer reveals the story behind the writing of his newest novel, a fable about the life of a concentration camp survivor who obsessively revisits the scenes of his imprisonment.

Alice McDermott: Charming Billy May 14, 1998

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Alice McDermott's prose captures the suburban Irish-American family. How does her dense, constricted, complex writing-style reflect the lives of these everyday folk?

Jim Crase May 07, 1998

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Jim Crase, author of Quarantine (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). This novel of faith by an atheist follows Jesus through his forty-day fast in the desert. It is a rare accomplishment--a realistic novel about a miracle worker, a farce about devotion.

Martin Amis: Night Train Apr 30, 1998

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Night Train

(Crown)

Suicide is the solution to the mystery in Martin Amis' noir thriller with existentialist undercurrents.