Bookworm

Latest Episodes:

Francine Prose: Guided Tours of Hell Apr 24, 1997

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Francine Prose began her career in the magical-realist mode. Now her books are cynical and dark. In Guided Tours of Hell she tells why.

Diane Johnson Apr 17, 1997

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Le Divorce

(Dutton)

In this satire of American behavior abroad, Diane Johnson exhibits a lethal distaste for innocence.

Mitch Sisskind Apr 03, 1997

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Closing the Circle A show about an implausible miracle -- a link between art and commerce. Closing the Circle is an Oulipean tale of air travel. With funds earned by the book, Mitch Sisskind is developing a radio station devoted entirely to literature.

Melanie Rae Thon Mar 27, 1997

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Melanie Rae Thon First, Body (Houghton Mifflin) Thon has been chosen as one of the top American writers under forty. A discussion of her stories as a confluence of realistic prose and expressionistic poetry.

Jamaica Kincaid: The Autobiography of My Mother Mar 20, 1997

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Jamaica Kincaid, who grew up in poverty on Antigua, discusses the cultural contradictions of late capitalism and her ambivalent acceptance of American wealth.

Margaret Atwood: Alias Grace Mar 13, 1997

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The servant-girl novel, that staple of Victorian fiction, is reinvented by Atwood in her most compelling novel to date, "Alias Grace."

John Edgar Wideman Mar 06, 1997

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The Cattle Killings (Houghton Mifflin) As a writer, John Edgar Wideman finds himself at the intersection of African-American experience and High Modernist experimentation. A talk about ethnicity and the avant-garde.

Lee Smith Feb 20, 1997

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The Christmas Letters (Algonquin) Lee Smith actively loves her characters; her warmth towards them drives their stories. A conversation about fiction writing as a natural activity-- with roots in childhood, family gossip and country music.

Tobias Wolf Feb 13, 1997

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The Night in Question (Knopf)

Tobias Wolff on the ethical questions that animate the dramatic heart of his stories. An intense analysis of fiction's relation to truth.

Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient Feb 06, 1997

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Man Booker-Prize winner Michael Ondaatje seems to be one of the very few writers who appreciates the screen adaptation of his work...