Marlon and Jake Read Dead People

Appetizer 2: Powerful Female Characters Feb 25, 2022

Marlon & Jake are back to discuss the most indelible and powerful female characters—those written by dead female authors and those written by dead male authors. From Sula Peace to the Wife of Bath, Scout Finch to Janie Crawford—these two gentleman celebrate some of literature’s most ferocious, complicated, guileless, unrepentant and commanding women.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Double Indemnity by James Cain
There Eyes Are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Dubliners by James Joyce
Kindred Octavia Butler
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
Sula by Toni Morrison

Appetizer 1: Unreliable Narrators Feb 18, 2022

Marlon & Jake are back to discuss the narrators they love but can't trust. From the delusional to the uninformed, the sociopathic to the sympathetic, they explore the characters that charm as much as they trick, begging the question: is there such a thing as a reliable narrator? So tune in to hear if Jake has warmed to Great Expectations (spoiler alert: he hasn’t) and so much more!

Select titles mentioned in this episode:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Stern
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
"Charles" by Shirley Jackson (in The Lottery and Other Stories collection)

Appetizers for everyone! Feb 18, 2022

We didn't ghost you, dear listeners. Marlon had a novel to finish, which Jake had to edit. But the good news is it's officially out in the world, and so before Marlon—the very living author—takes off on his whirlwind book tour, he and Jake are back together for a brief (but delicious) reunion of discussing what they love most: DEAD AUTHORS. We'll be back for season three later this spring, but until then, stayed tuned for an amuse bouche, a canapé, an appetizer—take your pick!—to the glorious meal on the horizon.

Dead Authors Through History Sep 01, 2021

Prepare for what might be Marlon & Jake’s most controversial hot takes yet, as they travel back through the last four hundred years to decide which dead authors from each century stand the test of time and which can be left to gather dust on the shelf. Where do they fall on Paradise Lost? Who triumphs in the battle of the poets v. novelists of the 18th century? How much has the 1930s Hollywood studio system shaped classic stories? Which of them stans Huckleberry Finn, and who thinks it might be overrated? Marlon & Jake answer these questions and more as they discuss the timeless work of the freaky, the rebellious and the groundbreaking. From Mary Shelley to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Paul Laurence Dunbar to Daphne du Maurier—with a healthy dose of Alexander Pope-dissing—tune in to find out where you stand with their picks.

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
The Adventures of Amir Hamza by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Provoked Wife by John Vanbrugh
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mathilda by Mary Shelley
The Last Man by Mary Shelley
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Complete Poems of William Blake
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Nana by Émile Zola
Germinal by Émile Zola
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
Forest of A Thousand Daemons by D.O. Fagunwa
Cane by Jean Toomer
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel García Márquez
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Books to Gift Aug 25, 2021

This week Marlon & Jake discuss the books by dead authors they give as gifts and the very important decision-making that goes into that selection. Whether it’s for a younger, skeptical or pretentious reader, they share the unintentionally comedic and surprisingly engaging books they choose to bestow upon their loved ones.

Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
Tai-Pan by James Clavell
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe
The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
The History of Jamaica by Edward Long
Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie
One Thousand and One Nights
The Death of King Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
Oreo by Fran Ross
The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Our Favorite Characters Aug 18, 2021

This week Marlon & Jake discuss memorable characters from books by dead authors—who they love, who they despise and everything in between. What exactly makes a character great? Who would they invite to their literary dinner party and why? From Elmore Leonard’s Raylan to Louisa May Alcott’s Jo March, Lady Macbeth to Auntie Mame—tune in to hear which fictional personalities would get a seat at the table, who would be banished forever, and who Marlon and Jake would simply ignore.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Pronto by Elmore Leonard
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Sula by Toni Morrison
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
The Parker novels by Richard Stark
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) by Dante Alighieri
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré
The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
King Lear by William Shakespeare
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Stuart Little by E.B. White

Literary Grudge Match Aug 11, 2021

Marlon and Jake take on literary giants in a grudge match for the ages. This time it's Charles Dickens vs. Anthony Trollope and Louisa May Alcott vs. Laura Ingalls Wilder in a no-holds-barred royal rumble. The two of them pull no punches, whether they're talking about racism or Edith Wharton's snobbery, colonialism or Hugh Grant's hair. So get ready to cheer on your favorite dead author and literary warrior as Marlon and Jake go mano a mano in a street fight you've definitely never come across before.

Select titles mentioned in this episode:

The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Maurice by E. M. Forster
Stuart Little by E.B. White
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway
The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Books We Wish We had Written Aug 04, 2021

Literary speculation abounds as Marlon and Jake reveal which books they wish they had written andwhich they think would have been better if they’d been written by someone completely different. Listen in as they explore the questions you never knew you needed answers to. Would The Confessions of Nat Turner have been better if Zora Neale Hurston had written it? Who could have written a funnier Ulysses? Were members of the Bloomsbury Group actually total bores? And perhaps most important: Does Marlon’s mom still have his Tom Jones fan-fiction and if so, how much is Jake willing to pay for it? Tune in for all this and more, including a lively discussion about plays that are as enjoyable to read as they are to see on stage. (And spoiler: Jake is not a fan of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.)

Select title discussed:

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Dubliners by James Joyce
Tai-Pan by James Clavell
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
Airships by Barry Hannah
Joseph Andrews by Henry fielding
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray
Shōgun by James Clavell
Trent's Last Case by E. C. Bentley
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Middlemarch by George Eliot
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
Terrorist by John Updike
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Ulysses by James Joyce
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Highland Fling by Nancy Mitford
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The Two Gentleman of Verona by William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
His Girl Friday by Charles Lederer (screenplay), adapted from The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (play)
Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Endgame by Samuel Beckett

Gateway Books Jul 28, 2021

Marlon and Jake share their "gateway" books by dead authors, the first books they read that that turned them on—or off—the rest of an author's work. From John Steinbeck to Dorothy Parker, Umberto Eco to Norman Mailer, Ayn Rand to Carson McCullers, Marlon and Jake don't hold back in discussing the imprints, footprints, and thumbprints these books left on them. They also ponder the long-lasting consequences of the high school lit class, whether a gateway book can be assigned, and the enduring power of dullness in a novel, no matter the century. Listen for this and more, including what Marlon and Jake think of The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara, edited by one Toni Morrison.

The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers
Sula by Toni Morrison
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand
The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel García Márquez
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez
Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
The collected poetry of Dorothy Parker
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco
In the hand of Dante by Nicholas Tosches
Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
Miami and the Siege of Chicago by Norman Mailer
Harlot’s Ghost by Norman Mailer
An American Dream by Norman Mailer
Why Are We In Vietnam? by Norman Mailer
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
Look Back in Anger by John Osborne
Loot by Joe Orton
What the Butler Saw by joe Orton
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
"The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by Alan Sillitoe
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas hardy
The Return of the Native by Thomas hardy
Already Dead by Denis Johnson
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara
Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara

Best Last Books Jul 21, 2021

In this episode Marlon and Jake ponder the tricky question of the last books by authors who’ve … um … left this mortal coil. Which last books are actually worth reading? (Not many, it turns out.) From Roberto Bolaño to Penelope Fitzgerald, Sylvia Plath to Eudora Welty, Marlon and Jake discuss how an author's last book compares to their previous ones, how success and age changed how and what they wrote, and the wistfulness that comes when some last books are actually good and you wonder what the authors might have written next, if, you know, they hadn't died. Tune in for this and more, including Marlon and Jake’s surprising thoughts on James Thurber's humorous memoir, My Life and Hard Times.

Select titles discussed:

Maurice by E. M. Forster
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Passage to India by E. M. Forster
Something Happened by Joseph Heller
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie by Jean Rhys
One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty
The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty
The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
“Where is the Voice Coming From?” by Eudora Welty
My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber
Typee by Herman Melville
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara

Our Second Favorite Books by Dead Authors Jul 14, 2021

We've heard them rave about their favorites and rant about their least favorites, but Marlon and Jake reveal in this episode their second favorite books by dead authors: the books they love that are the runners-up to the #1 spots in their hearts. From Amos Tutuola to Gabriel García Márquez to John le Carré and more, Marlon and Jake explore why one's favorite book by an author might not always be their best book, what separates an intellectual vs. an emotional response to a book, and the importance of being a promiscuous reader. (That’s right, promiscuous.) And what is the next book by a dead author Marlon and Jake will be reading together for the first time? Tune in to find out!

Select Titles Discussed:

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Darkness Visible by William Golding
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Shardik by Richard Adams
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Shōgun by James Clavell
Airport by Arthur Hailey
The Moneychangers by Arthur Hailey
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John le Carré
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré
The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carré
Smiley’s People by John le Carré
A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sula by Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Blood on the Forge by William Attaway
My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber

Good Books By Terrible People Jul 07, 2021

Marlon & Jake weigh in on the age-old “artist versus art” debate, as they examine good books by problematic dead authors, as well as the bad and sometimes problematic books by great dead authors. From Flannery O’Conner to Roald Dahl, Vladimir Nabokov to the surprisingly challenging Charles Dickens, Marlon & Jake explore the thorny questions surrounding the books worth fighting for and the ones worth fighting over. How exactly do we define terrible books? Is there a statute of limitations on being offensive? Can we enjoy a book at the same time that we recognize its failures? Do people and ideas ever evolve beyond books? And what does it mean to have the freedom to choose what to read? Tune in for a provocative, nuanced conversation that might just make you rethink, revisit, or totally let go when it comes to your own reading of dead authors.

Selected works discussed

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Bear and His Daughter by Robert Stone
The Breast by Philip Roth
I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford
The Turner Diaries by William Luther Pierce
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

And the writing of:

Charles Dickens
Knut Hamsun
Jack London
HP Lovecraft
William S. Burroughs
Norman Mailer
Enid Blyton

Short Novels and Novellas Jun 30, 2021

Marlon and Jake talk short books they love, syllabus staples to skip (Hemingway die-hards, consider yourselves warned), and their first-ever real-time joint read, Blood on the Forge by William Attaway. What does Marlon consider the closest thing to a perfect novel? Tune in to find out!

Sula by Toni Morrison
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Aspern Papers by Henry James
The Ambassadors by Henry James
Passing by Nella Larsen
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
1984 by George Orwell
Blood on the Forge by William Attaway

We’re Baaaaack! Jun 23, 2021

Marlon and Jake reunite to discuss the books that got them through the pandemic, classics they wish they had written, and whether Lord of the Flies needs a sequel.

Select titles mentioned in this episode:

A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Maurice by E.M. Forster
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Blood on the Forge by William Attaway

Season Two Trailer Jun 14, 2021

Marlon and Jake are back with a sizzling new season of the dead authors they love, hate, and will never agree on. Get ready for even more heated (and hilarious) debates, unexpected insights, and—of course—brutal honesty. Dead authors never felt so cool.

Season Two Teaser May 27, 2021

Marlon and Jake are back this summer for a second season

Goodbye for Now, but We'll Be Back! Mar 17, 2020

As Marlon and Jake wrap up Season 1 of Reading Dead People, they take a moment to reflect on what they've learned and what dead books and authors they want to discuss when they return for season two. So Marlon and Jake will be on a hiatus--they have some reading to do!--but fear not, they will be back soon to discuss the good, the bad and the everything in between. Until then, go read some dead people!!

Questions, Questions Mar 09, 2020

This week Marlon and Jake answer some of the questions that listeners have asked. What dead author or book did they initially hate but have come around to love? What is the best book by the worst dead author? And who is the most annoying character by a dead author? (Spoiler alert: Heathcliff. Obviously.) Along the way Jake confesses a lack of enthusiasm for William Faulkner and, yes, Virginia Woolf, while Marlon bemoans the insufferably boring Thomas Hardy and makes a plug for the poetic darkness of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Their shared hatred of A Tale of Two Cities is back and stronger than ever. Will Jake re-read Absalom, Absalom!? Will Marlon let go of his Edith Wharton grudge? Should we take relationship advice from Jane Austen? Was D.H. Lawrence the 20th Century’s bridesmaid but never its bride? Has the “Great Pirate Novel” been written? Tune in to learn the answers to these essential questions and so much more!

Select titles discussed in this episode:

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
Emma by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Harvey by Mary Chase
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
QB VII by Leon Uris
Airport by Arthur Hailey
The White Witch of Rosehall by Herbert G. de Lisser
The Black Sun by Lance Horner
Richard III by William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Pericles by William Shakespeare
The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West
Stoner by John Williams
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Ambassadors by Henry James
Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Trashy Novels To Die For Mar 02, 2020

This week Marlon and Jake dive into one of life’s great guilty pleasures: the trashy novel. Do such books provide intellectual stimulation or lessons on morality? Of course not. Nevertheless, Marlon and Jake extol the virtues of these irresistibly low-brow novels that they can’t get enough of, in the process asking: What makes a novel trashy and what makes it literary? If a book holds up a mirror to society, can it qualify as trash? What are the differences between trashy novels for women and trashy novels for men? From Peyton Place to Valley of the Dolls to the Falconhurst novels, Marlon and Jake get real about the wonderfully salacious plots, the ridiculously named characters, the gay subtexts, the surprising pathos, and all the sex. SO. MUCH. SEX. So literary snobs, be warned. For the rest of us, tune in to celebrate dead authors who have given us the gift of a shamelessly good read.

Select titles discussed in this episode:

The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins
The Falconhurst Series by Lance Horner, Kyle Onstott, and Ashley
Carter
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Shogun by James Clavell
The Executioner Series by Don Pendleton
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Bad Seed by William March
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Movies Made From Books by Dead People Feb 24, 2020

Marlon and Jake put on their Hollywood sunglasses as they discuss the films adapted from books by dead people. What makes a good movie adaptation? What translates from the page to the screen and what most definitely does not? Jake admits that The Exorcist is the most shocking novel and movie he’s ever encountered, and Marlon celebrates the unparalleled brilliance of Die Hard—which yes, was adapted from a novel, and which yes, Marlon has actually read. Jake (yet again) offends Marlon with his disdain for all things Hobbit and Marlon points to Angela’s Ashes as an example of the phenomenon of the “well-made bad movie.” From the atrocious attempts to bring The Great Gatsby to the big screen to the unfortunate existence of Ewan McGregor’s American Pastoral, Marlon and Jake explore great books that were made into less-than-great films as well as bad books that made excellent movies. How did the messiness of Mario Puzo’s storytelling and prose make the perfection that is The Godfather films? How did an angry-animal thriller like Jaws become a horror movie classic? From The Princess Bride to A Streetcar Named Desire, Marlon and Jake debate what goes into a terrific – and a lousy – film adaptation. So grab your popcorn and Jujubes and settle back for one wild cinematic ride.

Select titles mentioned in this episode:

The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
The Grifters by Jim Thompson
The Hobbit by J.R. R. Tolkien
Jaws by Peter Benchley
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
The Sicilian by Mario Puzo
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Babe: The Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp

Memoir and Autobiography Feb 17, 2020

This week Marlon and Jake delve into the very real lives of very dead writers. From Gore Vidal to Frank McCourt, Ulysses S. Grant to Gabriel García Márquez, they discuss how memory compares to history and whether the trustworthiness of a memoir really matters if the book is a compelling read. Their discussion about WASPy realism leads them to debate whether John Cheever or John Updike is the better writer, and Marlon poses the scandalous question of whether Jane Austen lacked passion (gasp!). Whether they’re talking about philandering playwrights or humorous newspaper columnists, Marlon and Jake prove that truth really can be stranger than fiction.

Select titles mentioned in this episode:

Personal Memoirs by Ulysses Grant
Palimpsest by Gore Vidal
The Night of the Gun by David Carr
Act One by Moss Hart
Once in a Lifetime by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
The Man Who Came to Dinner by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García Márquez
Rabbit Series (Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit
At Rest) by John Updike
The Maples Stories by John Updike
The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
At Wit’s End by Erma Bombeck
If Life is a Bowl of Cherries by Erma Bombeck

Myths, Legends and Fables Feb 10, 2020

This week Marlon and Jake go back in time-way, way back-and revisit the myths and legends that have terrified and tantalized us for centuries. Gods and monsters. The powerful and the petty. The shape-shifting and the rampantly naked. From ancient Greece and Africa to Jamaica and Ireland, Marlon and Jake explore the world's myths and legends-how they persist and how we absorb, sanitize and subvert them. Whether it's Jason and the Golden Fleece, the trickster Anansi, or the non-consenting kiss in Sleeping Beauty, Marlon and Jake get real about fairy tales and folklore. And for all Black Leopard, Red Wolf fans, tune in to learn more about which of these traditions influenced Marlon's epic fantasy and how he's turning the wicked witch trope on its head in the trilogy's next novel!

Select titles mentioned in this episode:

The Greek Myths
The Labors of Hercules
Jason and the Golden Fleece
Daedelus and Icarus
Bullfinch's Mythology
African Myths of Origin
Anansi the Spider
Apep and Ra
Black Heart Man
Rolling Calf
Sukuyan
The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
Snow White
Rapunzel
Sleeping Beauty
Hansel and Gretel
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
The Little Mermaid
The Little Match Girl
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales
Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by William Butler Yeats

Epic Fantasy Feb 03, 2020

This week Marlon and Jake venture into fantasy: the imagined worlds of dead writers—from quests and dragons to magic carpets and pregnant kings. As they dive into the works of the giants of traditional fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, they discuss the influence both writers had on Marlon's own fantasy epic, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which was inspired by the epic traditions of Africa and writers like D.O. Fagunwa and Amos Tutuola. They debate how reading fantasy as a child differs from reading it as an adult, wonder why there aren't more female characters, and lament how fantasy is still mostly read by boys and men. From The Hobbit to Ursula K. Le Guin, the two have some very real takes on the make-believe. So tune in.

Select titles mentioned in this episode:

The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake
The Longships by Frans G. Bengtsson
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola
Forest of a Thousand Daemons by D.O. Fagunwa
The Lake Goddess by Flora Nwapa
The Sagas of the Icelanders
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J.R.R. Tolkien
Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien
Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin
Dune by Frank Herbert
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Dead Authors for a Desert Island Jan 27, 2020

Marlon and Jake are back-this time to discuss which dead author they'd take with them to a desert island to reread over and over again-as well as which ones they'd happily leave lost at sea. From the Jamaica of Wide Sargasso Sea to the lonely New England of Shirley Jackson, Marlon and Jake get fired up over the books they vehemently love and the ones they equally hate. Marlon explores his complicated love for James Clavell and the underappreciated wisdom of Pride & Prejudice's Charlotte Lucas, while Jake (unsuccessfully) attempts to convince Marlon that Agatha Christie is, in fact, not overrated. One thing they actually agree on?? That would be their passionate disdain for Wuthering Heights-and it's not pretty-so Emily Bronte lovers, consider yourself warned!

Included Titles:

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson
Shogun by James Clavell
Tai-Pan by James Clavell
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Literary Grudge Match Jan 27, 2020

Marlon and Jake kick off the first episode by taking on some literary giants in a grudge match for the ages. This time it's Charles Dickens vs. Anthony Trollope and Louisa May Alcott vs. Laura Ingalls Wilder in a no-holds-barred royal rumble. The two of them pull no punches, whether they're talking about racism or Edith Wharton's snobbery, colonialism or Hugh Grant's hair. So get ready to cheer on your favorite dead author and literary warrior as Marlon and Jake go mano a mano in a street fight you've definitely never come across before.

Select titles mentioned in this episode:

The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Maurice by E. M. Forster
Stuart Little by E.B. White
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway
The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Marlon and Jake Read Dead People Trailer Dec 18, 2019

Marlon and Jake Read Dead People is a podcast hosted by the Man Booker Prize-winning and internationally bestselling author Marlon James and his editor, Jake Morrissey, Executive Editor at Riverhead Books.

In each episode, Marlon and Jake talk about authors—specifically dead authors. Authors they like. Authors they hate. Great books, terrible books, and books they love that you’d never expect them to. As a writer and an editor, Marlon and Jake have read thousands of books between them, and they’re not shy in expressing their opinions about them. Sometimes they’ll agree, sometimes they won’t, but, in every episode, they’ll tell you what they think—uncensored and with no holds barred. (That’s why the authors have to be dead.) So listen along to hear about the spectacularly good, the hilariously bad, and the brutally honest.