Marlon and Jake Read Dead People

Latest Episodes:

Good Books By Terrible People Jul 07, 2021

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

Marlon and Jake are back this summer for a second season

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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

Show notes

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