Unburied Books

Latest Episodes:

A School for Fools with José Vergara Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

Scholar José Vergara joins the show to talk about A School for Fools written by Sasha Sokolov and translated from Russian by Alexander Boguslawski. Enroll in a fabulous world where the dead are alive, language changes forms, minds split, and love flowers.

Read our guest's article on A School for Fools here and more about his work here.

References:
All Future Plunges to the Past
James Joyce
J. D. Salinger
Between Dog and Wolf
Astrophobia
Martina Napolitano
Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman
Vasily Aksyonov
Andrei Bitov
Nikolai Gogol
Alexander Pushkin
Mikhail Shishkin
Raul Ruiz
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Edgar Allan Poe
Ulysses
The Twilight Zone
Chuck-will's-widow
Ivan the fool

To purchase books covered on the show, please visit our digital bookshop. Buying them here helps to support the podcast.

Turtle Diary with Ana Gavrilovska Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

Writer Ana Gavrilovska joins us to talk about Turtle Diary written by Russell Hoban. We discuss middle age, loneliness, romance, Godlessness, and, of course, the symbolic resonance of turtles.

References:
Ninotchka
Pagliacci
Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
I Heart Huckabees
The Swimmer
King Kong

To purchase books covered on the show, please visit our digital bookshop at https://bookshop.org/shop/unburiedbooks. Buying them here helps to support the podcast.

In the Café of Lost Youth with Adam Morgan Mar 21, 2023

Show notes

Critic and journalist Adam Morgan joins us to talk about In the Cafe of Lost Youth written by Patrick Modiano and translated by Chris Clarke. We discuss the title's double meaning, recall the joys and sorrows of our own nocturnal wanderings, and nominate this book for sexiest NYRB Classic of all time. Also, we owe a massive thank you to John Hoekstra for composing our new theme music.

Read more about Adam Morgan's work here: https://adam-stephen-morgan.com/

References:
When Harry Met Sally
Julie and Julia
The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
Balcony in the Forest by Julien Gracq
Wong Kar-wai
Lacombe, Lucien directed by Louis Malle
Breathless
Love on the Left Bank by Ed Van Der Elsken
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity by Marc Auge
Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Jesse Ball
Pedigree: A Memoir

To purchase books covered on the show, please visit our digital bookshop at https://bookshop.org/shop/unburiedbooks. Buying them here helps to support the podcast.

Chess Story by Stefan Zweig Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

Dylan and Kassia unpack Stefan Zweig's Chess Story translated from German by Joel Rotenberg. They toy with some chess pieces, discuss the psychological effects of fascism, and heap praise on this thrilling novella.

References:
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Milgram experiment
How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It by Arthur Herman
Marquis de Wavrin
One Way Passage
History Is Made at Night
Let Them All Talk
Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School by Stuart Jeffries
The Stars Down to Earth by Theodor Adorno

To purchase books we've covered and browse some of Dylan & Kassia's favorites, please visit our digital bookshop at https://bookshop.org/shop/unburiedbooks. Buying them here helps to support the show.

A Belated Introduction Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

In this bonus episode, we explain how the podcast got started, detail our plan to tackle the collection, and describe our personal taste in books. Once Kassia started listing her favorite NYRB books it was impossible to get her to stop. Hopefully the run of this podcast will be equally protracted.

References:
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Dante
Homer
The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien
Ivy Compton-Burnett: A Memoir by Cicely Greig
A House and Its Head by Ivy Compton-Burnett
Manservant and Maidservant
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Anita Brookner
Elizabeth Taylor
Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Dream of the Red Chamber, or The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin
The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
2666 by Roberto Bolano
Conversations with Beethoven by Sanford Friedman
The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa-Al-Aswany
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
Patrick Leigh Fermor
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
Eileen Chang
Henry Green
Olivia Manning
Leonora Carrington
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb
Dorothy Baker
Jessica Mitford
Nancy Mitford
Barbara Comyns
Muhammad by Maxime Rodinson
Speedboat by Renata Adler
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin
Eve Babitz
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
Reds
Thomas Browne
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist by Alexander Berkman
The Life of Henry Brulard by Stendhal
Short Letter, Long Farewell by Peter Handke

Short Letter, Long Farewell with Joshua Jones Feb 21, 2023

Show notes

Writer and artist Joshua Jones joins us to discuss Peter Handke's Short Letter, Long Farewell. We disassemble the machinery of American mythmaking, drift through the empty avenues of modern alienation, and wonder why Europeans are so weird about the Land of the Free. If you're anti-spoiler, we recommend saving this episode until you've had a chance to read the book.

More about our guest:

Joshua Jones is a queer, autistic writer and artist from South Wales, now residing in Cardiff. He is the Director of Dyddiau Du, a DIY community library and art/literature space in Cardiff. He released a collaborative pamphlet of cut-up poetry and art with Caitlin Flood-Molyneux in 2022, and his debut short story collection, Local Fires, will be published by Parthian Books, September 2023.

References:

Dubliners by James Joyce
Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
The Last Days of Roger Federer by Geoff Dyer
Wim Wenders
Wings of Desire
The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Edward Hopper
Crash by J. G. Ballard
Alice in the Cities
John Ford
America and Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard
Don DeLillo
Apocalypse Now
The Fundamentals of Caring
Paris, Texas
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Fyodor Dostoevsky
A Dream Play by August Strindberg
Henrik Ibsen
Ingmar Bergman
Green Henry by Gottfried Keller
Mark Fisher
Young Mr. Lincoln
How Green Was My Valley
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ulysses
The Odyssey by Homer
Anton Chekhov
The Wizard of Oz
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Persuasion by Jane Austen
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The Iron Horse

Peach Blossom Paradise with Canaan Morse Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

Translator and poet Canaan Morse joins us to discuss his translation of Peach Blossom Paradise, a Chinese historical novel written by Ge Fei. In this conversation, we unpack the book's relationship to utopia, revolution, and Communist history. We also learn more about Canaan's background and the publication process at NYRB Classics. Listeners unfamiliar with the plot may want to wait until they've read the book to tune in.

Books and authors (and songs!) mentioned:
The Invisibility Cloak
Mo Yan
Kang Youwei
White Deer Plain by Chen Zhongshi
Water Margin by Shi Nai'an
To Live by Yu Hua
Li Shangyin
Matteo Ricci
Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin
Ulysses by James Joyce
Diary of a Madman by Lu Xun
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
"Stench" by Cao Kou (read Canaan's translation here: https://www.thewhitereview.org/fiction/stench/)
"Chang Hui Jia Kan Kan"
Yang Xiaobin
Seamus Heaney
Wang Wei
Hanshan
19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger
Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong

An Ermine in Czernopol with Alina Stefanescu Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

Writer and translator Alina Stefanescu joins us to discuss An Ermine in Czernopol, a humorous and deadly serious novel written by Gregor von Rezzori and translated by Philip Boehm. In this multilayered discussion, we seek the ghosts of Chernivtsi, a city in present-day Ukraine, and probe the meaning of honor and belonging in light of creeping fascism and anti-Semitism. Listeners unfamiliar with the plot may want to wait until they've read the book to tune in.

Learn more about Alina's work at https://www.alinastefanescuwriter.com.

My Father and Myself with Vivian Gornick Jan 10, 2023

Show notes

Writer and critic Vivian Gornick joins us to discuss My Father and Myself, a memoir written by J. R. Ackerley. We explore the mysteries of family life, the search for "the Ideal Friend" and the ethics of writing about relatives.

Lolly Willowes with Simon Thomas Dec 27, 2022

Show notes

This week we discuss Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes. The illustrious Simon Thomas, our first-ever guest, helps us understand how the 1920s trend for the fantastic helped produce this weird, wonderful book about a spinster aunt who sells her soul to Satan. But is it satire? And is it really a feminist manifesto? We tackle these and other pertinent questions while having a laugh along the way. Butter your villager-shaped scones, sit back and enjoy the broomstick ride.

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