Recall This Book

83* Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz on Zadie Smith


Listen Later

John and Elizabeth look back at Recall This Book’s 2019 conversation with Zadie Smith, so you may want to listen to that again before proceeding. Elizabeth and John try their best to unpack Zadie Smith’s take on sincerity, authenticity and human sacredness; the “golden ticket” dirty secret behind our hypocritical academic meritocracy; surveillance capitalism as the “biggest capital grab of human experience in history;” and her genealogy of the novel. If we had to sum the day up with a few adjectives: funny, provocative, resplendent, chill, generous, cantankerous.

Discussed in this episode:

  • Tony Judt, Postwar
  • Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy
  • Nicholas Lehmann, The Big Test
  • Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge
  • Doris Lessing The Fifth Child
  • Muriel Spark, The Girls of Slender Means
  • Stephen McCauley (with JP on RTB) Barbara Pym and the Comic Novel
  • Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black (and others…)
  • Joseph O’Neill, Netherland
  • J. P. Toussaint, The Bathroom
  • Virginia Woolf, The Common ReaderA Room of One’s Own“Moments of Being”
  • Philip Roth, The CounterlifeExit Ghost
  • 

    You can read the transcript here:

    RTB 15x Ferry and Plotz on ZS

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    Recall This BookBy Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

    • 4.7
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    4.7

    29 ratings


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