Just In Case We Die

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In 1898, Caterina Albert won the prize for literature in the Jocs Florals literary competition. This win sparked a considerable scandal when the jury learned that the author was actually a young girl. As a result, Caterina Albert refused to present her work or accept the award, and from then on she used the male (and snarkily patriotic) pseudonym of Víctor Català for her writings, taking the name from the protagonist of a novel she was planning but never finished.

Unfortunately, this intriguing tidbit of trivia is the most interesting thing about this novel for Aaron. Rodney and Ilsa are a little more generous in their critique. That’s right: this month’s discussion includes their inaugural guest.

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The American Library Association has designated the week of October 1 through October 7, 2023 as Banned Books Week. Both Rodney and I are in passionate and adamant opposition to book censorship in any form. We both also have many books that have meant a great deal to us over the years that have somehow managed to find themselves on the overgrowing list of novels that have been challenged or censored. We wanted to take some time to have a conversation about these works of literature, about the nature of banning in general, and whether, in some cases, the complaints about some of these books are warranted. We recorded this special episode with the intention of dropping it during Banned Books Week.

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Of the six books we’ve read for this podcast, only one of them so far has not featured a fictionalized version of a real historical figure. This month’s novel even ups the ante on that conceit by presenting a fictionalized account of a historical event. E. L. Doctorow changes the names and some of the details, but this novel is very much about the trial and eventual execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, an American married couple convicted (and subsequently executed) in 1951 of spying for the Russian government, despite the prosecution presenting no hard evidence of their treason. It’s a dark moment in the history of our nation, and Doctorow utilizes fiction, memoir, and academic thesis to examine the repercussions of this historic event on not only its participants but the nation.

This is a very thought-provoking novel.

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This month, we decided to take a break from our normal routine of using a random number generator on Google to pick our book. Instead, Aaron hand selected a title from the list to honor the passing of one of his favorite novelists.

Blood Meridian, our selection for this month’s discussion (and #139 on our alphabetized list) is Cormac McCarthy’s fifth published novel. It is an epic historical novel, set in the American frontier. It is rightly considered one of the “great American novels”, but it is not for the faint of heart. It is unrelenting in its brutality, unapologetic in its violence, and cryptic in its ultimate message. Please don’t judge Aaron too harshly for loving this novel as much as he does.

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Never Let Me Go– one of the more unique coming-of-age novels that either Rodney or Aaron have read in years– follows the residents of a boardinghouse for pre-adolescent children over the course of several years. Is it really a boardinghouse, though? Exactly what are “the guardians” of this facility preparing its residents for?

Aaron and Rodney both really loved this heartbreaking novel about loss, friendship, the need for identity, and the very nature of what it means to be a human being. How did the elegant prose of this Nobel Peace Prize-winning author manage to skip under their radar for so long?

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Our selection for discussion this month has a few things in common with the book we read for our last episode:
–We had never heard of it before
–The author was unknown to us
–The novel was originally written in German
–The book’s narrative uses a real event in history as a backdrop to the driving plot trajectory

Our selection this month also had a few differences that we were intrigued by:
–The author of this book is a woman
–The real event in history utilized to weave the novel’s story is The Holocaust
–The plot description on the book’s jacket sounded like something we would actually give a shit about

Part novel, part memoir, part scathing treatise on not learning from the mistakes of your past, “Patterns of Childhood” is a book that neither of us will be soon be forgetting. Join us as we discuss this thought-provoking post-modern take on the fragility of memory and coming to terms with the sins of your past.

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At long last, Rodney and I are finally presenting our discussion of The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to trash our first attempt at this episode completely. This episode is our second attempt to record a discussion for this novel. There's probably a lot that we left out from our first conversation, but the general gist of our thoughts and feelings on this novel are still intact. It's a varied discussion, complete with hateful diatribes about technology, monumentally anti-climactic character deaths, and the announcement of our next book for discussion.   

Join the discussion on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/justincasewediepod or on our webpage at http://www.justincasewedie.com.

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Neal Stephenson's justly-lauded Cryptonomicon is more than 900 pages of math, cryptography, techno-thriller intrigue, military shenanigans, and revisionist history. Spanning fifty years in time, this novel intertwines an implausible military mission in WWII with a contemporary attempt to create a data haven for the burgeoning (at least, in 1990) internet. The novel is also hysterically funny. Is it a science-fiction novel, though? Does it even belong on this list?

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Before Aaron and Rodney can expect you to listen to their new podcast, they need to give you some background information on what it is, who they are, and why the heck you should care about their opinions on great works of literature. In reality, this episode is little more than a conversation between two friends who love to read, but therein, one will get some insights into their friendship, their individual tastes, and their plans for making this podcast unlike any book podcast you've ever heard before.