The total or encyclopedic novel remains a rare and allusive find in this age or any other. In this audio essay, Robert Fay describes it as "the everything novel," and muses on Joyce, S. Yizhar, Tolstoy, Lucy Ellmann and the miraculous belief at the heart of the Catholic mass. In the end, Fay continues to ponder the unanswerable question: "What is the connection between life and literature?" This is The Feeling Bookish Podcast's "Audio Essay Edition."

Music: “Sunday Smooth" by Scott Buckley, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License - www.scottbuckley.com.au.