Spine Crackers

In this episode, the Spine Crackers take a trip back to middle school to discuss John Steinbeck's 1947 parable of family, community, greed, and meaning, The Pearl. 

In this episode, the Spine Crackers are joined by Daniel of the Viva La Dude podcast to discuss legendary screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky's first and only novel, and the basis for his 1980 cult classic film, Altered States (1978)! Go ape! 

In this episode, the Spine Crackers read seminal American author Don DeLillo's 2003 pseudo-postmodern novel of technology, the future, and American identity, Cosmopolis. 

In this episode, the Spine Crackers read French writer and academic David Diop's International Booker Prize winning 2018 novel of war, race, friendship, and madness, At Night All Blood Is Black. 

In this episode the Spine Crackers read the reluctantly Austrian author Thomas Bernhard's 1975 novel of obsession, family, science, and madness, Correction. 

In this episode, the Spine Crackers read prolific Belgian author Georges Simenon's 1967 novel of class, marriage, memory, and the nature of love and hate, The Cat. Meow. 

In this episode the Spine Crackers read Graham Greene's 1960 novel of faith, colonialism, and fame A Burnt-Out Case. 

In this episode, the Spine Crackers read Nicholson Baker's 1988 short novel detailing one man's mental life during a ride up an escalator. Prefiguring some of the stylistic and thematic interests of more recent postmodern, encyclopedic novels, Baker's hyper-detailed "microhistory" is powerful and hilarious. 

In this episode, the Spine Crackers dig into what is arguably the most well-known and influential American novel of all time, F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 tale of class, time, national identity, and so much more, The Great Gatsby. 

In this episode, the Spine Crackers read Virginia Woolf's 1925 modernist masterpiece of war, aging, social isolation, and British identity Mrs. Dalloway.