Two Month Review

Chad and Brian break down the next few chapters of "Iceland's Thousand Years" by Sjón, which really set the plot in motion. They also talk about water, what it means to be an Icelander, how "bacon-eater" is an insult, Danes in general, myth-making, and much more. 

The next episode will focus on pages 257-302 (all in the second volume of the trilogy, "Iceland's Thousand Years"). The complete schedule can be found here.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for more thoughts on Sjón and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests

And be sure to preorder Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is coming out this fall from BOA Editions. And preorder Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann so that you're prepared for a future TMR.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

Even without an expert to guide them, Chad and Brian dissect the end of the first volume of CoDex 1962, talking golems and tenderness, speculating about the film behind the narrator's eyes, evaluating origin myths (and their apocalyptic counterparts), and praising the overall narrative structure of "Thine Eyes Did See My Substance" and how the writing itself ramps up as the volume comes to an end. Plus, they compare chapter one from the first two volumes and find some great parallels. 

The next episode will focus on pages 199-256 (all in the second volume of the trilogy, "Iceland's Thousand Years"). The complete schedule can be found here.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for more thoughts on Sjón and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests

And be sure to preorder Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is coming out this fall from BOA Editions. And preorder Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann so that you're prepared for a future TMR.

And be sure to check out Words Without Borders next month for an excerpt from Kári's novel.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

Kári Tulinius joins Chad and Brian this week and provides some incredibly valuable insight into the translation itself, connections to Iceland and to other writings, and much much more. This is one of the most difficult parts of the book to read, given the horrific actions of one of the characters, but also points toward some of the major themes in the trilogy.  And Brian's hatred of the name "Karl" turns out to be really justified . . .  

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our YouTube channel the day before they’re released in podcast form.

The next episode will focus on pages 156-197 (the end of "Thine Eyes Did See My Substance: A Love Story" and the first chapter of "Iceland's Thousand Years"). The complete schedule can be found here.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, Brian Wood, and Kári Tulinius for more thoughts on Sjón and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests

And be sure to preorder Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is coming out this fall from BOA Editions. And preorder Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann so that you're prepared for a future TMR. 

And be sure to check out Words Without Borders next month for an excerpt from Kári's novel. 

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

Chad's just back from a 7 hour train ride. Brian is inebriated. Tom Flynn is . . . Tom Flynn? It's a classic episode of the Two Month Review about horny avenging angels, chamber pot dumps, how many books actually last for a hundred years, the name "Karl," whatever Bumble is, and much more. A fun, loose podcast about a brilliant books. 

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our YouTube channel the day before they’re released in podcast form.

The next episode will focus on pages 110-155 (chapters 12-15 of "Thine Eyes Did See My Substance: A Love Story"). The complete schedule can be found here.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, Brian Wood, and ' for more thoughts on Sjón and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests

And be sure to preorder Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is coming out this fall from BOA Editions. And preorder Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann so that you're prepared for a future TMR.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This is a special episode of the Two Month Review featuring Chad's "World Literature & Translation" class, who read CoDex 1962 (and ten other contemporary works in translation) this semester. They talk with Chad and Brian about interpretation and translation, how they judge whether a translation is good or bad, Werner Herzog and Lars von Trier, the structure of the narration in the first section of CoDex 1962, British punctuation, Chad's no-longer-so-secret project, Delino Deshields, and more. 

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our YouTube channel the day before they’re released in podcast form.

The next episode will focus on pages 58-109 (chapters 7-11 of "Thine Eyes Did See My Substance: A Love Story"). The complete schedule can be found here.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for more thoughts on Sjón and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

And be sure to preorder Brian's book, Joytime Killbox, which is coming out this fall from BOA Editions.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

The new season of the Two Month Review kicks off with a pretty wide-ranging discussion. Sure, there is a bit about Sjón (pronounced SYOHN, which is not how Chad says it) and a few things about his earlier books and CoDex 1962, but a good part of this introductory episode is about patterns in narrative, cinematic realism, the imaginative nature of international literature, boxes and small rooms, Game of Thrones, and Iceland.

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our YouTube channel the day before they’re released in podcast form.

The next episode will focus on pages 1-57 (chapters 1-6 of "Thine Eyes Did See My Substance: A Love Story") and will be an audio only release. (Chad's graduate students will be the guests.)

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for more thoughts on Sjón and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

Chad and Brian finish off Radiant Terminus and talk about possible interpretation of the ending, whether anyone came out of this book OK, the balance between humor and horror, written vs. oral culture, possible readings or approaches to the novel, and a desire for a "Post-Exotic" journal. 

They also revisit Volodine's two-part series, "Post-Exotic Novels, Novelles, and Novelists" from The New Inquiry, and mention McKenzie Wark's "The October Revolution of Antoine Volodine."

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our YouTube channel the day before they’re released in podcast form. 

Season Eight will launch in mid-April (details TK) and will focus on Sjón's CoDex 1962. Get your copy now! 

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, Brian Wood, and Rachel Crawford for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season's music is all from Mother Earth's Plantasia by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear "A Mellow Mood for Maidenhair."

This is a jam-packed episode as Rachel Crawford joins Brian and Chad to talk about Kronauer's "trial," Hannko and Samiya in the Taiga, the lasting impact of PTSD, the post-post-apocalyptic world, Russian literature and French minimalism, New Jersey, and more. This is the penultimate episode of season seven, and sets up a lot of things to talk about next week, including these two articles by Volodine. 

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our YouTube channel the day before they’re released in podcast form. The next episode will be recorded live on Wednesday, March 20.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, Brian Wood, and Rachel Crawford for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season's music is all from Mother Earth's Plantasia by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear "You Don't Have to Walk a Begonia."

Chad and Brian go it alone through Kronauer's "night of amok" as he attempt to murder Solovyei for his myriad crimes. Then they enter into part four of the book, "Taiga," which is a collection of "narracts" set some seven hundred (or a thousand?) years in the future. Hannko is recreating the feminist post-exotic texts from before, along with her dad's crazy ramblings; Kronauer is living in oil, suffering the thousand-plus year punishment Solovyei promised him. Plus, Chad had another Volodine inspired dream . . . as did Brian! 

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our YouTube channel the day before they’re released in podcast form. The next episode will be recorded live on Wednesday, March 5.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood, and for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season's music is all from Mother Earth's Plantasia by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear "Swingin' Spathiphyllums."

With just Chad and Brian on this week's episode, the show turns almost full superhero. We get Chad's weirdly specific—and unnerving—Volodine-influenced dream. We get to see Samiya Schmidt transform into a raging version of Captain Marvel/Banshee. We get to see Kronauer assume his role as the one chosen to take down Solovyei. Brian and Chad also talk about the influence of language and ideologies on the characters, "cock's language" and "to rut," and speculate about just who is dreaming the dreamer.

As always, you can watch these episodes live on our YouTube channel the day before they’re released in podcast form. The next episode will be recorded live on Wednesday, March 5.

Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood, and for more thoughts on Volodine and literature in general, and for information about upcoming guests.

You can find all the Two Month Review posts by clicking here. And be sure to leave us a review on iTunes. It really helps people to discover the podcast.

This season's music is all from Mother Earth's Plantasia by Mort Garson, which is Moog music for plants. This week you can hear "Rhapsody in Green."