Two Month Review

Kaija, Brian, and Chad reach “The Golden Notebook” inside of The Golden Notebook, and discuss the ways in which this novel push back against various interpretations, ways in which the world can break you, men and their microaggressions, men and their egotism and their I I I I, the ways in which this is and isn’t a feminist text, and more.

The next season starts on July 3rd and will feature Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell. The full schedule is available here.

After that, in September, season 28 will be about Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. Stay tuned for the reading schedule and information about the winter seasons!

This week’s music is “Rebuilding Year” by Hallelujah the Hills.

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive.

On this, the penultimate episode of the season, Kaija and Chad talk about Anna’s dissociation and dissolution, Saul Green and who he really is, narrative and societal traps, a room of one's own, and if Marion peacing out on her family makes her the most free woman in the book. They also realize mid-podcast the connection between the asterisked numbers the yellow and blue notebooks.

This week’s music is Steve Reich’s “Jacob’s Ladder: II. Vayachalom (And he dreamed)” performed by the New York Philharmonic.

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive.

In this episode, Kaija, Chad, and Brian talk about the really awful men in this book, along with fragmentation, fractals, and postmodernism talk as they struggle to remember which character is which (“is that Anna or Ella?”) and how to get a grasp on the whole of the novel. They also discuss placing things into firm categories, Jungian psychotherapy, grand narratives, and wonder: Will this novel end with a braiding together or a spinning apart?

This week’s music is “Schizophrenia” by Sonic Youth.

Next week’s episode will cover up to the start of “The Golden Notebook.”

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive.

In this section, Chad, Brian, and Kaija go over "Free Women: 3," asking if anyone is truly free, along with the next excerpt from the "Black Notebook," which includes a significant number of dead pigeons. They talk about the overall fragmentation of this novel, its specific non-linear approach, what's "real" and what's a literary game, the humor found in the book, and who exactly is James?

As Kaija calls out at the end of the podcast, the only possibility for this week’s music is “Kicking Pigeons” by [spunge].

Next week’s episode will cover up to the start of “Free Women: 4.”

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive.

In this new episode covering up to page 352 of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, Chad, Brian, and Kaija talk about the difficulty in keeping the various characters in the various notebooks straight—especially as the novel gets more recursive and hall of mirrors-like—the play with dates in the “Blue Notebook,” existential dread, fragmentation, and the breakdown of systems, how publishing works, the French, and more.

This week’s music is “Jump Out” by Ezra Furman.

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive.

Is The Golden Notebook just novels all the way down? Brian, Kaija, and Chad talk about the idea that the “Free Women” sections of the book are just another novel, that Anna Wulf is disgusted by everything and parodies it in her notebooks, about generational distrust, colors, musicals, and more. They don’t talk about how the ending of “Free Women: 2” is a perfect TV cliffhanger, leading directly into a discussion of TV adaptations . . .

This week’s music is “Drugstore Drastic” by Throwing Muses.

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive.

Chad, Kaija, and Brian finish off the first "part" of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook by looking at the Yellow Notebook (a novel called "The Shadow of the Third") and the Blue one (dreams, psychoanalysis, and newspaper clippings). They talk about the names, the constant doubling, the assumptions of what is "real" and what is "fiction," how men are awful, and more.

This week’s music is “National Anthem” by Radiohead.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive.

Brian returns this podcast to talk about his initial thoughts, especially as they relate to postmodernism and fragmentation. In the rest of the episode Chad, Kaija, and Brian discuss Anna’s first entry in her “Black Notebook,” which focuses on the time she spent in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with her socialist friends, which is the material she remixed into her novel, Frontiers of War. Also: Go Timberwolves!

This week’s music is “The Turning Ground” by The Tara Clerkin Trio.

Next week’s episode will cover up to page 242 (up to “Free Women: 2”). You can find the complete reading schedule here.

All previous seasons of TMR are available on our YouTube channel (this episode can be found here) and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive.

This new season kicks off with a bit of an overview of Doris Lessing’s career and some of her fun quotes. Then, after getting into her 1971 introduction to The Golden Notebook (one of the best intros ever), Chad and Kaija dive into the first 80 pages, in which we’re introduced to Anna, Molly, Richard, and Tommy, along with the “Black Notebook.”

This week’s music is “Communist Daughter” by Neutral Milk Hotel.

All previous seasons of TMR are available on our YouTube channel (this episode can be found here) and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive.

Chad—the world’s biggest Kathy Acker stan?—Brian, and Kaija finish up their discussion of Kathy Acker’s Empire of the Senseless looking for possibly pathways to a better life, such as, becoming a pirate or joining a motorcycle game. They talk about Acker’s work as a map, they discuss the three-part structure, and, finally, Huckleberry Finn appears, tying this book back into James . . .

They also announce the next three seasons of the Two Month Review. All the information will be posted next week, but as a bit of a teaser, Season 26 features a Nobel Prize winner, Season 27 won the International Man Booker, and Season 27 is a never-ending battle.

This week’s music is “A Prayer for All Sailors” from the collaboration The Mekons did with Kathy Acker—an album based on her novel, Pussy, King of the Pirates.

All previous seasons of TMR are available on our YouTube channel (this episode can be found here) and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. Please rate and review! It helps more than you know.

Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests.

Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive podcast here: Apple, Spotify. This week’s episode was an interview with Edy Poppy (Anatomy. Monotony., Coming. Apart.) and her translator (who also translates Jon Fosse), May-Brit Akerholt. Next week, Chad and Vince Francone discuss Eileen Battersby’s Teethmarks on My Tongue.