Unburied Books

We discuss Patrick Hamilton's 1947 novel The Slaves of Solitude with Spinster September creator Nora. The story concerns Miss Roach, an unmarried woman scraping through WWII on the outskirts of London. The episode covers the meaning of spinsterdom, Hamilton's black humor, and how crisis skews perspective.

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We test Dylan's theory that all stories can be classified as either an Iliad or Odyssey by going through the list of NYRB Classics that we've covered. 

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Author, journalist, and critic Renata Adler joins us in person for a discussion of her novels Speedboat and Pitch Dark, both reprinted as NYRB Classics. We also talk about her career in journalism, reactions to criticism, and thoughts on persona.

In this episode, we break from our usual format and discuss a recent "literary" road trip through New England. We share our thoughts on the Moby-Dick-centrism of Herman Melville's Arrowhead and on Edith Wharton's humble writer's retreat The Mount, which could reasonably accomodate a pod of whales, not to mention Henry James, Howard Sturgis, and friends. In Lennox, we run into the owner of The Bookstore, who was recently the subject of a bittersweet documentary entitled Hello, Bookstore.

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Critic Merve Emre joins us to discuss Oğuz Atay's short story collection Waiting for the Fear, newly translated from Turkish by Ralph Hubbell. These eight stories, inflected with humor and dread, deal with characters on the margins of society. We talk about the theme of alienation, Atay's relationship to Russian literature, and why so many of the stories take the form of letters.

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Critic Steven Moore joins us to discuss his two-volume alternative history of the novel. He refutes popular claims that the novel is a European invention and tells us why constant innovation is the form's true tradition.

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Link to pre-order The Adventures of Lady Egeria: https://sublunaryeditions.com/products/the-adventures-of-lady-egeria

Writer and Portuguese translator Padma Viswanathan joins us to discuss her translation of São Bernardo by Graciliano Ramos. The book follows the story of Paulo Honório, an enterprising field hand who goes on to own the land where he once toiled. We talk about finding the narrator's voice, the many layers of irony, and Graciliano's political perspective.

Read more about our guest's work here: https://padmaviswanathan.com/

Read one of the author's municipal reports: https://lithub.com/how-to-break-in-to-publishing-if-youre-a-smalltown-brazilian-mayor-in-the-1930s/

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Chinese translator Canaan Morse returns to explain how Eliot Weinberger's critical (and often cutting) analysis can help us see classical writing in new ways.

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Dylan and Kassia return to discuss Castle Gripsholm written by Kurt Tucholsky and translated from German by Michael Hofmann. The novel tells the story of "the Princess" and her lover on holiday in Sweden. It's a simple summertime fairy tale ... or is it? We talk about metafiction, love and friendship, and the book's sly critique of 1930s Germany.

The Last Sane Woman review: https://therumpus.net/2024/07/16/the-archive-as-potters-field-hannah-regels-the-last-sane-woman/

NYRB Classics film adaptations list: https://letterboxd.com/greenchile42/list/nyrb-classics/

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Dylan and Kassia read Strange Pilgrims, a short story collection suggested by a listener.

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