The book podcasts continue to amuse and inform. Here are some recent finds. See the sidebar for links.
On The Book Show (ABC, the national broadcasting network of Australia) Ramona Koval interviewed John O'Brien of the Dalkey Archive Press located in Illinois. The Dalkey Archive states its mission: "Since 1984, Dalkey Archive Press has made available to readers the finest works of world literature from the past 100 years. The intention of the Press is to serve as a permanent home for these works, so that they will continue to be read by present and future generations."
Their catalog contains, in addition to some old favorites, author after author that I've always meant to read but never quite got around to. Aside from the books on offer, the database of author interviews at the Dalkey Archive web site merits a visit. I will not spill the content of the radio show, but how many readers of literary fiction do you think there are in the United States? O'Brien's estimate was surprising.
On the Selected Shorts program for the week of October 13 - October 19, Stockard Channing read Eudora Welty's, "Why I Live at the P.O.," a great story read by a brilliant interpreter. I think of Stockard Channing as the bad girl in Grease, but she has, of course, had an illustrious stage career. This reading would be a good place for Yanks who say they do not "get" Eudora Welty to give her another try. Sharp character sketch, atmospheric realism, rapid dialog, humor, and as southern as fried catfish.
I am delighted to see that Selected Shorts will feature a Laurie Colwin story this week, "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant," and later in the season there will be readings of stories by Rick Bass and Mary Gordon, two contemporary masters of the form. I was underwhelmed by Sherman Alexie's Flight, published in 2007, although his early stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, had left me jumping up and down with enthusiasm. I need to listen to last week's reading of an Alexie story on Selected Shorts to see if I can learn to hear his writer's voice again.
Not that there's any danger of my running out of Proust any time soon, but the question of what writer could possibly follow Proust was answered this week by The Writers' Block podcast: Rilke! M. Allen Cunningham reads from his "fictional biography" of Rilke, Lost Son (Unbridled Books, 2007). The reading led to my ordering Looking Back, the memoir of Lou Andreas-Salomé, the psychoanalyst who included among her friends Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud, and Rilke. Then after reading some Rilke, I may get back to Cunningham's book. David Lodge's treatment of Henry James in Author, Author whetted my appetite for other historical novels based on literary figures.
2 comments:
I love Ramona Koval's Book Show on ABC but I haven't yet listened to the program you mention in your post. The most recent one I heard was the debate on the authorship of "Frankenstein". Some experts that have studied the writings of Percy and Mary Shelly are convinced the writing in Frankenstein is far too superior to belong to 19-year old Mary. It was a fascinating debate.
She's been covering books for Australian radio for years, apparently, but I only recently discovered her. Her topical approach to book sets the program apart. Instead of just doing author interviews, or just doing book reviews, she's kind of all over the place and on top of the book news. She sometimes includes books outside my reading range, but most of the time the shows cover topics of interest, including books I would not have heard of otherwise.
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