We welcome special guest Helen McClory this week, who traveled all the way from Scottland to make us discuss the new novel by Rachel B. Glaser, Paulina & Fran , about an art-school social circle revolving around a woman perhaps most charitably described as "difficult." McClory tells us why she loves problem characters, and books that explore relationships between women. She also talks about her school days in Scottland, her obsession with monsters--and with weird American food--and we ask he...
Sep 07, 2015•1 hr 13 min
This week's story is one of Tom's favorites, which he teaches often as an antidote to his usual depressing fare. Though it's debatable whether D'Ambrosio's story of a man caring for his psychologically troubled son is really a happy one? We talk about whether "reading as a writer" ruins your understanding of what non-writers might want to read. We also talk about some of history's (and pop culture's) worst dads. And we take a question from a listener about whether the way a person falls in love ...
Aug 31, 2015•55 min
Duras wrote this short, 110-page novel late in her career, in 1984, claiming it was "purely autobiographical," which created a bit of a scandal in certain corners, since the plot revolves around an affair a 15-year-old girl carries on with a 27-year-old man in what was then French Indochina. We talk about the perhaps unconventional power dynamics of that romantic relationship, Duras's mother and brothers, who also feature heavily in the book, and short novels more generally. We also see if we ca...
Aug 24, 2015•59 min
This week we revisit a story about adultery from Lorrie Moore's debut story collection, Self-Help . We talk about Moore's strengths as a story writer, the relative ethics of adultery, and why we both use Moore's work in our classes. Also this week: we answer a question from a listener about their upcoming nuptials, and we learn about whether pets can, in fact, love their owners. For more, as always, you can visit us online at bookfightpod.com ....
Aug 17, 2015•1 hr
Tom tries to get Mike to enjoy some science fiction, and Mike says: no, thank you. We discuss predictions of the future, annoying robots, 90s slang, and information overload. Also this week, a new edition of Fan Fiction Corner, featuring a very sexy story set in the Nintendo universe. For more, including links to things we talked about in the show, visit us online at bookfightpod.com .
Aug 10, 2015•1 hr 11 min
Ths week we're discussing the David Sedaris story, "I Like Guys," from his book Naked . You can listen to an audio recording of Sedaris reading the story here, via This American Life . We also talk about America's favorite TV couples, and how much bickering in a relationship is too much. Plus a new theme song, and advice for children! For more, visit us online at bookfight.com ....
Aug 03, 2015•1 hr 1 min
On this week's episode things get real: after reading Sarah Hepola's recent memoir we're prompted to discuss our own drinking habits, and whether we should be concerned about them. We also talk about the book itself, which recounts Hepola's own arc of addiction and eventual recovery, focusing on her frequent blackouts, which often had her attempting to reconstruct an evening's potentially embarrassing events the next morning. Hepola also considers the gendered nature of addiction narratives, and...
Jul 27, 2015•1 hr 9 min
This week we're discussing George Saunders, generous humor vs mean-spirited humor, computer and online dating, and top wedding songs. Also, Tom talks about a lady he dated who isn't his wife! And Mike talks about whether love is or is not for the birds.
Jul 20, 2015•1 hr 7 min
This 1990 book is something of a cult classic, one many people first read in their teenage years, though neither of us ever did. So we're reading it now, for the first time, and trying to figure out why it's so beloved by its many, many fans. We talk about the book's humor, and whether it's suitable for adults. We try to figure out whether it's a satire and, if so, what exactly it's satirizing. We probably alienate some of our fans. Oh, and we s**t on Goonies a little, too, just for good measure...
Jul 13, 2015•1 hr 14 min
This week we're kicking off our new seasonal feature, the Summer of Love, with what is supposedly the first story with gay characters to appear in the New Yorker (in 1974). The story was also the first story publication for Allan Gurganus, who is perhaps best known as the author of the novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. We talk about the story's interesting point-of-view shifts, and how it handles a difficult father-son relationship. In light of the recent Supreme Court decision on...
Jul 06, 2015•1 hr 6 min
We welcome guest Asali Solomon, author of the new novel Disgruntled , to talk about Marlon James's 2009 The Book of Night Women . James's novel is about a Jamaican sugar plantation around the turn of the 18th century, and the lives of its enslaved people, particularly Lilith, a young woman who is sent to work in the slavemaster's house after fending off a would-be rapist. Solomon talks about why the novel stands out among neo-slave narratives, and why she considers it "a bad-ass book." We also t...
Jun 29, 2015•1 hr 13 min
Our final installment in the Spring of Spite, and we've got a story that is spiteful in two ways. The story's narrator is almost certainly motivated by spite, and it would seem that Poe himself was drawing on some spiteful feelings when writing it. Also this week: Bobby Flay's spiteful divorce, Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, and why aren't there better contemporary lit feuds? For more, including links to this week's story, and other things we talked about, visit us online at bookfightpod.com . ...
Jun 22, 2015•1 hr 9 min
Paul Beatty's latest book, The Sellout , has been getting great press, described as a game-changing satire on race in America. We talk about whether the novel lives up to that high praise, and debate how to categorize its humor. We also talk about the audience for satire, and whether satire can truly change a person's perspective. In the second half of the show we've got another installment of Fan Fiction Corner, in which Mike shares some sexy fanfic he found about President Obama's intimate lif...
Jun 15, 2015•1 hr 11 min
This week's spiteful story is "A Poetics for Bullies," which Stanley Elkin has described as the best story he ever wrote. In it, Push the Bully comes up against his greatest challenge: a new kid beloved by his classmates and seemingly impervious to Push's efforts to take him down a peg. We've also got stories this week about Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer, two grown men who did not particularly care for each other! For more, including links to some of the feud-related stuff we talked about on the ...
Jun 08, 2015•1 hr 10 min
This week's discussion centers on a genre-bending book by Maggie Nelson, an unconventional memoir and a treatise on perception, pain, love and loss, and the color blue. Bluets came out in 2009 and has become a real touchstone for some writers of both creative nonfiction and poetry. We also talk about Tom's recent trip to Italy, his hatred of Romans, and Mike's growing hatred of online user reviews. For more, visit us online at bookfightpod.com ....
Jun 01, 2015•1 hr 5 min
This week we're reading an essay by Harlan Ellison called " The Three Most Important Things in Life ," which was suggested to us by a listener who said we couldn't talk about spite without talking about Ellison. We talk about whether we buy the essay's details, whether Ellison is self-aware as a narrator, and whether it's a good or bad idea to tell dirty jokes on your first day at a new job. We also discuss some of Ellison's own spiteful behavior, and his super-janky website . Plus: another auth...
May 25, 2015•1 hr 5 min
This week is another donor pick, Donald Antrim's first novel, which presents a kind of dystopic view of an American suburb, one where people build moats around their houses and a town mayor is drawn and quartered. We talk about the limits of irony, and whether this book, published in the mid-90s, should be considered prescient. We've also got another installment of Fan Fiction Corner, this one featuring a couple surprising pairings. For more, as always, you can visit us online at bookfightpod.co...
May 18, 2015•58 min
For this installment of the Spring of Spite we read a few selections from Bernhard's collection MY PRIZES, which includes essays about his experiences with prize ceremonies and some speeches he delivered at those ceremonies. There's plenty of Bernhardian spite to go around: for other writers, for his home country of Austria, for the idea of literary prizes in the first place. We've also got stories this week about some neighbors who took their spite to the next level, as well as another literary...
May 11, 2015•58 min
This week we're reading (part of) this famous work of natural history from the early 19th century. Alexander von Humboldt traveled extensively in Latin America and recorded all sorts of stuff: geology, plant life, animal life, interactions with the natives, water temperatures, and speculation abou tcontinental drift. The book, a donor pick from our winter fundraising, is sort of a departure from our normal reading, but we're always happy to try new things outside our normal comfort zones. Also t...
May 04, 2015•56 min
Week two in our Spring of Spite, and we're reading a delightfully odd Flannery O'Connor story called "Enoch and the Gorilla," about a man who is very excited to insult a famous ape. Though things don't turn out how he planned! We also talk about spiteful wills and obituaries, spiteful paleontologists who basically made careers out of hating each other, and the long-running feud between H.G. Wells and Henry James. Note: This version of the episode fixes an audio issue around minute 46 in the prev...
Apr 27, 2015•1 hr 7 min
This week's book is an unconventional memoir: in 300 short, numbered sections, Waldie investigates the origins of his hometown, a suburb outside of Los Angeles considered the Levittown of Southern California, as well as his own life there and the lives of his parents. We talk about the book's unusual construction, and how it creates connections and meaning through surprising juxtapositions. Also this week: the triumphant return of Fan Fiction Corner! For more, visit us online at bookfightpod.com...
Apr 20, 2015•1 hr 12 min
Welcome to your first installment in the Spring of Spite! This week we're reading a Richard Yates story, "Oh Joseph, I'm So Tired," which paints a pretty rough portrait of the author's mother and her failed attempts at artistic (and social) relevance. We also talk about the science of spite, and the phenomeon of "spite houses" and "spite fences." Finally, Tom gives Mike a spite-related quiz, though several of the questions are obviously flawed and not accurate measures of actual spitefulness, wh...
Apr 13, 2015•1 hr 10 min
This week is a Tom pick, by a writer who is Mexico's greatest novelist, if the blurb on the front cover is true. The novel--Herrera's only, so far, to be translated into English--follows a young woman named Makina as she crosses the border into the United States in search of her brother. We talk about the book's attempt to thread the needle between realism and fabulism, as well as one of its translator's more difficult decisions. In the second half of the show, we've got a long-awaited update on...
Apr 06, 2015•1 hr 7 min
It's our last Winter of Wayback episode before we have to finally admit that spring has sprung. This week we're traveling to 1916, where we read a P.G. Wodehouse story ("Jeeves Takes Charge"). We also talk about art manifestos, and speculate about why there aren't any these days. Other topics covered include: elephant executions, the most lopsided college football game of all time, terrorist acts, taxes, and the early years of Piggly Wiggly. You can read the Wodehouse story at this link: " Jeeve...
Mar 30, 2015•1 hr 15 min
This week's book is an addiction and recovery memoir by celebrated journalist David Carr, who recently lost a battle with cancer (after surviving lymphoma, as detailed in the book). Carr takes an unusual vector through his own drug-fueled past, employing the skills he learned as a journalist to interview friends, family, colleagues and lovers, in an attempt to piece together an account of his own life more objective than what he could glean from memory alone. In the second half of the show, we d...
Mar 23, 2015•1 hr 10 min
A bit of a reading detour this week as we take up two stories from pulp writer Robert E. Howard, who invented both Conan the Barbarian and Sailor Steve Costigan, the sailor who loved to fight. We also talk about the origins of both Goofy and Betty Boop, Australia's "emu war," and Olympian/professional golfer Babe Didrikson. Everything you ever wanted to know about 1932! For more, including video clips of cartoons and other stuff we talked about, visit us online at bookfightpod.com ....
Mar 16, 2015•1 hr 17 min
We're joined this week by Dave Housley (author of the new story collection If I Knew The Way, I Would Take You Home ) to discuss Nathan Rabin's 2013 book investigating the cult followings of both Phish and Insane Clown Posse. The book tracks Rabin's experiences at several Phish shows and the annual Gathering of the Juggalos, as well as his near-breakdown during what sounds like a pretty rough year. We also talk about Dave's obsession with aliens, and his Twitter friendship with several members o...
Mar 09, 2015•1 hr 31 min
This week we're traveling back to 1944, reading a Raymond Chandler essay about what makes a good story, and talking about various events not related to D-Day, because we're pretty sure that's been covered at this point. Instead we'll tell you about the origins of the Chiquita Banana song, a racially motivated labor strike in Philadelphia, Paul McCartney's lesser-known musician brother, and Miss America 1944's later career as a finger-wagger and gun owner. For more, including links to some of the...
Mar 02, 2015•1 hr 10 min
This week we're reading the breakout 2001 book by French writer Emmanuel Carrere, a true-crime story about a man who killed his wife, children, and parents after living a life of, as the book's subtitle has it, "monstrous deception." We talk about the line between drama and sensationalism, and speculate about what goes on in the heads of pathological liars. In the second half of the show we talk about a Paris Review interview with Carrere in which he talks about why In Cold Blood is a fundamenta...
Feb 23, 2015•1 hr 3 min
This week we've set the Wayback Machine to 1894: We're reading a Kate Chopin story and talking about phonographs, anarchists, and shooting your guns into the air as if you didn't particularly care (about gun safety). For more, including links to some of what we talked about in the episode (including this week's story) visit us online at bookfightpod.com . We're also still fundraising! So check out our Indiegogo page and give us some of your hard-earned money....
Feb 16, 2015•1 hr 11 min
