212. Jonathan Lethem

Otherppl with Brad Listi

Brad Listi

Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.8 • 554 Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2013

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jonathan Lethem is the guest. His latest novel, Dissident Gardens, is now available from Doubleday. The Los Angeles Times raves "Lethem is as ambitious as Mailer, as funny as Philip Roth and as stinging as Bob Dylan...Dissident Gardens shows Lethem in full possession of his powers as a novelist, as he smoothly segues between historical periods and internal worlds...Erudite, beautifully written, wise, compassionate, heartbreaking and pretty much devoid of nostalgia." And Booklist, in a starred review, says "Lethem extends his stylistically diverse, loosely aligned, deeply inquiring saga of New York City (Motherless Brooklyn, 1999; The Fortress of Solitude, 2003; Chronic City, 2009) with a richly saturated, multigenerational novel about a fractured family of dissidents headquartered in Queens...Lethem is breathtaking in this torrent of potent voices, searing ironies, pop-culture allusions, and tragicomic complexities. He shreds the folk scene, eviscerates quiz shows, pays bizarre tribute to Archie Bunker, and offers unusual perspectives on societal debates and tragic injustices. A righteous, stupendously involving novel about the personal toll of failed political movements and the perplexing obstacles to doing good." Monologue topics: travel, the flu, walking, the homeless guy who asked me for my email address Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Premier League is exciting.
0:04.0	It's exhilarating.
0:07.0	And sometimes it's...
0:11.0	So when you need something to help you ride the highest and loads of all that action,
0:17.0	grab a coat to keep you in the game.
0:20.0	Time to refresh.
0:21.8	Time for a Coke.
0:23.8	Coca-Cola, official partner of the Premier League.
0:29.8	Hey, everybody.
0:31.0	This episode of Other People is sponsored by Words After War.
0:35.3	Words After War is an emerging literary organization with a mission to offer fully funded
0:40.1	opportunities for veterans, their families, and civilian supporters to share their stories.
0:46.1	Words after war aims to build a supportive, creative community through writing workshops,
0:51.5	studio retreats, and literary mentorships.
0:54.9	The organization was co-founded by writers and longtime friends Brandon Willits and Mike McGrath,
1:00.3	who aimed to change the national conversation around veterans' issues by including civilians
1:05.6	in that conversation.
1:07.4	Their first writing workshop launches this fall in Brooklyn, New York, at Mello Page's Library, and it's open to both veterans and civilians.
1:15.8	The workshop will be led by writer and veteran Matt Gallagher, a former army captain, and the author of the Iraq War memoir, Kaboom.
1:25.6	Matt is also a co-editor and contributor to fire and forget short stories
1:30.9	from the long war. Both of these books are published by DeCapo Press. For more information,
1:37.0	go to www.W.W. Words afterwar.org. That's words afterwar.org. That's words after war. Dot org.
	...

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