669 Obsessed with Melville (with Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder) | My Last Book with Alexander Poots

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What happens when a woman becomes obsessed with Herman Melville during the pandemic? What if the process of sorting fact from fiction in Melville's work inspires a midlife reckoning with her own marriage and ambition? And what if she (a poet) and her husband (a novelist, by the way) write a book about all of it? Well, the result would be something like Dayswork: A Novel, which has been called "a supremely literate achievement that wears its erudition lightly." In this episode, Jacke talks to the poet and her novelist husband, Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder, about what Melville means to them. PLUS Alexander Boots (The Strangers' House: Writing Northern Ireland) discusses his choice for the last book he will ever read. Additional listening suggestions: 513 The Writers of Northern Ireland with Alexander Poots 481 Moby-Dick: 10 Essential Questions (Part One) 482 Moby-Dick: 10 Essential Questions (Part Two) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network and Lit Hub Radio.
0:09.2	Hello, we begin our show today with a pair of quotes.
0:13.0	Quote, a curious, heady cocktail of a quarantine novel that feels like a buoyant literary memoir,
0:19.9	a surprising and exhilarating inquiry into the pleasures
0:23.4	and pitfalls of literature, obsession, collaboration, and love, all relayed with piquant wit and thrilling
0:31.9	insight. End quote. That's Donna Seaman, writing in book list.
0:38.4	The next quote is from Alexander Chee, who says simply, quote,
0:42.3	A love letter to literature.
0:45.2	A love letter to literature.
0:48.1	Well, naturally, we're looking forward to hearing more about that.
0:51.5	So how about this?
0:53.0	A woman, a poet, dives into the ocean. That is Herman Melville,
0:58.4	his life and his works, and as she's submerged, she undergoes a midlife reckoning into her own
1:05.4	marriage and ambition. Then she turns that experience into a novel slash memoir that she co-writes with her novelist husband.
1:14.7	And as if that's not enough, the two of them join a podcast to talk about it.
1:20.3	This podcast, the humble little podcast.
1:23.8	Jennifer Hable and Chris Batchelder discuss Herman Melville, the people he inspired, and their book Dayswork.
1:32.1	Today on the history of literature.
1:39.1	Music Okay, here we go. Welcome to the podcast. I'm Jack Wilson. Thank you for joining me. If you write a novel about Herman Melville,
1:55.7	and it comes time for that book to be reviewed, well, you could do worse than have Donna Seaman, S-E-A-M-A-N, as your reviewer.
2:05.6	A nice harmony of the spheres there. Sailor McShipman apparently had the day off. Okay, we're
2:11.6	rolling through January, aren't we? Rolling and rolling. Today, maybe I should say rowing,
	...

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