Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Santa Monica, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

I'm pleased to have as my guest, August Kleinzaller.

He's the author most recently of Cuddy One Rock, Low Characters Places Gently Explained is its subtitle.

It's published by Faris-Drowson-Juru.

It's a book of mostly autobiographical essays.

There's a selected poems of sorts live from the Hong Kong Nile Club,

which I remember reading was a misseen neon sign, live from the Hong Kong night club, which he said would be of no interest whatsoever.

The previous book of poems, The Strange Hours, Travelers Keep, as well as red sauce, whiskey, and snow.

Green sees things in waves.

These are the books that are published by Faris Strauss and Giroux.

Now, tell me, how did the essay writing begin?

Well, in stages, the, I think the earliest one in that book was the movie review of leaving Las Vegas. And that's actually how

the book began, because Jonathan Galassi, the editor-in-chief

there, his assistant at the time, had read the review in the three-penny review and gotten a

kick out of it and had become a fan of what he thought was a body of work that really didn't exist.

And he subsequently became an editor there and pushed for a collection.

And during that time, I had begun writing more extended essays for the London Review of books.

...