Best Of: Zadie Smith / Maria Bamford

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2023

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Zadie Smith talks about her new book, The Fraud. It's a historical novel, but its themes of gender inequality, class, and the enduring damages of slavery, are very connected to the present.

David Bianculli reviews the new Apple+ series The Changeling, starring LaKeith Stanfield.

Comic Maria Bamford's new memoir, Sure, I'll Join Your Cult, is about the lengths she's taken to fit in — from self-help books, to 12-step programs — and why making fun of her anxiety, depression, and OCD has been a powerful medicine.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the WHYY in Philadelphia, I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air Weekend.
0:07.0	Today, Zady Smith, she's known for her essays and novels about contemporary life and art,
0:13.2	including the novels White Teeth and Unbeauty.
0:16.3	Her new book, The Fraud, is a historical novel, but its themes of gender inequality, class,
0:22.2	the literary life, and the enduring damages of slavery are very connected to the present.
0:28.5	Zady Smith will hear from comic Maria Bamford.
0:30.9	She's written a new memoir called, Sure, I'll Join Your Cult, in which she describes
0:35.4	the length she's taken to fit in, from self-help books to 12-step programs, and why making
0:40.9	fun of her anxiety, depression, and OCD has been a powerful medicine.
0:46.7	And TV Critic David Biancoulli will review the new Apple TV Plus series, The Changeling,
0:52.3	Starring the Keith Standfield.
0:55.4	She's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend.
1:01.0	This is Fresh Air Weekend, I'm Terry Gross.
1:04.0	Our first guest, Zady Smith, writes novels and essays about contemporary life and popular
1:09.9	culture.
1:10.9	She said she'd been prejudiced against historical novels, but she's just written one, set
1:15.8	in Victorian England.
1:17.4	It's called The Fraud.
1:19.2	At its center is the years-long trial that ended in 1873 of a butcher who claimed to
1:24.8	be Sir Roger Tickborn, the missing heir to the Tickborn estate and the title of baronette.
1:31.1	A witness who testified on his behalf, Andrew Bogle, had been enslaved on a sugar plantation
1:36.6	in Jamaica, which was then a British colony.
	...

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