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.

Today I'm happy to have as my guest, Chuck Palinick, who has published both a new novel diary Diary from Doubleday, and a essentially very personal kind of tour

guide called fugitives and refugees to Portland, the city, that he, as well as Catherine Dunn,

have made famous in literature. That one is published by Crown. Now, there's a real interesting

thing that happens in diary, which is that by the end of the book, the person who's written

it is barely there and, you know, has assumed a different name, and she's practically been

milked of art by an adoring sort of public

who want to save themselves economically. And I thought, yeah, it's very interesting,

the phenomenon of an artist having that kind of demand, save us, placed on her. And I wondered,

you know, you've been doing book, book, book. Have you been feeling this way, too?

I really haven't noticed that, but, you know, you could be right. But if anybody's placing that sort of a

demand on me, it is, it is me. I always think if I, if I don't get at least one book a year,

I'm not working hard enough. It was just, you know, diary, it was just a blast to do. It was

really a fun book to write, even though it's a very dark book, because

it's a kind of dark, fun stuff that Ira Levin used to do. And I really adored his books, Rosemary's

baby, step for wives, and the way that he could take a metaphor and really allow us to be with a social

issue, like abortion, that we could not be with, you know, at that time.

...