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, Curtis White, whose new book, Requiem, has recently

been published by the Dalkey Archive Press.

He is the author in chronological order of the novels and books of stories,

heretical songs, metaphysics in the Midwest,

the idea of home, anarcho Hindu,

memories of my father watching TV,

and his new book Requiem is in some ways a culmination of all of the earlier work involving the themes and forms that he's previously used in the process of writing, it seems to me, a Requiem himself for civilization.

And I thought it would be interesting to begin the show with a reading of the opening pages of Requiem.

I don't want too quickly to claim that this father is my guest, Kurt White's father,

and yet the temptation is strong.

No, it is this section in particular of the book is a sort of segue between members of my father watching TV and this book,

and it gives the father character

an opportunity to respond to rebut some of the claims of the, or some of the despair

of the, of memories.

But I would say also that the Carl character in memories is not just a typo for Earl, It's a combination of my name and my father's name.

So the character Carl in memories is not my father. It's a combination of some of my traits,

...