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Otherppl with Brad Listi

Episode 401 — Hanya Yanagihara

Otherppl with Brad Listi

Brad Listi

Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.8554 Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2016

⏱️ 78 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hanya Yanagihara is the guest. Her novel A Little Life was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award, and it is now available in trade paperback from Anchor Books. I feel like A Little Life is having the kind of existence that pretty much all writers hope their books will have. It seems to provoke passionate responses. The people who love it really fucking love it and the people who hate it are incensed by it and there are way more people who love it than hate it. You can't ask for much more than that. Hanya was only in town for a day and pretty solidly booked but she found an hour to come over and talk with me, and for that I'm grateful. I learned a lot from her. She knows her shit, and she really fought hard for her novel. She fought hard to see her vision of this book realized, and she's protective of it in a way that seems both smart and endearing. Also: it paid off huge. Few works of literary fiction strike a nerve the way this book has struck a nerve. Also: it's 700 pages long and she wrote it in 18 months. Also: she doesn't own a cell phone. In today's monologue, I give a quick update on the health of my son and share news about some appearances I'll be making during AWP here in Los Angeles in April.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:33.7

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0:49.9

with them. Go and get some. Oh my God.

0:54.4

You are not alone.

0:56.6

You have found other people.

1:00.2

You and I have a friend in common.

1:02.6

Every stupid thing that a writer could do I've done.

1:05.4

I think it's really beautiful.

1:07.0

Jesus, did it what a struggle, you know?

1:09.4

It was incredible.

1:10.6

You know, it's like your head exploded, seeing what was really there. And now here's your host, Brad Listy. Just one person and just one time. All right, everybody, here we go again. This is it. This is other people. This is me in a rapidly expanding desert. This is you temporarily forgetting where you are. How's it going out there? What's happening? My name's Brad Listy. I'm in Los Angeles, California. It's nice to be with you. Thank you for tuning in.

1:31.3

Today, temporarily forgetting where you are. How's it going out there? What's happening? My name's Brad Listey. I'm in Los Angeles, California. It's nice to be with you. Thank you for tuning in. Today on the program, Hanya Yanagi Hara, is my guest. Her novel, A Little Life, was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award. It is now available in trade paperback from anchor books and I will be talking with Hanya momentarily. Here at the outset a quick update on my

1:47.0

Sun River, he's doing in trade paperback from anchor books and I will be talking with Hanya momentarily here at the

1:45.8

outset a quick update on my son River he's doing well the MRI came back it sort of said what we

1:51.5

thought it was going to say we've got to do some physical therapy on his left arm we've got to

1:56.4

keep an eye on him cognitively we have to be willing to live in uncertainty. We're thinking positively.

...

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