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, you're listening to Bookworm, and I'm Michael Salfablad.

Today we're taping at the Museum of Television and Radio in Manhattan

in order to be face-to-face with my guest, Gilbert Sorrentino.

This is the first part of a two-part conversation.

Gilbert Sorrentino is the author of two books that have appeared recently.

One is Little Casino, which is just out from Coffee House Press.

The other has been out for a bit called Gold Fools

and it's published by Sun and Moon. Between Coffee House Press, green integer, which is the

imprint of Sun and Moon, and Donkey Archive Press, a good bit of Sorrentino is available in print. Now, I wanted to begin by

talking about Little Casino. It's the newest book. And I think that to hear the epigraph from

Rabein-Pange would be a very good way of starting the conversation.

Pangeet is a French writer. He was one of the members of the French new novel, and his novels

all proceed by very unusual strategies.

When you look through binoculars,

you are holding an instrument of precision,

and you see very clearly a small cabin,

which would seem quite indistinct without the binoculars.

...