Literary Friction - New Beginnings With An Yu

Literary Friction

Arts

4.9 • 593 Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2020

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our first show of the year (and decade) is all about New Beginnings: from Virginia Woolf's novels to memoirs like Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun, we’ll look at books that feature rejuvenation, and think about why it's such fertile ground for storytelling. Joining us is author An Yu, whose thoughtful and surreal debut novel Braised Pork inspired the theme. It tells the story of Jia Jia, a young artist in contemporary Beijing who, after the abrupt death of her husband, must begin her life again. Listen in for our chat with An, who stopped by the studio to talk about starting over, the power of enigmatic symbols, and why we need stories to make sense of the world around us, plus all the usual recommendations. It’s good to be back! Recommendations on the theme, New Beginnings: Octavia: Days Without End by Sebastian Barry https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316782/days-without-end-by-sebastian-barry/ Carrie: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan https://serpentstail.com/washington-black.html General Recommendations: Octavia: Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/naoise-dolan/exciting-times/9781474613477/ Carrie: Kudos by Rachel Cusk https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571346646-kudos.html An: Village of Stone by Xiaolu Guo https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/103/1035933/village-of-stone/9780099459071.html Buy a tote! https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/758247545/literary-friction-canvas-tote-bag?ref=shop_home_active_1&crt=1 Email us: litfriction@gmail.com Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Literary Friction. I'm Carrie Plitt, here as always with my beautiful, wonderful, fabulous co-host, Octavia Bright.
0:21.8	Hi.
0:22.2	Hi.
0:23.6	I'm actually blushing.
0:25.2	Well, you always say nice adjectives about me in the minisodes, so I thought, you know,
0:29.7	I should express my love for you more.
0:31.9	Those were so many nice adjectives.
0:33.8	Well, they're all true.
0:35.5	Happy 2020, Octavia.
0:36.9	Happy 2020. It's a big change. New decade, new year.
0:40.7	I know it's wild. Are you feeling new? Very clear sighted. Just totally clear vision. That's what I'm
0:46.3	into. Great. Well, what a great coincidence because today on the show, we are going to be talking about new beginnings in literature.
0:56.9	Oh my God. Get out of here. I know. It's crazy, isn't it? It's so on point. What the fuck? How did we do that?
1:02.6	From the novels of Virginia Woolf to memoirs like Amy Liptrots, The Outrun, we'll look at books that feature rejuvenation and think about why it is such a fertile topic for storytelling.
1:12.3	Joining us is Anne Yu, whose hotly anticipated debut novel, Bray's Pork, has inspired our theme.
1:17.6	Bray's Pork is the story of a young artist in contemporary Beijing who finds her husband dead in their bathtub.
1:23.4	From there, she must begin her life again and travel to real and surreal places, including the mysterious world of water.
1:30.1	Octavia, do you want to introduce her?
1:31.9	Absolutely.
1:32.8	Anne Yu was born and raised in Beijing and left at the age of 18 to study in New York at NYU.
1:38.3	A graduate of the NYU MFA in creative writing, she writes her fiction in English.
1:42.7	She's 26 years old and she lives between
	...

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