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.

Hello and welcome to Bookworm. I'm Michael Silverblatt, and today my guest is Mona Simpson.

We're here to talk about her new novella called Off Keck Road, published by Knopf. She's the author

as well of the novels anywhere but here, the Lost Father and a regular guy.

Now, we've spoken about those novels on the show.

And for some reason, I feel that this is your most sustained and integrated novel.

Do you feel that way about it?

How does it rank about in your estimation of your own work?

Oh, it's funny.

Of course, I should say that I think it's my best or whatever.

But as the publisher would want one to one's latest work,

no, I like it very much.

To me, it was, it doesn't feel like a novel to me.

I really think it's a novella.

I feel it's a shorter piece for me.

And it was, I'm very fond of it,

but it was very easy for me relatively to write.

It wasn't sort of a five-year internal battle or struggle.

...