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 Silverblad, and this is bookworm.

I'm about to re-air an interview that took place 13 years ago.

It's with someone who became a close friend and who died recently, Susan Sontak. At the time of this interview,

she was in a state of ecstasy because she felt she had been reborn as a novelist. The novel was

the volcano lover. It was really an extraordinary event because she felt that the book was passionate and even fiery.

It was her rebirth as someone who was moving beyond the coldness that characterized the essay she felt.

This was the conversation that initiated a friendship that lasted to her death.

I wanted to begin by talking about what kind of book The Volcano Lover is because much of what

I've been reading about it doesn't seem to correspond to my experience of it.

It doesn't correspond to my experience either, Mike.

I took it to be a kind of fantasia on received materials

that the romance of Emma, Lord Nelson, and Lord Hamilton

is a kind of given around which many interpretations and styles are woven.

Well, that's true for the way it started, but I have to admit that I did get caught up in the story.

Maybe that's why it's reaching so many readers.

I did get caught up in the story on a gut level.

And maybe I started off by thinking,

...