Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. It's hard to describe exactly what

kind of book the Paul Bear's Club is. It's kind of a thriller, kind of a horror book, but it's

written like a memoir, but with another character, sometimes inserting themselves into it.

It's actually all kind of hard to make sense of.

Author Paul Tremblay says that's intentional.

A way to communicate how squishy and malleable our memories and experiences really are.

He talked to NPR's Shannon Bond about it, and seeing as this story does take place in the 80s,

he makes a strong point against nostalgia.

On this week's Wildcard podcast, Nick Offerman says when he fell in love with his wife, Megamaliy, he couldn't believe it.

It was like if Merrill Streep or something showed up, where it's just like, I think I'm Merrill Streep and I are in love.

But that doesn't seem possible or right.

Watch or listen to that wildcard conversation on the NPR app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A new novel with chapter titles taken from the songs of the punk rock group Husker Doe begins like this.

I am not Art Barbara.

That is not my birth name.

But at the risk of contradicting myself within the first few lines of a memoir, I am Art

Barbara.

And a few pages later, a critique inserted into the memoir from his best and only friend.

Art Barbara.

Jesus, dude. What is Mercy's beef with that name,

Art Barbara? To be fair, art sort of goes on for like a page about its pronunciation, particularly with a Boston accent. How would he say it with that Boston accent? Art Barbara.

But I think Mercy's more, or her problem more with it is just that he's renaming himself for the

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