The Story of America, Pt. 3

Bookworm

KCRW

Arts

4.5 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Prolific author Dave Eggers, founder of McSweeney's, co-founder of 826 National, and other significant projects, first met Micheal Silverblatt in 2000, upon the publication of his first book –– a critically acclaimed memoir whose title he calls, "obnoxious." They formed a friendship over 22 years of conversation. This episode, the third in a series to examine what novelist Russell Banks called the Story of America, is guest-hosted by Eggers. We’ll hear excerpts of Bookworm shows that discuss this story from E.L. Doctorow, Valeria Luiselli, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Gore Vidal.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.
0:03.7	Boots!
0:08.8	Where would we be without booms?
0:12.6	Where would we be without good?
0:14.8	No, Tenderberg.
0:16.4	It's a rhetorical question, sir.
0:19.7	But where would we need without books?
0:25.1	From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Dave Eggers.
0:30.3	Welcome to a bookworm retrospective show, a celebration of 33 years of bookworm on KCRW with Michael Silverblatt.
0:38.8	Michael recorded more than 1,600 bookworm conversations.
0:42.9	He is on hiatus now for health reasons.
0:46.6	Michael is a devoted reader who insists that he feels honored to be speaking with each writer he
0:51.9	brings on to bookworm.
0:53.6	The truth is that we are honored to be
0:55.5	talking with Michael, who guided us into unknown revelations about our own work. Today's show is the
1:01.9	third in a series to examine what novelist Russell Banks called the Story of America. We will hear
1:07.7	excerpts of bookworm shows which discuss this story.
1:17.6	In 1994, Michael spoke with E.L. Doctoro about his best-selling novel, The Waterworks.
1:22.4	Michael recalled the reception of Doctoro's earlier novel, Ragtime.
1:28.3	In 1975, so many people read that book the day it came out. I remember waiting at the bookstore for it the way one would wait for a Beatles album in those days.
1:35.3	When I was rereading the book, Ragtime, I was thrilled because of course, you know, I come to Ragtime, having read subsequently Loon Lake and World's Fair and the Book of Daniel and Lives of the Poet and Billy Bathgate.
1:56.3	And so, of course, the book contains seedlings of the future.
	...

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