June 26, 2008
Book Review Program
The Ten-Cent Plague/David Hadju. An over all well-researched account of the 1950s attack on comic books, though there are some glaring errors, and the prose is unimaginative. RAL
The Story of Forgetting/Stefan Merrill Block. Superb novel about a family's history with early onset alzheimers. RW; The pieces don't quite hang together. RAL
RW recommends: The Plague of Doves/Louise Erdrich; The Story of a Marriage/Andrew Sean Greer; Netherland/Joseph O"Neill; The Enchantress of Florence/Salman Rushdie
June 19, 2008
The Lazarus Project/Aleksander Hemon
Aleksander Hemon, a Bosnian expatriate now living in Chicago, writes a fascinating cross of memoir and novel in this story which juxtaposes an immigrant murder in Chicago in 1908 with a modern-day road trip to Eastern Europe and Sarajevo in the present day. Hemon is an extremely talented writer.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
June 12, 2008
I Was Told There'd Be Cake/Sloane Crossley
A funny collection of essays by book publicist Crossley, which deals with life as a member of (still) under 30 generation, growing up and working in New York City.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
June 5, 2008
A Wolf at the Table/Augusten Burroughs
Burroughs' life before Running With Scissors, and his relationship with his father, told from the point of view of Augusten as a small child, and lacking the humor that usually marks his work.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
May 29, 2008
The Story of Forgetting/Stefan Merrill Block
A remarkable first novel about the effects of early onset Alzheimers on a family in Texas. Beautifully written and conceived.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
May 15, 2008
The Plague of Doves/Louise Erdrich
A sprawling novel that has several voices and takes place over several years in which the effects of a murder and lynching are revealed. Written as short stories, the pieces come together as an extraordinary coherent whole.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
May 8, 2008
the thing about life is that one day you'll be dead/David Shields
A book-length essay on how our bodies grow and decompose, with autobiographical anecdotes concerning Shields' relationship with his elderly father. A stunningly original work. Shields is working at the cutting edge of today's literature.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
May 1, 2008
The Jane Austen Book Club/Karen Joy Fowler
Wit's End/Karen Joy Fowler
Fowler's latest novel, Wit's End, is set in Santa Cruz, California and deals with an elderly mystery novelist, web fans, and a strange cult that actualy existed in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
April 24, 2008
Sacred Games/Vikram Chandra
A complex and extremely long novel set in Bombay that at first glance appears to be a crime story but soon evolves into a book about Bombay itself and India, past and present. Not for every taste, but rewarding for those willing to take the plunge.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
April 17, 2008
Lush Life/Richard Price
The author of Freedomland and Clockers returns with a brilliant novel about a murder on New York's Lower East Side, and its tragic aftermaths. Price is fast becoming a national treasure, not only for his work here, but also his work on The Wire.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
April 10, 2008
Dreamers of the Day/Mary Doria Russell
A middle-aged spinster is witness to events in Egypt and the Middle East in the early 1920s as she befriends Lawrence of Arabia, Winston Churchill, and others at the Cairo Peace Conference, where the current Middle East political line-up was created. Russell skirts a fine line between history, didacticism and the novel in a tour de force that works well most of the time.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
Extended edit to come.
April 4, 2008
Open Book: Tony Taccone, Part Two
An Interview with the Artistic Director of the Berkeley Rep Theatre Company. Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
April 3, 2008
We Disappear/Scott Heim
The author of Mysterious Skin returns after a ten-year haitus with a novel based on the last days of his mother's life, and the nature of disappearance. Heim is a very good writer.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
March 27, 2008
Song Yet Sung/James McBride
The author of the critically acclaimed memoir The Color of Water returns with a novel set in the antebellum East Shore of Maryland, a wild place and era encompassing runaway slaves, local fishermen, and bounty hunters. A well-made look at a place and era all but forgotten today.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
March 21, 2008
Open Book: Tony Taccone, Part One
An Interview with the Artistic Director of the Berkeley Rep Theatre Company. Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
March 20, 2008
The Senator's Wife/Sue Miller
Miller's latest bestseller takes us into the heads of a young woman, insecure in her life and her marriage, who moves next door to the wife of an aging ex-Senator. Their stories resonate with one another in several unexpected ways.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
March 13, 2008
His Illegal Self/Peter Carey
My Life as a Fake/Peter Carey
My Life as a Fake is a fascinating tour de force about a hoax about a fictional poet that backfires on its creator when the poet comes to life. His Illegal Self deals with complications that ensue after a young woman gets involved with radicals in the 1960s anti-war movement. Parallels to life today are not hard to find.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
March 6, 2008
Songs Without Words/Ann Packer
The Dive From Clausen's Pier/Ann Packer
Songs Without Words tells the story of two women friends who deal with life's vicissitudes both together and apart. The book deals with the nature of friendship and how it changes and remains constant over the years.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
February 28, 2008
The Commoner/John Burnham Schwartz
A captivating novel about the life of the current Japanese Empress, from her survival as a young commoner during World War II to her days mentoring her son's wife, also a commoner, in modern times.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
February 14, 2008
Freedom for the Thought That We Hate/Anthony Lewis
A history of First Amendment issues, from the birth of the U.S. to the present day, clean and concise.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
February 7, 2008
Swimming in a Sea of Death/David Rieff
A heartbreaking memoir about the death of Rieff's mother, Susan Sontag, and a stunning meditation on how we view death, our own and others.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
January 24, 2008
A Free Life/Ha Jin
War Trash/Ha Jin
A Free Life tells the story of Chinese immigrants in America and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2007. War Trash is a fascinating novel about the life of a Chinese POW during the Korean War.
Interviewer: Richard Wolinsky
January 17, 2008
Review Program
Leni/Stephen Bach. First rate biography of the German film-maker/propagandist. RW &RAL
Oscar Micheaux/Patrick McGilligan. Excellent biogprahy of the early African-American film maker. RAL
Away/Amy Bloom. A young immigrant from Russia makes her away across America in 1925. The best novel of 2007. RW.
The Nine/Jeffrey Toobin. Overrated look at the U.S. Supreme Court. RW
Reviewers: Richard Wolinsky and Richard A.Lupoff
January 10, 2008
Tribute to Norman Mailer Part Two
January 3, 2008
Tribute to Norman Mailer Part One
Ancient Evenings/Norman Mailer
The Armies of the Night/Norman Mailer
The Executioners Song/Norman Mailer
A career retrospective interview with the late Norman Mailer, culled from two interviews recorded in 1995 and 1998.
Interviewers: Richard A. Lupoff/Richard Wolinsky.
Produced by Richard Wolinsky
