Brandon Taylor on the Sally Rooney Phenomenon
10 September 2021 - 1 hour 5 minsThe novelist Brandon Taylor, who has generated his own buzz with his debut novel, “Real Life,” and a collection of stories, “Filthy Animals,” visits the podcast to discuss the much-discussed work of Sally Rooney. Taylor recently reviewed her third novel, “Beautiful World, Where Are You.” On the podcast, he describes Rooney’s writing as an “intense, melancholic tractor beam.”
“She has this really great, tactile metaphorical sense, but it’s never overworked,” he says. “Her style is so clean. That is the word I come to most often in describing her style. It is so clean, so pristine.” Like her two previous books, this one is fueled by the vexations of intimate relationships. “Ultimately, if you...
Series Episodes
Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Transcription,' by Ben Lerner
Ben Lerner’s slender new novel, “Transcription,” is just 130 pages long, yet it cracks open some of our most colossal and enduring philosophical questions. On this episode, MJ Franklin discusses “Transcription” with fellow Book Review editors Gregory Cowles and Alexandra Jacobs.
47 mins
30 May Finished
The Ezra Klein Show: Michael Pollan’s Journey to the Borderlands of Consciousness
Today we are delighted to share an episode from our colleagues on “The Ezra Klein Show,” originally published on March 31. Ezra interviewed author Michael Pollan, whose best-selling books include “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” “In Defense of Food,” and “How to Change Your Mind.” Pollan’s latest book, “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness,” came out earlier this year. It’s an exploration of what consciousness is, and the book is — as our review put it — “highly pleasurable to read.”
1 hour 28 mins
22 May Finished
Matt Haig on ‘The Midnight Library,’ Mental Illness and Winnie-the-Pooh
The best-selling author joins the “Book Review” podcast to discuss his new novel, “The Midnight Train.”
42 mins
15 May Finished
Patricia Cornwell on Her Dark Childhood and Best-Selling Novels
The crime novelist discusses her new memoir “True Crime.” Also, Daniel Kraus, winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction, talks about his novel “Angel Down.”
59 mins
8 May Finished
‘The Book Review’ Podcast Turns 20
From Oprah to romantasy, we look back at two decades of hit books and literary trends.
1 hour 5 mins
1 May Finished
Book Club: Let's Talk About 'The Renovation,' by Kenan Orhan
Dilara, the heroine of Kenan Orhan’s debut novel, is a Turkish exile living in Italy and undergoing a routine bathroom renovation that turns out to be not so routine: When the contractors leave, she steps in and finds herself somehow transported to an actual cell in Istanbul’s infamous Silivri Prison. On this week's episode, host MJ Franklin discusses “The Renovation” with fellow Book Review editors Joumana Khatib and Dave Kim.
42 mins
24 April Finished
