Welcome to
The Book Report with Janet Potter and Michael Schaub! This is our first show at our new home,
The Millions. We hope you'll visit us every Friday for discussions about books, authors, popular culture, and much more. (Well, not that much more. That pretty much covers it. But sometimes we talk about beer and
Guns N' Roses. We contain multitudes, you know?)
In this episode, we talk about
Alexis Coe's new book
Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis. Also discussed: the Fifth Amendment, monster truck rallies, Janet's propensity for arson, lesbian relationships in the 19th century, love letters, insanity, flirting with mail carriers, the state of Tennessee, and beer.
Not discussed in this episode:
Salmon P. Chase, kale, "Too Many Cooks," Australian rules football, the city of Denver, meerkats,
REO Speedwagon's "Keep on Loving You," and how Michael screwed up his lighting for this episode thus making him look like he is in a low-budget alternative-rock video from 1992.
Thanks for stopping by, and join us again next week, when we'll be talking about -- wait for it -- books. And probably beer. We talk about beer a lot.
Say what?! The Marriage Plot is about DFW, JE, and Mary Karr? I really need to go back and reared it. Really like this series. — reaching for the Beowulf directly.
Great episode! I had heard about the Wallace character in The Marriage Plot (and it was pretty obvious when I read it), but didn’t know about the triangle with Mr. Eugenides. Loved the book. Bold choice of Nixon as likable villain. He did like bowling. So he’s got that going for him.
Janet scores empathy points for Frankenstein & the Romanovs.
Mike makes an inspired choice with Nixon who, coincidentally, played a helluva piano.
But nobody picks Raskolnikov? Come on! DFW but no RRR? He’s like a 3rd-year MFA’er going into debt and…murder!
Re: Grendel–Mike should check out hot-shot 70s author John Gardner’s “Grendel,” which is an examination of 12 big ideas of civilization from the perspective of the “monster” who channels J. P. Sartre. Gardner was a short-lived literary lion back then, sort of a cross between John Irving, Robert Pirsig and Robert James Waller (!)
He died young (late 40s) in a motorcycle accident, which may have kept him from being as well-remembered as he deserves to be.
How about Count Fosco in The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. He is so charming, witty and enlivens every page he is on, as opposed to the cardboard hero and heroines. And speaking of Counts, there is another I can think of who also brightens up the story he is in by his rare but very entertaining presence.