Book Book Book Book
Commentary Commentary RSS Reviews Podcasts_Audio Podcasts RSS Blog Links Archives Indexes
06-03-10: Three Books with Alan Cheuse

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer, The Passage by Justin Cronin


Even as I type the write-up of this podcast on my hopefully-working computer, I'm getting ready for another confab with Mr. Cheuse later this week. I trust that readers will understand that it will take me a few days to catch up with myself. The last time I caught up with NPR's Alan Cheuse, we were both reading a batch of thrillers that generally speaking, lived up to that description.

One of the most difficult things to admit as a reader, to experience as a reader, is the end.

The end of a great novel; the end of a great series; the end of an author's work. Knowing, that you can never read a book from an author whose work you enjoy for the first time again. This is the end.

In this, case, the end comes with more bangs than whimpers, but plenty of both in 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' by Stieg Larsson. If you've been hiding under a rock, or more likely, swapping out one logic board after another in the faint hope of getting your computer to the point where you can once again return to your normal workflow, (only to find yourself up against a gnarly license manager that thinks your trying to steal the product you paid $600 for), then you might not have noticed that in your absence, the late Stieg Larsson slipped in and conquered the world of bestselling, intelligent thrillers. Alan and I first set our sights to discuss these books, so that the esteemed critic may suggest why they are more than worth your valuable time.

Worth your time as well is 'The Nearest Exit,' by Olen Steinhauer, his sequel to 'The Tourist,' featuring the return of Milo Weaver. For readers who like murky, grey-on-grey espionage novels with characters as complicated as the plots they are caught up in, this is a great way to vacation in Berlin. But please make sure you read 'The Tourist' first to fully enjoy your stay.

And speaking of extended vacations, Alan and I talk about 'The Passage,' which, as noted above is but the door-stopping first of a trilogy that starts with the end of the world, then works forward from there. There's a science fiction explanation to what happens here, but no, this isn't the giant grasshopper apocalypse of 'The Beginning of the End.' There's plenty of material to talk about here, and you can hear Cheuse and I discuss this week's Armageddon by following this link to the MP3 audio file.



06-02-10: The Agony Column Live


A Panel Discussion with Guy Gavriel Kay and Zachary Mason, March 8, 2010

The idea is sort of to build an avalanche. You plant the seeds of the snowball and sent it downhill, Pretty soon you don't have to do anything. It's a panel discussion and the authors are talking to one another as well as to the moderator — in this case, me.

Zachary Mason and Guy Gavriel Kay and I had a very entertaining conversation about how and why they write fiction that falls just a bit outside of every easily-defined genre.

It's not easy to set up an event that involves two authors. Even one can be a challenge; thus the May 22 appearance at the Capitola Book Café by Carlos Ruiz Zafón ends up getting postponed. But having managed to get Mason and Kay sitting at the table with me, it was not difficult to get them talking. As they did talk, I began to re-think the seating arrangement. Maybe the moderator shouldn't sit in the center. I'll certainly explore that possibility in upcoming events.


Moreover, I definitely want to get out into the audience when we take the break, just to get a sense of who comes to the events, and to find out what the audience wants to hear in the discussion. You can hear the first Agony Column Live panel discussion with Zachary Mason and Guy Gavriel Kay by following this link to the MP3 audio file.



06-01-10: A 2010 Interview with Karl Marlantes

"..these are common human foibles and failings, it's just that they get magnified in a combat, war situation..."
— Karl Marlantes

When you read Karl Marlantes' 'Matterhorn' you'll find an impeccably crafted and powerful novel — period. In a sense it's a historical novel, insomuch as it is set in Vietnam during our war, but it is so immersive, so engaging, and so foreign to our experiences now that it reads like a science fiction novel. For all the passion, power and strangeness in the novel, you'll find Marlantes himself to be quite a scholar. He's really quite down-to-earth.

I spoke with Marlantes at KQED bright and early at, what, 8:30 AM on a Monday morning? I had no idea what to expect, but I think listeners will find his story of writing the book and the stories behind the book nearly as amazing as the novel itself. You can understand why they put him in charge; he has the naturally powerful voice of a leader.

As an interviewer, in these sorts of situations, there are many temptations. One is to simply focus on Marlantes' own time in Vietnam, which is certainly germane, but only so much. I could easily have spent most of the interview talking about the thirty-year process of writing 'Matterhorn.' And I could simply focus on the wild events in the book itself, but I trust that at this point most listeners will understand that I eschew talking about the plot; I want to illuminate, not ruin the reading experience. The interview opens with four short readings to give a flavor of the novel, separated by bits of music from Jon Hassell. You can actually hear the gears grinding in my tiny little brain and Marlantes' entertaining responses by following this link to the MP3 audio file.



New to the Agony Column

09-06-10: Commentary : Brendan Connell Tells 'Unpleasant Tales' : Close-up and Too Close-up

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Guy Gavriel Kay : "I'm telling myself you bloody well better figure out where this is going because you have to start heading there sometime around now."

09-03-10: Commentary : The Eternal Youth of 'Madame Bovary' : "To be simple is no small matter."

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Bruckner Chase at Blue Ocean Film Festival : "...a breath to your right and look at the moonset over the Pacific, and a breath to your left and see the sun rise over the mountains..."

09-02-10: Commentary : Collecting Philip K. Dick : The Books That Launched A Thousand Films

Agony Column Podcast News Report : BLUE Ocean Film Festival Interview with Ed Lyman and Lou Douros : "In the Wake of Giants"

09-01-10: Commentary : Tim Pratt Finds 'Sympathy for the Devil' : "...Hell for the company..."

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Dan Basta at the Blue Ocean Film Festival : "Experiential learning is the way we learn best."

08-31-10: Commentary : Peter S. Beagle Reveals 'The Secret History of Fantasy' : : Telling Lies for a Living

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Jean-Michel Cousteau : "We need to change. And we can."

08-30-10: Commentary : David Doubilet Captures 'Water Time Light' : Painting with Pixels

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes : "Everything people have always feared about photography comes true underwater."

08-25-10: Commentary : Vendela Vida 'The Lovers' : Reading and Revelation

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Live Reading and Interview with Vendela Vida At Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...there was an owl that came into this place we were renting one day..."

08-24-10: Commentary : Jeff VanderMeer and 'The Third Bear' : Absurd Is as Absurd Does

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Paul McHugh on the Short Memoir : "Permission is the unobtanium of human interaction."

08-23-10: Commentary : Mary Roach is 'Packing for Mars' : Non Fiction Genre Fiction

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Mary Roach : "There was a second hoax about a shuttle mission..."

08-20-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes 'Deadman's Road' : Deader Than Thou

Agony Column Podcast News Report : On the Phone with Vendela Vida : "You do all this background information, most of which never makes it into the book."

08-19-10: Commentary : Gary Shteyngart Tells a 'Super Sad True Love Story' : Retro-Prescience

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Gary Shteyngart Live Reading and Interview at Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...please like me, this will make up for Hebrew school if all of you like me.."

08-18-10: Commentary : Mark Pilkington Unleashes Weapons of Mass Deception : "ECM+CIA=UFO"

Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett and Barry Eisler for The Agony Column Live at Capitola Book Café, August 7, 2010 Q and A : "This is NewSpeak."

08-16-10: Commentary : Howard Norman Asks 'What is Left the Daughter' : The Past Always Rises

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Howard Norman : "I'd wanted to write from the beginning an epistolary novel; this is just an epistolary novel that's consisting of one letter."

08-12-10: Commentary : James O'Neal Copies 'The Double Human' : Proceeding into the Future

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler and David Corbett Live at Capitola Book Café on August 7, 2010 : "If anyone thinks it's absurd that the government might assassinate the founder of WikiLeaks, it's quite a bit less absurd than I wish it were".... — Barry Eisler

08-11-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes Huck Finn to 'Dread Island' : "Classics Mutilated"

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "...they'll pick up that angle and run interference for us..."

08-10-10: Commentary : David Corbett Asks 'Do They Know I'm Running?' : Crossing Borders

Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "These Families are making incredible sacrifices..."

08-09-10: Commentary : David Mitchell and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet : The World is Ever the World

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with David Mitchell : "The periodic table of the human heart is still the same now as it was then."

08-06-10: Commentary : Tim Powers Sails 'On Stranger Tides' : History, Fantasy and the Reality of Reading

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with Tim Powers : "...twenty things that are too cool not to use..."

08-04-10: Commentary : Christopher Fowler's Peculiar Crime Spree : 'Bryant and May Off the Rails

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Thomas Frank Returns to Agony : Newt Gingrich Alters History

08-03-10: Commentary : Robert M. Price Spins 'The Tindalos Cycle' : Terrorize, Horrify, Repeat

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Short Chat with Gary Shteyngart : "...the technology is outpacing our ability to absorb what it is doing to us..."

08-02-10: Commentary : A Second Tour Through 'The Passage' : Sending Characters into Time

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Justin Cronin : "A novel is itself a kind of dream."

07-30-10: Commentary : Subterranean Press and Robert R. McCammon Wake at 'The Wolf's Hour' : The Time Before Cheese

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheuse : Allegra Goodman, 'The Cookbook Collector,' Noam Shpancer's 'The Good Psychologist' and Elie Wiesel 'The Sonderberg Case'

07-28-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space 2 : En Route, RJ Frith and Peter F. Hamilton

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010: Q & A : "The people you deal with at the publishers ... if they last the end of the week, you're lucky."

07-27-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space : UK Space Opera Demonstrates Excess is Not Enough (Part one, the Arrived)

Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010 : "Well, I thought if I do faeries then nobody's going to say that I've got it wrong."

07-26-10: Commentary : Brian and Wendy Froud Seek 'The Heart of Faerie Oracle' : Cards, Books and a New Perspective

Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Brian and Wendy Froud : "It's all about connection."



Commentary & Podcast Archive

Archives Indexes How to use the Agony Column Contact Us About Us