05-15-09 :Agony Column Podcast News Report :
Three Books With Alan Cheuse :
Sonata Mulattica
by Rita Dove
Shannon A Poem of the Lewis Clark Expedition by Campbell McGrath
The Song is You
by Arthur Phillips
Once again, I'm honored to be joined by Alan Cheuse as we take another look at three books worth your valuable time and money. This time, we're heading over to the poetry section, to examine two unusual books of poetry by Rita Dove and Campbell McGrath. Then, just to keep things lively, we look at the latest novel by Arthur Phillips, 'The Song is You,' an actual song that I have tucked away somewhere on one of my Stan Getz records. Yes, vinyl records.
Music runs through the selections for today's Three Books conversation. Rita Dove's 'Sonata Mulattica' poetry collection is a historical narrative about George Polgreen Hightower, a wunderkind musical genius, the son of a white European woman and an "African Prince" who travels from London to Vienna to meet Ludwig Van Beethoven, who had written a sonata to honor him — until they met. Campbell McGrath's 'Shannon', is a 100 page narrative poem about George Shannon, the 16 year old boy who was separated from the Lewis and Clark Expedition and wandered alone on the prairie for 16 days is written in vivid, musical prose. And Arthur Phillips, 'The Song is You' is the first great American iPod novel, and offers an usual celebration of the sorts of technology that are usually shown as alienating factors in our lives. You can hear Alan and I discuss these books by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
Neal Coonerty
05-14-09 :Agony Column Podcast News Report : Neal Coonerty on the Live Oak Redevelopment Project
I've been wanting to interview Neal Coonerty for a long time, but to tell the truth, I've been sort of scared, intimidated. After all, he's man behind the legendary Bookshop Santa Cruz, a past President of the American Booksellers' Association, and is currently the Third District Supervisor for Santa Cruz County. I've left a lot of stuff out, I'm sure. But you get the picture. He's not just a legend, he's a local legend.
Fortunately for me, life made it easy. Here I am, innocently hosting Talk of the Bay and answering requests from John Leopold the ever-able Supervisor for Live Oak to talk about Redevelopment, and, alas, the date of my show, Supervisor Leopold can't make it; but Supervisor Coonerty can. So, I find myself forced to something I've been heretofore afraid to do and not surprisingly, it turned out swell. It's all on the guest, I'll tell you. I just ask the questions, and you can hear how Coonerty displays a politician's skills without sounding like a politician by following the link to this MP3 Audio File.
05-13-09 :Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Mountain Community Theater Serves 'Breakfast of Champions' : The Author's Voice
When I think of works that lend themselves to adaptation, I have to admit that Kurt Vonnegut's anarchic 'Breakfast of Champions' is probably near the end of the line. It's a novel to end novels, a work that steps all over the form in a manner you might not think conducive to adaptation.
Apparently, in the 1980's, one Robert Egan decided to adapt Vonnegut's novel for the stage, and now our local Repertory Company, Mountain Community Theater , has decided to take on the task of mounting a performance. Wearing my "Talk of the Bay" hat, I interviewed the director, Steve Brenner, along with Denny Vierra, who plays the Author, and Adrienne Bischoff who plays about ten characters as part of "The Ensemble." For me, 'Breakfast of Champions' is a seminal novel that has really shaped my thinking and perspective on the world. But it's also only barely a novel as we normally know it, and it was fascinating to hear the director and cast discuss the challenges of getting Vonnegut's vision across. You can hear our action-packed conversation by following this link to the MP3 file.
Ginjer Buchanan
05-12-09 :A 2009 Interview With Ginjer Buchanan: Ace Editor
Here's how things happen at The Agony Column. So, I'm trying to find out who the publicist is for the new Stephen Baxter novel, 'Flood.' A colleague at NPR wanted a copy. I know the publisher Penguin, so I gave them a ring.
I was quickly sent into voicemail and managed to climb to that branch of the phone tree where I could "Dial by name." Who did I know there I asked myself, racking my brain. Then I remembered Ginjer Buchanan, arguably The Most Important Person In SF; the senior editor at Ace Books, the woman responsible for much of our best genre fiction, and as a general notion, helping to keep the damn thing alive. She'd know who to talk to.
She did in fact know how to talk to, but then it occurred to me that she w2as the one to talk to. In these dark days for the publishing world, when editorial and publicity staff fall by the wayside, she'd know the scoop. And indeed, you can find the scoop by following this link to the MP3 audio file of our conversation.
Sarah Waters
05-11-09 :A 2009 Interview with Sarah Waters : "Something very malign"
Sarah Waters builds her novels as she might build a house; first the framework, then the layers and layers of details, the tiny muscles that move the plot. When I talked to her at KQED about her latest novel, "The Little Stranger," she emphasized the architectural nature of her writing process, saying that sometimes she had to rip down an entire wing and move it elsewhere.
Waters is an engaging and entertaining speaker. She talked to me about her writing process, which she explains involves mostly re-writing, and about her research into the psychic leaders of the day, particularly the work of Frederic Meyers. Meyers is an interesting guy, who hypothesized that in moments of stress, people can split off portions of their personality that can manifest as psychic phenomena. This sort of detail carries throughout the work, and Waters talked about researching the journals of James Lees-Milne to get a feel for the country houses. You can hear our conversation by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
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
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
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
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
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
