Jenny Offill's 'Dept. of Speculation' is a breeze to read, but a tough experience. As I sat down to talk to the author upstairs at Bookshop Santa Cruz, I had a few domestic issues of my own to consider. Mine might be more economic, but there's a universality to Offill's novel that is disarming.
Offill and I talked mostly about the nature of the narrative, which is to say, the spaces she creates and the manner in which they are created. This is a novel that rewards the reader because we do a lot of the heavy storytelling lifting as we whip through the book. My hope in the interview is to give Offill the opportunity to speak about how she does and what she does rather than what happened.
That said, I could not let some specifics go undiscussed. And given what we did talk about, I'd like to emphasize that it is only a small part of the story. It might make your skin itch a little, but real terror is much more internalized. Give yourself a couple of hours and prepare to go mad.
02-13-14 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 148: Jenny Offill, 'Dept. of Speculation'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the one-hundred forty-eighth episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the two-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning. This week, I seem to be on top opf the game, but who knows what the hell might happen. I am hoping to stay back up and stumbling.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The one-hundred forty-eighth episode is a look at Jenny Offill and 'Dept. of Speculation.'
"You just hope you get to have that whole second act with your children."
—Kelly Corrigan
It is apparently a year for second acts, or in Kelly Corrigan's case, third acts, as 'Glitter and Glue' is her third memoir. What's interesting about interviewing a memoirist is tht the story they are telling in the book is the story they have told all their lives. It's their own story, and whole feel of such an endeavor is different.
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Corrigan's memoir is a perfectly complicated work of simple storytelling. It's very easy to read and to a degree it's easy to miss how sophisticated the narrative is. I admit to having a peculiar approach to the work. On one hand, everything we read here clearly has the ring of truth. But there's an amazing level of artistry required to convey the very complex conclusions Corrigan reaches.
My inclination as an interviewer is to unquestioningly accept the facts of a memoir. But telling what happened is not the same as telling the truth, and Corrigan excels at the latter and the former. I spent some time exploring the dual nature of the narration, and the creativity that went into shaping the narrative.
Corrigan is oe of the smoothest and smartest interviewees I've ever spoken to. I suppose it comes from working in memoir, but she really knows what she's about, and it's fascinating to hear how she wove together three different levels of memoir into a book tht reads so cleanly as 'Glitter and Glue.' Plus does great imitation of her mother.
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
