Wordy Birds

The Kept Man

Original airdate: February 27, 2009

Jami Attenberg is a neat chick. Her Richmond reading at the Fountain Bookstore was the last stop on her six-month, couch-hopping book-tour. She recorded interviews with friends and authors who lent her futons and floor space along the way and posted them on YouTube. The video snapshots are a bit pasty and dehydrated, but illustrate the lifestyle she crafts in her newest book, “The Kept Man.”

The book is centered on Jarvis Miller, a former hipster bartender and fringe groupie of the Brooklyn art scene who divorces her nocturnal lifestyle and marries a painter.  Unfortunately, he has an aneurysm while painting and goes into a coma that lasts for six years. Jarvis too is caught in time, a metaphorical coma, suspended between hope and grief and two past lives. She sustains herself on the swelling commissions that her husband’s work has reaped since the day of his accident. When Jarvis meets three guys in a laundromat who are completely supported by their high-powered wives, her life is resuscitated by jolts of new activity.

The book is filled with thickly-laid, colorful descriptions of people, parties and paintings. Set in the stylish Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, the story walks the streets and renders a portrait only a resident would appreciate.

At her own admission, Jami was really hung over when we did this interview. She had also spent six hours in the car already that day, driving from Charlotte to Richmond.  She made some good points about life on drugs and her bed-hopping past. Weaving the interview together are her readings from “The Kept Man,” which frame small parts of life that were vividly detailed in her work.

Thanks for tuning in.

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Dear American Airlines

Original airdate: August 1, 2008

I knew I was in trouble before I stepped foot into that interview room. Women tend to respond to what they hear (or read) and I was composing flirtatious conversations with Jonathan Miles by about page four of his book. His book was fantastic and in between those hardbound covers were 150 pages of late night reading that got my interviewing psyche all juicy.

But I’m not unique. Miles seems to have that power over everyone. On-line interviews state that literary greats chisel his name on their tombstones. His first date with published writing was with the swoon-worthy “Oxford American.” Jon Hodgman talks about his mental physique in a recorded “welcome greeting” on the dearamericanairlines.com webpage. Miles turned me into a babbling mess on the microphone and I could not form a coherent sentence.

In his Cocktails Column for the New York Times he wrote:

“IDEALLY, a cocktail consumed at 4 a.m. should be transitional. It should serve as a bridge between the night that was and the morning to come, equally adept at picking you up and winding you down. It should gently prepare you for the startling pastel rays of dawn — since the sunrise, when you’ve been out all night, always seems to come as a surprise, like a pursuer you thought you had eluded. A drink at that hour should usher in thoughts of, say, pancakes. Ladies and gentlemen, crawlers of the urban predawn, I give you that cocktail…”

See what I mean? A chiseled and dreamy piece of good writing.

I’ll leave the rest of the mushy gushing to the interview. You can be embarrassed for me.

Thanks again,

Liz

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The Marriage of True Minds

Original airdate: June 27, 2008

Here is what Kinky Friedman said about this book, “Stephen Evans’ first novel, ‘The Marriage of True Minds,’ is a funny, poignant, oddly beautiful book about three divergent life forms-animals, people and lawyers. You will love it if you read it with a true mind.”

What more can I say? Look up Kinky Friedman if you won’t take his word for it.

The rest is best left to the audio. At the end of the show, Mr. Evans does a great job explaining the different types of laughs one gets on stage. It’s worth a listen…and a read. Oh… it’s short and fun too – great  for airports and train stations.

Thanks for tuning in.

Liz

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Free Food for Millionaires

Original airdate: May 30, 2008

The official description of “Free Food for Millionaires” goes something like this:

“Casey Han’s four years at Princeton gave her many things, “But no job and a number of bad habits.” Casey’s parents, who live in Queens, are Korean immigrants working in a dry cleaner, desperately trying to hold on to their culture and their identity. Their daughter, on the other hand, has entered into rarified American society via scholarships. But after graduation, Casey sees the reality of having expensive habits without the means to sustain them. As she navigates Manhattan, we see her life and the lives around her, culminating in a portrait of New York City and its world of haves and have-nots. “Free Food for Millionaires” offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves. Inspired by 19th century novels such as “Vanity Fair” and “Middlemarch,” Min Jin Lee examines maintaining one’s identity within changing communities in what is her remarkably assured debut.”

Actually, it goes exactly like that. Forgive the cut and paste. Min Jin Lee was a great guest… listen for yourself.

Thanks for tuning in.

Liz

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Beginner’s Greek

Original airdate: May 2, 2008

James Collins is extremely tall and extremely masculine and this is his first novel after resigning as a former senior editor at Time. Why are his height and looks relevant?  Because he chose romance as his subject in “Beginner’s Greek.”

Yes, men can write romance but the book is drippingly sweet, almost cavity inducing. The good guy gets the girl in the tied-up-nicely-in-the-end novel. I loved the book, by the way.

Before you overlook this one because you think you’re too smart for the subject, Mr. Collins has some unique insights into the human experience, more than a few clever scenes and an idea about the tenacity and necessity of manners that is quite unusual. It’s a perfect book for just hanging out and reading.

Throughout this interview the show takes an interesting and unintended detour into a discussion of legacy, meritocracy and achievement. All of which, Mr. Collins implies isn’t his “due” since he was born into a family that went to Harvard and everyone from Harvard gets jobs like his (good stuff to think about and stuff that will become interview fodder for many unexpecting and overly educated authors to come).

Mr. Collins was in Richmond to speak at a Library of Virginia event. Their complete upcoming schedule can be found on their website, http://www.lva.virginia.gov/whoweare/events/index.asp.
 
Thanks for tuning in. Please comment. I’m lonely.

Liz

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