LA Review of Books

Join LARB editors Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher and Eric Newman for a special Valentine’s Day episode. In the first half of the show, we speak with Laurie Essig, author of Love Inc., an investigation into the ways in which the wedding, romance and dating industry have affected our lives and made us believe in happy endings, despite the world crumbling (or rather, melting) around our shoulders. Our second guest is long-time LARB veteran, Briallen Hopper, who talks to us about her new collection of essays, Hard to Love. We talk to Briallen about spinsters, singledom and how to throw the perfect Galentine’s party.

Sam Lipsyte talks to co-hosts Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher about his latest novel, Hark, which follows the exploits of an unlikely prophet named Hark and his acolytes, who think that they have found salvation in “mental archery”. Sam, Kate and Medaya discuss the appeal of gurus, the power of satire, and how to explain global warming to your kids. Sam Lipsyte is the author of author of Venus Drive, The Ask, Home Land, and The Fun Parts. He is also the Chair of the creative writing program at Columbia University. Also, Dan Lopez, author of The Show House, returns to recommend Stephen Hawking's Brief Answers to the Big Questions.

Mitchell S Jackson, author of 2013's widely acclaimed The Residue, joins co-hosts Eric Newman and Medaya Ocher to talk about his new, soon to be released, book Survival Math: Notes on an American Family. An eclectic text - part reportage, part memoir, with cento poems, an epistilary opening, and powerful narrative passages throughout - Survival Math seamlessly testifies to a life and a consciousness born from difficult environments, devastating experiences, and an insatiable appetite for understanding and insight. Mitchell talks about what inspired him to write in such a challenging form; how the book's stories capture the complex ways in which adult mentors and friends become "family;" and the relationship of African-American history to the production of spectacular African-American art and literature. Also, Wayetu Moore returns to recommend The Lazarus Effect, a thriller, by Liberian author H. J. Golakai.

Poet Jeffrey Yang joins co-hosts Eric Newman and Kate Wolf to discuss Hey, Marfa, his heralded new collection. In poems that balance between intimacy and alienation, Hey, Marfa explores the unique history of the tiny town where art, history and culture intersect in the vastness of the Texas desert. Yang talks about his writing practice, what it means to write from and about a place, and the figures he encountered in Marfa that continue to fascinate him. Also, John Wray, author of Godsend, returns to recommend Joaquin Maria Machado de Assis' miraculous classic The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, which John describes as a post-modern tour de force that happened to be written in Brazil in the 1880s.

Oscar season is upon us and our fearless co-hosts Eric Newman, Medaya Ocher, and Kate Wolf bravely tender their predictions and preferences in a range of categories. There's a lotta love for Glenn Close and The Favorite; not so much for A Star is Born; respect for Roma; and a special focus on documentaries because we've interviewed the directors of many of this year's favorites (having featured last year's winner, Icarus). Medaya and Kate spoke with Sandi Tan, director of Shirkers; Eric talked to Bing Liu, director of Minding the Gap; and Morgan Neville discussed his film Won't You Be My Neighbor? with Kate and Eric; but we've chosen... to bring you a command performance of Eric and Daya's interview with Tim Wardle, director of Three Identical Strangers. Also, author Julietta Singh returns to recommend The Queer Art of Failure by Jack Halberstam, which features close readings of Pixar Films which celebrate a new generation of animated films which embrace characters, narratives, and communities that counter the traditional tropes of patriarchal, hetero-normative, heroic individualism.

Legendary essayist John McPhee joins co-hosts Eric Newman and Medaya Ocher to discuss his latest collection The Patch. Reflecting on his long career in creative non-fiction and journalism, McPhee talks about the duty of the writer to get out of the way of the story and bemoans the rise of the branded writer in the age of social media. In place of speed, McPhee extolls the virtue of slowness, the time it takes for a writer to develop his voice, to collect material and to divine the associations and structures through which it might breathe itself into a story. Also, author Julietta Singh returns to recommend Bhanu Kapil's Humanimal: A Project for Future Children.

Wayetu Moore speaks with host Eric Newman about her debut novel She Would Be King, which interweaves history with magical realism to re-tell Liberia's founding in the 19th century. The Allegorical tale revolves around three characters: an immortal woman Vai, exiled from her indigenous community; an African-American man June Dey, who possesses super-human strength; and Norman Aragon, half-white from Jamaica, with the magical power to vanish. As the three stories merge, Liberia is born. Wayetu tells Eric about her family's history in Liberia, their move to America when Wayetu was five years old during a civil war, her subsequent relationship to Liberia, and what motivated her to write its foundation myth in such a beautiful and mystical form.

We end the year with a special treat as hosts Eric Newman, Medaya Ocher, and Kate Wolf reveal their Best of 2018 selections. Eric, Daya, and Kate go high and also low with their favorite books, films, TV shows, podcasts (present company excluded), art shows, and one category so scandalous it's best kept a secret (for now). So, All Hail King Paimon and the Combahee River Collective; as well as authors Azareen Van Der Vliet and Rebecca Makkai, the two previous guests who made the list! Please enjoy our look back at the year that was; and make sure to catch Eric, Daya, and Kate's sage advice for 2019 at the end of the show.

Author John Wray joins co-hosts Medaya Ocher and Kate Wolf to read from and discuss his critically-lauded new novel, Godsend; which has found its way onto many best of 2018 lists. Godsend tells the story of Aden, a young woman from Santa Rosa who travels to the Pakistan/Afghanistan border region shortly before 9/11, converts to Islam, disguises herself as a male and joins the Taliban as a fighter. John Wray tells us the almost-equally-amazing backstory to the novel, which stems from his time in Afghanistan as a reporter for Esquire; and his motivations for immersing himself so completely in Aden's world. Also, author and podcast host Karina Longworth returns to recommend Angelica Houston's second memoir, Watch Me.

A double dose of SoCal culture, from classic Hollywood in the 1930s & '40s to the wasteland of the '90s. First up, hosts Eric Newman, Medaya Ocher, and Kate Wolf welcome back Karina Longworth to the show. Previously, Karina talked about her hugely popular podcast, You Must Remember This, which tells tales of old Hollywood. Now she returns to discuss her equally intriguing book, Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes Hollywood that profiles the lives of women involved with the mogul, filmmaker, and playboy; and exposes the routine damage done by male power in classic Tinseltown, #ThemToo. Then Nikki Darling drops by to talk about her debut novel, Fade Into You; a coming-of-age tale set in suburban nowhere during the dire days of the early '90s.