Bookworm

On Summer in Baden Baden by Leonid Tsypkin (New Directions)Susan Sontag talks about the discovery of lost and forgotten masterpieces, in particular, this novel, never published in America, about an odd vacation in the life of Fyodor Dostoevski...

Little Lit: Strange Stories for Strange Kids (Harper Collins) Spiegelman and Mouly discuss their exciting treat for kids of all ages-the newest Little Lit, with weird illustrated tales by the likes of Paul Auster, Maurice Sendak and Jules Feiffer.

The Grand Complication (Hyperion) A genuinely odd discussion about the consequences of scholarly book-loving. That is, a conversation about manipulation, games-playing, sexual repression and sadism in the lives of Kurzweil's characters who continue their unwholesome adventures beyond the intrigues and enigmas of his first novel, A Case of Curiosities.

The Feast of the Goat (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) In Mario Vargas Llosa's brilliant novel about the Trujillo regime, the Dominican Republic stands for all tyrannized nations and the 1960's stand for any period of political domination and unrest...

Allan Gurganus talks intimately about the people who introduced him to art and literature during his childhood.

Isabel Allende on war, love, autobiography, patriarchy, feminism and sex.

Power, Politics, and Culture: Interviews with Edward W. Said (Pantheon); The Said Reader (Vintage) A passionate conversation about exile, literature and critical theory. Palestinian-born Edward Said discusses his work: from his early philosophical criticism, through critique of imperialism, to his recent memoir.

The inventor of a new style of lyrical essay writing, John D'Agata talks about the classical traditions he draws upon and the special American loneliness that resonates in his unusual sentences...    

The Soul of Rumi (Harper San Francisco) Rumi's ancient mystical poetry swings between ideals of transcendence and destruction. Coleman Barks explores the extreme polarities that underlie the work...

When The Corrections appeared, it was immediately nominated as a candidate for The Great American Novel. Jonathan Franzen discusses his manner of writing, his method of construction, and the possibility that his book advocates a family values-based neo-conservatism.