Literary Friction

In honour of the arrival of 2019, this month we’ll be looking back at the last year in books, discussing what we most enjoyed, and looking forward to what we'll be reading in the next year. “But wait!”, you say. “I wanted an author interview!” Don’t worry - we’ve got you covered, and what a gift it is (come on, bear with us, it's just after Christmas). We talked to author Ann Wroe, whose latest book Francis: A Life in Song is an unusual, beautiful, moving portrait through poetry of the life of St. Francis of Assisi and his resonance today. It’s an unusual and wonderful book, which has had glowing reviews, and it’s a perfect way to cap off the year on Literary Friction.

What makes a man? Why do men fight? Is there a crisis of masculinity? These are some of the questions that authors from Ernest Hemingway to Grayson Perry have asked, and questions that Thomas Page McBee addresses head on in his searching, beautiful and wise second book Amateur, the true story of his quest to become the first trans man to box at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Once a 'masculinity expert' for Vice, his essays and reportage have appeared in the New York Times, Playboy, Glamour, and Salon. We spoke to Thomas about Amateur, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize, and the need to drastically redefine what masculinity really means in contemporary culture. So if you want to learn what it really means to be a man, just push play.

From Ivanhoe to Wolf Hall to The Essex Serpent, what is it about the historical novel that is so compelling? This month, we spoke to Canadian author Esi Edugyan about her third novel, Washington Black (shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize). It tells the story of a gifted artist, born a slave on a plantation in 1830s Bermuda, and the fantastic and surprising course of his life which takes him from the Arctic to London to the deserts of Morocco in an exciting but perilous adventure. If you’re curious about what we look for in art about the past, and have ever wondered if historical novels really have to be true to history, press play and join us.

Who wants to be a millionaire? This month, darlings, we’re talking about all things hoity-toity, posh and expensive - our theme is High Society. Why are there so many rich people in fiction? Should they be anything other than the object of ridicule and scorn? Are the rich different? To help answer these questions, we talked to award-winning Canadian novelist Patrick deWitt. His fourth novel, French Exit, is the story of Frances, an upper-class widow and her adult son, Malcolm, who flee from New York to Paris when their money runs out. Accompanying them is their cat in whom the body of Frances' dead ex-husband resides, along with, eventually, a medium, a French private investigator and a lonely sycophant. If that sounds absurd and funny - it is! So grab your champagne coup and stay with us for the next hour on Literary Friction.

Everyone needs to peace out from time to time, so this month we’re talking about the fictional trope of rest and relaxation, and how authors have explored this kind of inertia - from the tale of Rip Van Winkle to the Swiss sanitorium in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. Our guest is the novelist Ottessa Moshfegh, whose brilliant new novel is called My Year of Rest and Relaxation. In it, a privileged young woman living on the upper East side in Manhattan, dissatisfied with her life, decides to embark on a year of sleep and seclusion in her apartment aided by lots of prescription drugs and a permissive psychiatrist. So, kick off your shoes, recline, and stay with us for the next hour on Literary Friction.

Youth culture: is it the territory of fashion and music, or can novels tell us something about the teenage experience? This month is dedicated to the youths and their subcultures – from flappers to mods to punks to ravers – and we examine how authors have attempted to capture the fragile, gnarly reality of life as a young person in novels like A Clockwork Orange and the latest YA sensations. Our guest is Guy Gunaratne, whose explosive first novel In Our Mad and Furious City is set over 48 hours on a housing estate in North West London, and told through the voices of five of its residents. Listen in for teenage reminiscences and all the usual recommendations as we attempt to get down with the kids this month on Literary Friction.

Western politics is a mess right now, so what better time to discuss the role of the State of the Nation novel - those books that capture the zeitgeist and make us reflect on the contemporary moment. Can literature speak to our times in ways other media can't? Our guest today, friend of the programme Olivia Laing, has made a good argument in favour with her fourth book, but first novel, Crudo. Unfolding in real time during the summer of 2017 in the wake of the Brexit vote and Trump’s election, Crudo features a character that very closely resembles Kathy Acker coming to terms with marriage, and the state of the world around her. Listen in for our interview with Olivia, plus all the usual recommendations.

Whether it’s Jefferson, Mississippi in the novels of William Faulkner, or coastal Maine in Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, or even the Shire, the small, tight-knit community has provided fertile ground for novelists. This month, we bring you a show dedicated to small towns in literature, partly recorded in front of a live audience at the Derby Book Festival, where we interviewed acclaimed author Jon McGregor about his latest novel, Reservoir 13. It tells the story of a girl's disappearance from a small village in the Peak District in England, and the aftershocks it leaves in the community for years to come. So listen in for our conversation with Jon, some thoughts about literary small town life, and join us in resisting the overwhelming urge to quote lyrics by Journey and John Cooger Mellancamp.

Our theme this month is ‘On the Road’ and no - we’re not spending an hour discussing Jack Kerouac (phew). Instead, we’ll be talking about all the other wonderful books that have taken us on the road and, usually, on a journey of discovery too. Our guest is writer Damian Le Bas, whose fascinating debut The Stopping Places is a journey through Gypsy Britain, in which he visits the places scattered across the country where his Gypsy family and ancestors made their temporary homes. So listen in for a show dedicated to the tradition of books that roam, road novels and their intrepid travelling protagonists, and other books that use journeys as their narrative frame, plus all the usual recommendations. Ideal listening for those of you that are on the move!

Nothing grants insight into lived experience quite like a memoir, and the form is currently having a resurgence. This month, we celebrate the memoirs that take us from the experience of giving birth to coming out to what it’s like to be in a world-famous band, via all the richness and thorny issues that this form promises. Our guest is Viv Albertine, former guitarist in the hugely influential all-female punk band The Slits. Her first memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys, was published in 2015, and she came in to talk to us about its follow-up, To Throw Away Unopened. It's published this month, and is about many things but mostly her complicated relationship with her extraordinary mother and growing up as a working-class kid in London.