Bookworm

Here They Come (McSweeney's) Memory, instinct and aesthetics combine to recreate childhood in Yannick Murphy's new novel...

David Foster Wallace insists on a conversation where what can be said must be said honestly (along with a sidebar defining honesty), sincerely (ditto defining sincerity), and with full consideration of how media affect honesty and sincerity (ditto media). Given these requirements, we discuss Wallace's new collection of essays with an eye to how he attempts the nearly impossible task of telling the truth.

The Life of David (Schocken)Robert Pinsky, a former poet-laureate, writes a biography-tribute to the Biblical King David, the poet warrior. Our conversation circles the subject of heroism as it is manifested in the contradictory character of King David--the most paradoxical figure in the Old Testament.

Petroleum Man (Overlook) In Stanley Crawford's satire of corporate greed, a "gas-guzzling" super-magnate writes a loving description of every car he has ever owned. What is more, he intends to leave this chronicle of automotive ownership to his (largely indifferent) grandchildren...

A Child Again (McSweeney's) In part two of the interview, Coover lays bare the illusions and delusions that his stories about childhood and growth are meant to dispel. He reads from a story about Puff, the dragon, and speculates about how older knights slay the dragons of their later years.

A Child Again (McSweeney's) Robert Coover, a reigning master of experimental narrative, gives a two-part interview for this, his long-anticipated first visit to Bookworm. In part one, Coover offers an overview of his career, revealing that even from the first his themes, intentions and methods were fully imagined. He then worked on these retold fairy tales and comic political allegories sometimes for a decade or more before completion and publication.

Little Nemo in Slumberland: Splendid Sundays 1905-1910 (Sunday Press)A celebration of the great Winsor McCay's Sunday funnies! Why? Because Nemo in Slumberland has been printed in its original full-color and actual size for the very first time!

The Complexities of Intimacy (Coffee House) The very contrary Mary Caponegro doesn't write or think like anyone else. She is a complete original. In the course of this interview, the snowballing perplexities of fusing logic and madness emerge with great force. Each of her stories is a triumph against nearly insuperable odds--but what a triumph! This interview will not air on KCRW (as it will be pre-empted by special Thanksgiving programming.)

Inner Voices: selected poems 1963-2003; Paper Trail: selected prose 1965-2003 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Richard Howard's extraordinary urbanity and sophistication are evident as he explores his influences: Henry James' winding syntax, Proust's evocation of a lost past, Whitman's teeming democracies....

Shalimar the Clown (Random House)Although the history of Kashmir provides the backdrop of Salman Rushdie's new novel, it is a larger-than-life romance with larger-than-life characters--a version of Romeo and Juliet and the Ramayana. In this conversation, he describes the ways in which an historical conflict can determine the course of love.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (Knopf) Two novel-lovers share their deep passions for reading. Jane loves the realists; Michael the Bookworm loves the inventors. But more than anything, they love "a lengthy written narrative with a protagonist" the novel.

Pax Atomica: poems (Ecco) Campbell McGrath has figured out how to perform a wonderful trick: he writes ecstatic comic poetry about the decline of America...

Trance (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Christopher Sorrentino takes the Patty Hearst saga as the springboard for an exploration of the mass hypnosis of American culture. This novel about inter-generational warfare is written by the son of formidable avante-gardiste Gilbert Sorrentino.

Joyce Carol Oates says this novel was written as a tribute to her mother, who died last year. Clearer, simpler, less literary than Oates' other books, it was meant to be a novel her mother would have enjoyed....

The author of The Very Persistent Gappers of Fripp decided he'd try to write another satire-fantasy.

The Master (Scribner) The winner of this year's Los Angeles Times award for fiction reveals the difficulties of writing about the life of Henry James...

Them: A Memoir of Parents (The Penguin Press) After an affair with the great Russian poet Mayakovsky, Francine du Plessix Gray's mother married a man who became a kingpin in the Cond- Nast fashion magazine empire. All the high fashion and social elite of New York are discussed, but they pale beside the evocation of true genius. Mayakovsky and poetry triumph over commerce.

Louise Erdrich's beautiful short novel emerged over a period of ten years, after an older story suddenly suggested deeper meanings...

Kazuo Ishiguro never tells more than he has to -- his stripped-down narratives are filled with absence and mystery. 

H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (Believer Books) The controversial French writer on his early influence, H. P. Lovecraft, the American writer of classic horror fantasies. Houellebecq discusses their shared, essentially anti-human stance and then quietly, poignantly reveals his own pessimistic philosophy.