Bookworm

Francine Prose began her career in the magical-realist mode. Now her books are cynical and dark. In Guided Tours of Hell she tells why.

Le Divorce (Dutton) In this satire of American behavior abroad, Diane Johnson exhibits a lethal distaste for innocence.

Closing the Circle A show about an implausible miracle -- a link between art and commerce. Closing the Circle is an Oulipean tale of air travel. With funds earned by the book, Mitch Sisskind is developing a radio station devoted entirely to literature.

Melanie Rae Thon First, Body (Houghton Mifflin) Thon has been chosen as one of the top American writers under forty. A discussion of her stories as a confluence of realistic prose and expressionistic poetry.

Jamaica Kincaid, who grew up in poverty on Antigua, discusses the cultural contradictions of late capitalism and her ambivalent acceptance of American wealth.

The servant-girl novel, that staple of Victorian fiction, is reinvented by Atwood in her most compelling novel to date, "Alias Grace."

The Cattle Killings (Houghton Mifflin) As a writer, John Edgar Wideman finds himself at the intersection of African-American experience and High Modernist experimentation. A talk about ethnicity and the avant-garde.

The Christmas Letters (Algonquin) Lee Smith actively loves her characters; her warmth towards them drives their stories. A conversation about fiction writing as a natural activity-- with roots in childhood, family gossip and country music.

The Night in Question (Knopf) Tobias Wolff on the ethical questions that animate the dramatic heart of his stories. An intense analysis of fiction's relation to truth.

Man Booker-Prize winner Michael Ondaatje seems to be one of the very few writers who appreciates the screen adaptation of his work...

Michael Lally Can't Be Wrong (Coffee House Press) Michael Lally--part Frank Sinatra, part William Saroyan--is an auditory seducer. This poet will leave you panting.

Robert Olen Butler Tabloid Dreams (Holt) The characters from supermarket tabloids reveal their inner truths in Pulitzer Prize-winner Butler's poetic stories..

Elena Poniatowska Tinisima (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) Mexico's "premiere; woman of letters" on Tina Modotti--photographer, model, revolutionary--the subject of this biographical novel.

Paul Theroux My Other Life (Houghton Mifflin) This autobiography is a supernatural story in disguise--hear Paul Theroux's Dr. Jekyll explain the demonic nature of Paul Theroux's Mr. Hyde.

Brad Gooch reveals the structure of the heroic quest that underlies this misunderstood and frequently reviled novel.

Junot Diaz's stories render the young-immigrant experience in harsh, unforgettable rhythms. Here he discusses the art of telling the truth.

Naked Sleeper (Harper Collins) Sigrid Nunez on gender and narrative strategy, the sub-genre known as the "woman's weepie."

Frank McCourt Angela's Ashes (Scribner) Memories have becomes trendy, but Frank McCourt's emotional masterpiece bucks the trend. A conversation about how this powerful work -- comprised of comedy and pain, told in the beautifully sustained tones of an Irish tenor -- finally came to be.

The Last Thing He Wanted (Knopf)   Part II of a special two-part interview with a novelist whose works have defined the essences of American places (Los Angeles, Miami, New York) and times (the sixties, the seventies, the eighties).  

The Last Thing He Wanted (Knopf)Part I of a special two-part interview with a novelist whose works have defined the essences of American places (Los Angeles, Miami, New York) and times (the sixties, the seventies, the eighties). Topics include the influences of T.S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, and her contemporary, Joyce Carol Oates, the nature of resonance and the role of accident and intuition in the writing of novels.