Podcasts about chronic city

Perhaps best known for his novels Motherless Brooklyn (1999), The Fortress of Solitude (2003), and Chronic City (2009)—or, more recently, Brooklyn Crime Novel (2023)—the author, essayist, and cultural critic Jonathan Lethem could be considered the ultimate modern-day Brooklyn bard, even if today he lives in California, where he's a professor of English and creative writing at Pomona College. His most celebrated books take place in Brooklyn, or in the case of Chronic City, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and across his genre-spanning works of fiction, his narratives capture a profound sense of the rich chaos and wonder to be found in an urban existence. Lethem is also the author of several essay collections, including the newly published Cellophane Bricks: A Life in Visual Culture (ZE Books), which compiles much of his art writing from over the years written in response to—and often in exchange for—artworks by friends, including Gregory Crewdson, Nan Goldin, and Raymond Pettibon.On the episode, Lethem discusses his passion for book dedications; the time he spent with James Brown and Bob Dylan, respectively, when profiling them for Rolling Stone in the mid-aughts; how his work is, in part, a way of dealing with and healing from his mother's death in 1978, at age 36; and why he views his writing as “fundamentally commemorative.”Special thanks to our Season 10 presenting sponsor, L'École, School of Jewelry Arts.Show notes:Jonathan Lethem[5:35] Cellophane Bricks[5:35] High School of Music and Art[5:35] Motherless Brooklyn[5:35] The Fortress of Solitude[5:35] The Disappointment Artist[5:35] Maureen Linker[7:15] Carmen Fariña[8:26] Julia Jacquette[8:26] Rosalyn Drexler[9:08] The Great Gatsby[9:08] Brooklyn Crime Novel[10:59] Lynn Nottage[13:08] Bennington College[13:08] Bret Easton Ellis[13:08] Donna Tartt[23:41] The Collapsing Frontier[23:41] Italo Calvino[23:41] Cold War[23:41] Red Scare[23:41] J. Edgar Hoover[27:37] Dada movement[27:37] Ernest Hemingway[27:37] Gertrude Stein[27:37] Dissident Gardens[29:38] Reaganism[29:38] “Does intergenerational transmission of trauma skip a generation?”[31:21] John Van Bergen[31:21] Nan Goldin[34:33] “The Ecstasy of Influence”[34:33] Lawrence Lessig[35:31] Copyleft movement[35:31] Hank Shocklee[38:46] Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station[42:32] “Being James Brown: Inside the Private World of the Baddest Man Who Ever Lived”[42:32] “The Genius and Modern Times of Bob Dylan”[51:00] Chronic City[54:04] The Thalia[55:50] “Lightness” by Italo Calvino[1:06:26] Jorge Luis Borges

In this edition of CREATIVES ON WRFI, a conversation between celebrated American novelist Jonathan Lethem and Jacob White, Associate Professor of Writing at Ithaca College and host of Jamaican Clash on WRFI. Jonathan Lethem visits Ithaca this weekend as part of the fourth annual Ithaca Is Books Festival (Sept. 12-15). You can see Lethem live in conversation with Writing Professor Eleanor Henderson on Friday, Sept. 13 at Buffalo Street Books (6:00 p.m.). Jonathan Lethem is the author of many books of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City, and Brooklyn Crime Novel. His newest book, The Collapsing Frontier, published this year by PM Press, collects recent works of nonfiction and fiction, some of which previously appeared in The New Yorker Magazine.

On today's 14th Anniversary episode, I talk to MacArthur Genius Grant-winning author Jonathan Lethem. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Jonathan at first thought he was going to be a visual artist until some existential realizations about class and art in college in the early 1980s left him disillusioned. He dropped out, hitchhiked to California and started writing while he worked as a clerk in used bookstores. In 1994, Harcourt Brace published his first novel Gun, with Occasional Music, and since then he's written a dozen more - just a sampling: Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City, The Feral Detective - as well as a number of short story collections, and this is just scratching the surface. Currently Jonathan is the Roy Edward Disney Professor of Creative Writing and Professor of English at Pomona College, and his most recent book, Brooklyn Crime Novel, was published last October by HarperCollins, and like everything else Jonathan writes, it is great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

Jonathan Lethem: Live Career Retrospective, hosted by Richard Wolinsky. On March 3, 2016, Richard Wolinsky had a chance to sit down with author Jonathan Lethem in front of a Berkeley audience as a benefit for KPFA. Jonathan is the author of several novels, including Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City and Dissident Gardens, along with short story collections and a book of essays, The Ecstasy of Influence. The event was intended as a career retrospective; the first 45 minutes devoted to prepared questions, followed by a period of questions from the audience, with follow-ups. Jonathan's collection, Lucky Alan and Other Stories, had just come out in trade paperback.His next novel, A Gambler's Anatomy was released October 16, 2016. Special thanks to Bob Baldock, who creates these events, and Jane Heaven, who records them. His most recent novels are The Feral Detective and The Arrest, the latter published in 2020. The post Jonathan Lethem, Career Retrospective, 2016 appeared first on KPFA.

A Note from Hope Katz Gibbs, producer, Inkandescent Radio — What an honor it is to feature this new book by Ellen Harper and Sam Barry, entitled: Always a Song: Singers, Songwriters, Sinners & Saints. A collection of stories from Ellen, a singer, and songwriter, who is the folk matriarch and mother to the Grammy-winning musician Ben Harper. Ellen shares vivid memories of growing up in Los Angeles through the 1960s among famous and small-town musicians raising Ben (pictured below) and the historic Folk Music Center. Jackson Browne says of the book: “An eloquent searching account of a life lived for truth, love, and music.” Roger McGuinn, leader of the Byrds, writes: Ellen Harper is folk music royalty, growing up with Pete Seeger and Joan Baez around the dinner table. Her story is heartrending and a pleasure to read." Jonathan Lethem, New York Times bestselling author of Chronic City and Motherless Brooklyn, says: "Ellen Harper's unique vantage as a red-diaper baby, folk connector, counterculture witness, and maven of family and community is matched by her memory, wit, and compassion." With the help of Sam, an author and musician who is a founding member of the book band The Rock Bottom Remainders (learn more about him below), readers take a ride through folk music history: Harper takes readers on an intimate journey through the folk music revival. The book spans a transformational time in music history and American culture. Covers historical events from the love-ins women's rights protests and the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the popularization of the sitar and the ukulele. Includes full-color photo insert. Ellen shares: "Growing up, an endless stream of musicians and artists came from across the country to my family's music store. Bess Lomax Hawes, Joan Baez, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGee—all the singers, organizers, guitar and banjo pickers and players, songwriters, painters, dancers, their husbands, wives, and children—we were all in it together. And we believed singing could change the world." Be sure to listen to our interview and watch the video on the April 2021 cover of BeInkandescent Health & Wellness magazine. Music lovers and history buffs will enjoy this rare invitation into a world of stories and songs that inspired folk music today. A must-read for lovers of music history and those nostalgic for the acoustic echo of the original folk music that influenced a generation. Harper's parents opened the legendary Folk Music Center in Claremont California as well as the revered folk music venue The Golden Ring. A perfect gift for people who are obsessed with folk music all things the 1960s learning about musical movements or California history. Great for those who loved Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan The Band Van Morrison Janis Joplin Jimi Hendrix and Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock by Barney Hoskyns and Girls Like Us: Carole King Joni Mitchell Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller. Be sure to check out our video and podcast interview on Faceboook Live: Tuesday, March 16 at 1pm PST — www.Facebook.com/hopekatzgibbs About Book Doctor Sam Barry: Sam is an author musician and publishing professional. He is the author of How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons. He coauthored Write That Book Already! The Tough Love You Need to Get Published Now with his late wife Kathi Kamen Goldmark and Always a Song: Singers Songwriters Sinners and Saints—My Story of the Folk Music Revival with Ellen Harper. As a member of the literary rock band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, Sam edited and coauthored Hard Listening: The Greatest Rock Band Ever (of Authors) Tells All with his bandmates Stephen King Amy Tan Mitch Albom Dave Barry Roy Blount Jr. Matt Groening Greg Iles James McBride Roger McGuinn Ridley Pearson and Scott Turow. Sam is currently a freelance editor book doctor and publishing consultant. Previously he was an ordained Presbyterian minister who worked for HarperCollins and later created and directed Book Passage's Path to Publishing program and wrote the popular Author Enabler column in BookPage. Sam lives writes and plays music in the San Francisco Bay Area. Click here to read more about this great book and the authors: The cover story of the April 2021 issue of BeInkandecent Health & Wellness magazine!

Some scientists think we live in simulation and everything we know is not real. Tonight I'll talk about this and some examples from pop culture fo life in a virtual reality.

Ep. 9 features an interview with author Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn, The Arrest, The Feral Detective, Dissident Gardens, Chronic City, Fortress of Solitude, A Gambler's Anatomy, As She Climbed Across the Table, The Ecstasy of Influence, and many others. Watch the video version of "Well Read" on YouTube.

This week, Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, Chronic City) joins Chad and Brian to talk about The Writer's trip to a hospital, where he assumes something horrible is happening, which is countered by a gushing forth of new story ideas. Jonathan tells of his own experience coming up with one of his most famous books while recovering from an operation, tells of how he first met and bonded with Rodrigo Fresán, and talks about Believeniks!. This is a really meaty, fascinating episode about being a writer, mortality, Fresán's incredible talent, and much more.   Feel free to comment on this episode--or on the book in general--either on this post, or at the official GoodReads Group.   The Invented Part is avaialble at better bookstores everywhere, and you can also order it directly from Open Letter, where you can get 20% off by entering 2MONTH in the discount field at checkout.   Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood on Twitter for more thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And you can find out about all of Jonathan Lethem's books and more at his website.    And you can find all Two Month Review posts by clicking here.   The music for the first season of Two Month Review is "Big Sky" by The Kinks.

This week, Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, Chronic City) joins Chad and Brian to talk about The Writer's trip to a hospital, where he assumes something horrible is happening, which is countered by a gushing forth of new story ideas. Jonathan tells of his own experience coming up with one of his most famous books while recovering from an operation, tells of how he first met and bonded with Rodrigo Fresán, and talks about Believeniks!. This is a really meaty, fascinating episode about being a writer, mortality, Fresán's incredible talent, and much more.   Feel free to comment on this episode--or on the book in general--either on this post, or at the official GoodReads Group.   The Invented Part is avaialble at better bookstores everywhere, and you can also order it directly from Open Letter, where you can get 20% off by entering 2MONTH in the discount field at checkout.   Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood on Twitter for more thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And you can find out about all of Jonathan Lethem's books and more at his website.    And you can find all Two Month Review posts by clicking here.   The music for the first season of Two Month Review is "Big Sky" by The Kinks.

Jonathan Lethem: Live Career Retrospective, hosted by Richard Wolinsky. On March 3, 2016, Richard Wolinsky had a chance to sit down with author Jonathan Lethem in front of a Berkeley audience as a benefit for KPFA. Jonathan is the author of several novels, including Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City and most recently Dissident Gardens, along with short story collections and a book of essays, The Ecstasy of Influence. The event was intended as a career retrospective; the first 45 minutes devoted to prepared questions, followed by a period of questions from the audience, with follow-ups. Jonathan's collection, Lucky Alan and Other Stories, had just come out in trade paperback.His newest novel, A Gambler's Anatomy has a release date of October 16, 2016. Special thanks to Bob Baldock, who creates these events, and Jane Heaven, who records them. A shorter version of this interview airs on Arts-Waves on October 3, 2016. The post Jonathan Lethem Live appeared first on KPFA.

Dissident Gardens (Vintage Books) Mermaids in Paradise (W.W. Norton & Company) Jonathan Lethem, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the MacArthur Fellowship whose writing has been called "as ambitious as [Norman] Mailer, as funny as Philip Roth, and as stinging as Bob Dylan" ("Los Angeles Times"), returns with an epic yet intimate family saga. Rose Zimmer, the aptly nicknamed Red Queen of Sunnyside, Queens, is an unreconstructed Communist who savages neighbors, family, and political comrades with the ferocity of her personality and the absolutism of her beliefs. Her equally passionate and willful daughter, Miriam, flees Rose's influence for the dawning counterculture of Greenwich Village. Despite their differences, they share a power to enchant the men in their lives: Rose's aristocratic German Jewish husband, Albert; her feckless chess hustler cousin, Lenny; Cicero Lookins, the brilliant son of her black cop lover; Miriam's (slightly fraudulent) Irish folksinger husband, Tommy Gogan; and their bewildered son, Sergius. Through Lethem's vivid storytelling we come to understand that the personal may be political, but the political, even more so, is personal. Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet returns to redefine “comedy of errors” in Mermaids In Paradise, the genre-bending satire of a tropical honeymoon hijacked by mermaids, kidnappers, and mercenaries. In this hilarious novel, a honeymooning couple makes friends with a marine biologist who discovers genuine mermaids in a coral reef—and who, the next night, apparently drowns in her hotel bathtub. As a resort chain swoops in to corner the market on mermaids, the newlyweds (opinionated, skeptical narrator Deb and handsome online gamer Chip, the world's friendliest man) join forces with other vacationers—including an ex–Navy SEAL with a love of explosives and a hipster Tokyo VJ—to protect the mermaids from the corporate “Venture of Marvels” that wants to turn their habitat into a theme park. Mermaids in Paradise is Millet's funniest book yet, tempering the sharp satire of her early career with the empathy and emotional power of her more recent, critically acclaimed novels and short stories. This is an unforgettable, mesmerizing tale, comic on the surface and deeply solemn at its core. Praise for Dissident Gardens: "Dissident Gardens seamlessly weaves together three generations, yet it doesn't broadcast itself as a multigenerational epic, nor is it afflicted by the desire to pose as the next great American novel. It's an intimate book."--The New York Times Book Review "A tour de force, a brilliant, satiric journey through America's dissident history."--The Star Tribune "Lethem has artfully blended, redefined, ignored, satirized and enriched the traditional categories of fiction."--The Plain Dealer "Remarkable. . . . Lethem's best novel since "Motherless Brooklyn." . . . Crackle[s] with wordplay and intelligence."--The Miami Herald "The writing soars. . . . Lethem can riff with the best, spinning knockout lines that make you stop and stare . . . while you admire a sentence's every turn."--The Seattle Times "An assured, expert literary performance by one of our most important writers. . . . Magnificent."--Los Angeles Review of Books Praise for Mermaids in Paradise: "Mermaids in Paradise makes brilliant comedy out of a honeymoon trip that veers from the absurd to the sublime and back again. Lydia Millet is a stone-cold genius. --Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation "I laughed so hard all over town. Leave it to Lydia Millet to capsize her human characters in aquamarine waters and upstage their honeymoon with mermaids. I am awed to know there's a mind like Millet's out there. She's a writer without limits, always surprising, always hilarious. --Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! andVampires in the Lemon Grove Jonathan Lethem is the "New York Times" bestselling author of nine novels, including Chronic City, The Fortress of Solitude, and Motherless Brooklyn, and of the nonfiction collection The Ecstasy of Influence. A National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Lethem's work has appeared in "The New Yorker," "Harper's Magazine," "Rolling Stone," "Esquire," and "The New York Times," among other publications.  Lydia Millet is the author of twelve previous books of fiction. Her novel Ghost Lightswas a New York Times Notable Book; its sequel Magnificence was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle and Los Angeles Times Awards in fiction; and her story collection Love in Infant Monkeys was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She lives outside Tucson, Arizona. 

On this week's show, I talk to the multidisciplinary wonder that is J. Bradley, Plus Molly Gleeson writes about reading Anthony Trollope while teaching in Saudia Arabia. TEXTS DISCUSSED  Hear J. Bradley read his "You + Me = Awwwwwww Yeah" + "Pussycat Interstellar Naked Hotrod Mofo Ladybug Lust Blaster" by Derrick Brown on the second erotic poetry live show of The Drunken Odyssey. NOTES  I recommend Orlando Shakespeare Theater's production of Julius Caesar, playing until April 20th. Check out Beating Windward Press's call for essays for its forthcoming essay collection, The Things They Did For Money: How Writers, Artists, and Creatives Support the Habit. In England, authors are protesting a new measure that prohibits inmates from getting access to books in the mail (BBC). Beckett once directed his own plays, in performances featuring San Quentin inmates. Here's an image of the Chronic City finale poster.  

Jonathan Lethem is a man of many lives. For one, because of his repeated return to New York as both setting and muse in novels such as Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, and Chronic City, he may be New York’s closest thing to having a bard. But Lethem is known as well for his genre […] The post Jonathan Lethem : Dissident Gardens appeared first on Tin House.

Jonathan Lethem is the guest. His latest novel, Dissident Gardens, is now available from Doubleday.  The Los Angeles Times raves "Lethem is as ambitious as Mailer, as funny as Philip Roth and as stinging as Bob Dylan...Dissident Gardens shows Lethem in full possession of his powers as a novelist, as he smoothly segues between historical periods and internal worlds...Erudite, beautifully written, wise, compassionate, heartbreaking and pretty much devoid of nostalgia." And Booklist, in a starred review, says "Lethem extends his stylistically diverse, loosely aligned, deeply inquiring saga of New York City (Motherless Brooklyn, 1999; The Fortress of Solitude, 2003; Chronic City, 2009) with a richly saturated, multigenerational novel about a fractured family of dissidents headquartered in Queens...Lethem is breathtaking in this torrent of potent voices, searing ironies, pop-culture allusions, and tragicomic complexities. He shreds the folk scene, eviscerates quiz shows, pays bizarre tribute to Archie Bunker, and offers unusual perspectives on societal debates and tragic injustices. A righteous, stupendously involving novel about the personal toll of failed political movements and the perplexing obstacles to doing good." Monologue topics: travel, the flu, walking, the homeless guy who asked me for my email address Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black Clock 13 An amazing lineup of writers -- Aimee Bender, Janet Fitch, Jonathan Lethem, Susan Straight, and Lisa Teasley --  will read from their pieces in Black Clock 13, the latest issue of this great literary journal.  Author Steve Erickson, Black Clock's editor, will moderate. Aimee Bender is the author of four books; the most recent is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, winner of the SCIBA award. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, Harper's, The Paris Review, Tin House, Black Clock and more, as well as heard on "This American Life" and "Selected Shorts." Janet Fitch is the author of Paint it Black and White Oleander, an Oprah's Book Club selection from which a 2002 motion picture was made starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Her fourth novel will be published next year. Fitch teaches writing at the University of Southern California. Jonathan Lethem has written eight novels, including Girl in Landscape and Chronic City, and four collections of stories and essays, including the forthcoming The Ecstacy of Influence. His monograph on John Carpenter's They Live was published in November last year. He's lived in New York, Vermont, Oakland, Toronto, and now Los Angeles. Susan Straight's new novel is Take One Candle Light a Room, named one of the best novels of 2010 by The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Kirkus. Highwire Moon was a Finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and A Million Nightingales was a 2006 Finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. Her short story "The Golden Gopher," a chapter in the novel, won the 2008 Edgar Award for best Mystery Story. She has published stories and essays in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, Salon, Zoetrope, McSweeneys, The Believer, Black Clock, and elsewhere. She was born in Riverside, California, where she lives with her family, whose history is featured on susanstraight.com. Lisa Teasley is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Heat Signature and Dive, and the award-winning story collection, Glow in the Dark, all published by Bloomsbury. Lisa Teasley is writer and presenter of the BBC television documentary "High School Prom," and currently teaches poetry and fiction at UC Riverside. Steve Erickson is the Editor of Black Clock. He is the author of eight novels, receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007. In 2010 he was nominated for the National Magazine Award for his film criticism and was the recipient of one of seven awards in literature given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His novel novel These Dreams of You will be published in early 2012 by Europa. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS FEBRUARY 13, 2011.

Chronic City (Doubleday) Jonathan Lethem began his career with Philip K. Dick-inspired science fiction, then he turned to writing the more realistic books that brought him to prominence. Here, we discuss the fusion of the two...

In conversation with the novelist Tom McCarthy, Jonathan Lethem read from Chronic City and discussed, inter alia, Manhattan's virtuality, the inspiration behind the character of Perkus Tooth, the price of things, and talking animals. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this new novel, the acclaimed author of Motherless Brooklyn portrays a Manhattan that is beautiful and tawdry, tragic and forgiving, devastating and utterly unique.