David Leo Rice joins me to pore over the negatives of this novel. We talk the ongoing reverberations of the Vietnam war, Stephen Wright’s mastery of exposition and psychedelia, David’s personal experience studying under Stephen Wright, the consciousness of the jungle, the chaos of total information, James Wood’s notion of hysterical realism w/r/t MiG, the comfort of paranoia, and much, much more.

Subscribe to David’s substack, buy his books, and listen to his brilliant podcast WAKE ISLAND. He is one of the finest writers working today and I count myself fortunate to chat with him.

Check out David’s Vietnam-era story I mentioned at the top of the episode: “The Ward Clerk”

Matthew Fresta and Matthew Sini from Getting Lit join me to talk Italo Calvino’s whirlwind love letter to writing, reading, and the source of stories. We discuss what Calvino’s delightful use of postmodern technique, why the tone of this book might be the secret to its potency, whether there is a Father of Stories, and much, much more.

Getting Lit on Patreon, Substack, Spotify