Episode One Hundred and Eleven: Lauren Wilkinson

In This Episode:

Lauren Wilkinson shows up in the Damn Library to talk about her novel American Spy, and everyone gets into the ways in which this is like a spy novel, and it isn't, and the portrayal of real life people, and how to grapple with your fears by putting them in a book. Plus, we get into the melodramatic, surprisingly-still-timely Passing, Nella Larsen's novel about being undercover in a different way, first published in 1929. We get into its ambiguous ending (it came out in 1929, so spoilers, deal with it), and speculate. Intrigue! 

The Ep. 111 Bookshelf

THIS EPISODE'S BOOKS:

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
Passing by Nella Larsen

WHAT'D YOU BUY?:

Drew: The Crazy Bunch by Willie Perdomo // Spring by Ali Smith // Field Notes FNC-42: Mile Marker Edition
Lauren: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young // Levi’s jeans
Christopher: The Philosophy of Ruin by Nick Mancusi // The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang

ALSO MENTIONED:

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
The Human Factor by Graham Green
The Day of the Jackal by Fredrick Forsyth
The Game Set Match Trilogy by Len Deighton
Restless by William Boyd
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Shuffle Along (1921)

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Drew: The Farm by Joanne Ramos
Lauren: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, trans. by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Christopher: Stay Up with Hugo Best by Erin Somers

The Damn Bar