154: Mateo Askaripour (BLACK BUCK) and Sam Greenlee's THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR

In This Episode:

The guys get caffeinated, distantly, with Mateo Askaripour to talk about his fantastic debut novel, Black Buck. They chat about telling your own story even if someone else is telling a similar one, about weaving life into art, and about how fiction is more fun than non-fiction. Plus, an out-of-print classic for Book Club that deserves to be brought back: Sam Greenlee's The Spook Who Sat by the Door.

The Ep. 154 Bookshelf

THIS EPISODE'S BOOKS:

Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
The Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam Greenlee

WHAT'D YOU BUY?:

Drew — Two lit mags: Black Telephone Issue One // Zo’Ona by Namwali Serpell (Breaking & Entering lit mag)
Christopher — The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr // All Girls by Emily Layden
Mateo — Iced by Ray Shell // a professional microphone

ALSO MENTIONED:

Philz Coffee
Search History by Eugene Lim
Junkie by William S. Burroughs
The Girls by Emma Cline
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, trans. by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Sorry to Bother You (2018 — written & directed by Boots Riley)
Wolf of Wall Street (2013 — written by Terence Winter, directed by Martin Scorsese)
The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Boiler Room (2000 — written & directed by Ben Younger)
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
On Writing by Stephen King
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The Conjure Woman and Other Tales by Charles Waddell Chesnutt
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr
Specimen Days
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973 — written by Sam Greenlee, directed by Ivan Dixon)
Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar
Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Drew — Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar // Oreo by Fran Ross
Christopher — Outlawed by Anna North
Mateo — How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang //  Pimp by Iceberg Slim // Black Docker by Ousmane Sembène // The Angry Ones by John A. Williams

The Damn Bar