Episode Eighty-Eight: Jonathan Ames

In This Episode:

Jonathan Ames, writer of comedic novels and comedic television series, sits down in the Damn Library to talk his new not-at-all-comedic pulp novella, You Were Never Really Here, as well as how he wrote funny to please his mom, actors he has loved working with, and why pulp interested him. We also get to chatting about Leonard Gardner's Fat City and terrible cases of second-novel-itis. Also, stop using straws.

The Ep. 88 Bookshelf

THIS EPISODE'S BOOKS:

You Were Never Really Here by Jonathan Ames
Fat City by Leonard Gardner

WHAT'D YOU BUY?:

Christopher: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Drew: Cape Verdean Blues by Shauna Barbosa & Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith
Jonathan: Moneyball by Michael Lewis // The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chödrön // The Sommelier of Deformity by Nick Yetto

ALSO MENTIONED:

Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames
I Pass Like the Night by Jonathan Ames
The Extra Man by Jonathan Ames
The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames & Dean Haspiel
What's Not to Love?: The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer by Jonathan Ames
BookShots 'by' James Patterson
Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Feed by M.T. Anderson
How to Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price
The Parker Novels by Richard Stark
The Jeeves & Wooster Novels by P.G. Wodehouse
Jazz (2000, dir. Ken Burns)
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Dubliners by James Joyce
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fat City (1972, dir. John Huston)
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth
Mercy of a Rude Stream by Henry Roth
Witches of America by Alex Mar
The Collectors by David Baldacci
Collected Stories by Carson McCullers
The Listeners by Leni Zumas
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North
 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Christopher: Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
Drew: The Killing Kind & Red Right Hand by Chris Holm
Jonathan: Start Where You Are by Pema Chödrön // When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön // The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers // Suspect by Robert Crais

The Damn Bar