Brian Berrett

Episode 8: Kingsley Amis’s The Alteration and The Green Man

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The-AlterationThis month, we are joined by Nick During of NYRB Classics to discuss Kingsley Amis’s novels The Alteration and The Green Man.

We do apologize to you and to Nick, though, because for some reason only half of our discussion was recorded. Brian and I did get back together a few weeks later (finding time was difficult) and did what we could to cover some of what we discussed.

The-Green-Man

In the Fall of 2012, NYRB Classics began a project to release new editions of ten Kingsley Amis novels, starting with his comic debut, Lucky Jim, and his Booker Prize winning The Old Devils. Recently they released two more, venturing this time to Amis’s work with a science fiction/alternate history novel in The Alteration and a classic ghost story in The Green Man.

NYRB Classics published these editions of The Alteration and The Green Man in May of 2013, and they are the books we’ll be talking about in Episode 8 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.

In Episode 9 we will be returning to the first author we discussed on this podcast and discuss John William’s magnificent Stoner. If you have any thoughts on John Williams or Stoner, we’d love to hear from you via email, via comments, or via Twitter. Perhaps we can set up a Skype call to pull some sound bites of your thoughts.

Show Notes (53:06)

  • Intro
  • A look at what NYRB Classics has in store (03:13)
  • Bio of Kingsley Amis (06:41)
  • Brief glimpse at Lucky Jim and The Old Devils (11:45)
  • Synopses of The Green Man and The Alteration (14:16)
  • Discussion of The Alteration (18:05)
  • Discussion of The Green Man (35:29)

Some Links

Episode Credits

  • Co-Host Trevor Berrett
  • Co-Host Brian Berrett
  • Guest Nick During of NYRB Classics
  • Introduction Music — “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)
  • Outro Music — “Where I’m From” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)

Episode 7: Vivant Denon’s No Tomorrow

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No TomorrowThis month, we are joined by Alan Bowden of wordsofmercury.wordpress.com to discuss Vivant Denon’s novella, No Tomorrow.

In 1777, No Tomorrow was published anonymously. We have the pleasure of reading Lydia Davis’ translation which is based on the 1814 edition.

NYRB Classics published their bilingual edition of No Tomorrow in October of 2009, and it is the book we’ll be talking about in Episode 7 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.

In Episode 8 we will be discussing two books that will be issued by NYRB Classics next month (May 7, 2013): Kingsley Amis’s novels, The Green Man and The Alteration. If you have any thoughts on Kingsley Amis, we’d love to hear from you via email, via comments, or via Twitter. Perhaps we can set up a Skype call to pull some sound bites of your thoughts.

Show Notes (1:13:03)

  • Intro
  • Brief look at Vivant Denon (14:40)
  • Non-spoiler section (19:56)
  • Spoiler section (42:12)

Some Links

Episode Credits

  • Co-Host Trevor Berrett
  • Co-Host Brian Berrett
  • Guest Alan Bowden of wordsofmercury.wordpress.com
  • Introduction Music — “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)
  • Outro Music — “Promise Me That You Will Never Die” by Jeff Zentner, from his album Hymns to the Darkness (used with permission)

Episode 6: Nancy Mitford’s The Sun King

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The-Sun-KingThis month, we are joined by Tara Olmsted of booksexyreview.com to discuss Nancy Mitford’s biography of Louix XIV, The Sun King.

Louis XIV fell in love with Versailles and Louise de La Vallière at the same time. Versailles was the love of his life.

So begins Nancy Mitford’s 1966 biography of Louis XIV, her third of four biographies she completed during her lifetime. The Sun King is filled with her wry observations and rare wit. Mitford herself loved Versailles, dying there in her home in 1973.

NYRB Classics published their edition of The Sun King in May of 2012, and it is the book we’ll be talking about in Episode 6 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.

In Episode 7 we will be discussing Vivant Denon’s No Tomorrow.

Show Notes (57:06)

  • Intro
  • Brief look at Nancy Mitford and the Mitford siblings
  • General thoughts
  • Mitford’s fiction

Some Links

Episode Credits

  • Co-Host Trevor Berrett
  • Co-Host Brian Berrett
  • Guest Tara Olmsted of booksexyreview.com
  • Introduction Music — “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)
  • Outro Music — “If This Is to Be Goodbye” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)

Episode 5: Friedrich Reck’s Diary of a Man in Despair

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Diary-of-a-Man-in-DespairThis month, we are joined by Nick During of NYRB Classics to discuss Friedrich Reck’s political memoir, Diary of a Man in Despair.

My life in this pit will soon enter its fifth year. For more than forty-two months I have thought hate, have lain down with hate in my heart, have dreamed hate, and awakened with hate. I suffocate in the knowledge that I am the prisoner of a hoard of vicious apes, and I wrack my brains over the perpetual riddle of how this same people, which so jealously watched over its rights a few years ago, can have sunk into this stupor, in which it not only allows itself to be dominated by the street corner idlers of yesterday, but actually, height of shame, is incapable any longer of perceiving its shame for the shame that it is.

This is a passage written by Friedrich Reck on August 11, 1936, and recorded in a journal of sorts that he kept from 1936 unti l1944. It was a dangerous document that he kept hidden in various places. Certainly, had it been found, it would have led to his death. Regardless, at the end of 1944, Reck was arrested and killed in early 1945.

This journal was first published in German in 1947 and gained footing in 1964. It first came to English in 1970 as Diary of a Man in Despair. It was reprinted in 2000 with portions that were previously expunged.

NYRB Classics published their edition of Diary of a Man in Despair in February of 2013, and it is the book we’ll be talking about in Episode 5 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.

In Episode 6 we will be discussing Nancy Mitford’s The Sun King.

Show Notes (58:27)

  • Intro (xx:xx)
  • Brief Friedrich Reck Bio (xx:xx)
  • General Thoughts (xx:xx)
  • The Complexity of Reck: Monarchist, Hero (xx:xx)
  • Psalms and Lamentations (xx:xx)
  • Deliberate Structure (xx:xx)
  • Women (xx:xx)
  • Victor Serge (and a couple of other NYRB Classics authors): (xx:xx)
  • “The Liar” (xx:xx)

Some Links

Episode Credits

  • Co-Host Trevor Berrett
  • Co-Host Brian Berrett
  • Guest Nick During, Marketing & Sales Associate of NYRB Classics
  • Introduction Music — “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)
  • Outro Music — “Promise Me That You Will Never Die” by Jeff Zentner, from his album Hymns to the Darkness (used with permission)

Episode 4: Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s Memories of the Future

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Memories-of-the-FutureThough not officially state policy until 1932, socialist realism had been the unofficial type of art in Russia since the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks sought to put art into the service of the state. Art had to be easily understood and should convey a positive message about the Soviet Union and the struggle of the Proletariat. In Memories of the Future we find seven stories by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky that, as the book’s blurb says, were considered too subversive even to show to a publisher. These seven stories not only examine the underbelly of Soviet Moscow but they also indulge in and praise the life of the imagination, the ability to tell a story that seemingly has no relationship with reality, all in an effort to convey that reality more fully.

NYRB Classics published their edition of Memories of the Future in October of 2009, and it is the book we’ll be talking about in Episode 4 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.

In Episode 5 we will be discussing Friedrich Reck’s Diary of a Man in Despair, if the book gets to us in time. If not, we will be discussing Nancy Mitford’s The Sun King.

Show Notes (54:33)

  • Intro
  • Brief Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky Bio (02:37)
  • Brief Synopsis (04:45)
  • “Quadraturin” (08:42)
  • “The Bookmark” (17:03)
  • “The Thirteenth Category of Reason” (23:44)
  • “Red Snow” (26:30)
  • “The Branch Line” (29:35)
  • “Memories of the Future” (32:53)

Some Links

Episode Credits

  • Co-Host Trevor Berrett
  • Co-Host Brian Berrett
  • Introduction Music — “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)
  • Outro Music — “Promise Me That You Will Never Die” by Jeff Zentner, from his album Hymns to the Darkness (used with permission)

Episode 3: Milton Rokeach’s The Three Christs of Ypsilanti

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In the summer of 1959, Milton Rokeach, a social psychologist at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, brought together three patients: Clyde Benson, Joseph Cassel, and Leon Gabor, each of whom believed himself to be Jesus Christ. Rokeach hoped that spending time with others claiming the same identity would shake each man of his delusion, or, as he put it, “my main purpose in bringing them together was to explore the processes by which their delusional systems of belief and their behavior might change if they were confronted with the ultimate contradiction conceivable for human beings: more than one person claiming the same identity.” Rokeach observed them for two years, examining the nature of identity. It didn’t seem to help his patients, but it certainly affected them. Originally published in 1964, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti is a fascinating, sad, and disturbing psychological case study that most likely could not be repeated today.

NYRB Classics published their edition of The Three Christs of Ypsilanti in April of 2011, and it is the book we will be discussing in Episode 3 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.

In Episode 4 we will be discussing Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s Memories of the Future.

Show Notes (1:10:08)

  • Intro
  • Brief Milton Rokeach Bio: 2:29
  • Spoiler-Free, General Discussion: 4:50
  • Spoiler/Specifics Discussion: 31:25

Some Links

Episode Credits

  • Co-Host Trevor Berrett
  • Co-Host Brian Berrett
  • Introduction Music — “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)
  • Outro Music — “If This Is to Be Goodbye” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)

Episode 2: Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts

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At the end of 1933, Patrick Leigh Fermor’s dream of setting up as a writer in London wasn’t becoming a reality. Struck with the idea, he decided to leave his troubles behind and walk across Europe to Constantinople as a tramp. He was only eighteen. World War I was barely a memory, and he didn’t yet know what to make of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. Nearly a lifetime later, Leigh Fermor wrote about this trip in a planned trilogy. Originally published in 1977, A Time of Gifts is the first volume, and it takes us from London, to the Hook of Holland and to Hungary.

NYRB Classics published their edition of A Time of Gifts in October 2005, and it is the book we’ll be talking about in Episode 2 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.

In Episode 3 we will be discussing Milton Rokeach’s The Three Christs of Ypsilanti.

Show Notes (1:06:19)

  • Intro
  • Brief Patrick Leigh Fermor Bio: 03:31
  • Main Discussion: 05:18

Some links:

Episode Credits:

  • Co-Host Trevor Berrett
  • Co-Host Brian Berrett
  • Introduction Music — “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)
  • Outro Music — “Promise Me That You Will Never Die” by Jeff Zentner, from his album Hymns to the Darkness (used with permission)

Episode 1: John Williams’ Butcher’s Crossing

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It’s time to do a Mookse and Gripes podcast, which will be dedicated to discussing NYRB Classics. I’ll be joined by my brother, Brian, an avid reader and lover of NYRB Classics, as well as by periodic special guests.

Every month or so we will select and discuss one of the many fine books published by NYRB Classics. Why NYRB Classics? Because they are, for us, the quintessential publisher as curator, bringing out a beautifully produced, diverse series of books. From their own words, the series is “designedly and determinedly exploratory and eclectic, a mix of fiction and nonfiction from different eras and times and of various sorts.” As a reader, you can’t do much better than stacking your shelves with NYRB Classics.

Of course, there are other publishers and other things we’d like to cover, so every now and then we will have “special” episodes.

The show has been submitted and approved for iTunes, but apparently it will be a few days before it becomes searchable. In the meantime, you can play it below or click here to subscribe in iTunes. You’ll notice the show has no reviews yet, so if you feel inclined you could maybe be the first.

Now, on to the show:

In 1960, John Williams published his second novel. Butcher’s Crossing, considered to be one of the first revisionist Westerns, didn’t bring Williams fame or fortune and didn’t establish for Williams a reputation as one of the great American writers, even though it is highly regarded by its readers. Still, upon publication, much like his first novel (though this time not deservedly), Butcher’s Crossing was largely ignored, and today it is overlooked, if not forgotten.

NYRB Classics published their edition of Butcher’s Crossing in January 2007, and it is the book we’ll be talking about in Episode 1 of the Mookse and Gripes Podcast.

In Episode 2, we will be discussing Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts. Please join us in our preparations!

Show Notes (56:30):

  • Intro: 00:00
  • Brief John Williams Bio: 02:40
  • Spoiler-free Synopsis: 03:35
  • Spoiler-free Discussion: 05:05
  • Spoiler-rife Discussion: 19:40

Some links:

Episode Credits:

  • Co-Host: Trevor Berrett
  • Co-Host: Brian Berrett
  • Introduction Music — “Where We Fall We’ll Lie” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)
  • Outro Music — “Where I’m From” by Jeff Zentner, from his album The Dying Days of Summer (used with permission)