Tell Me What You’re Reading No. 33: Jim Finnegan (II): Shuggie Bain, etc.
My friend Jim Finnegan returns to the podcast to discuss Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart; a tough book but a great read. An unfortunate tale of growing up gay in working class poor Glascow with an alcoholic mother; anger, sadness, lack of hope, despair and dependence.
At one point Shuggie’s older brother reflects on his sadness and his anger, and says, “sadness was better than the anger he felt … . Sadness made for a better houseguest; at least it was quiet, reliable, consistent.” And then another character reflects on the hopelessness of them all, saying, “If ye hope, ye also mope”.
What Jim is Reading
Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart
Reviews The New York Times | The Guardian | The Irish Times | Financial Times | NPR | Columbia Journal | London Review of Books
Milkman, by Anna Burns - Catholic/ Protestant divide
Reviews The New Yorker | The Washington Post | The Los Angeles Times | The New York Times | NPR
Ironweed, by William Kennedy - alcoholism
Reviews The Guardian | The Washington Post
The Vanishing Half, by Britt Bennet
Reviews The New York Times | The New Yorker | NPR | The Guardian | The Los Angeles Times
The Shadow King, by Maaza Mengiste
The role that women played in the Ethiopian resistance when Italy invaded Ethiopia
Reviews The New York Times | The Guardian | The Washington Post | NPR | The Booker Prizes
Deacon King Kong, by James McBride
Reviews The New Yorker | The New York Times | NPR | The Washington Post | Los Angeles Review of Books | Time | Kirkus Reviews | The Boston Globe | Press Play KCRW
Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
Reviews The New York Times | The Washington Post | Los Angeles Review of Books | The Times Literary Supplement | New York Journal of Books
Jim also referred to …
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Reviews The New Yorker | The New York Times | The Atlantic | NPR
The Pope of Greenwich Village, by Vincent Patrick
Reviews Kirkus Reviews
Motherless Brooklyn (film)
What Howard is Reading
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, by Rick Atkinson,
Reviews The New York Times| The Washington Post | Kirkus | The Times | The Minnesota Star Tribune
Ten Lessons For A Post-Pandemic World. By Fareed Zakaria
Reviews The New York Times | The Book Review
Opinions Essay The Washington Post
Fareed Zakaria Wikipedia
A Swim In a Pond in the Rain - In Which Four Russians Give A Master - Class on Writing, Reading and Life, by George Saunders
Reviews The New York Times | The Guardian | Vanity Fair | The Los Angeles Times | The Irish Times | Slate | YouTube
The Guardian George Saunders: what writers really do when they write
Open Source with Christopher Lydon: Write Like the Russians, February 18, 2021
Commencement speech at Syracuse University
Passing, by Nella Larsen
Reviews NPR | The New York Times Style Magazine
Nella Larsen NYPL
The Reader's Den: About the Author of "Passing"
The Tenant, by Bernard Malamud
Reviews The New York Times | The Indiependent
