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669 Obsessed with Melville (with Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder) | My Last Book with Alexander Poots
Episode 669

669 Obsessed with Melville (with Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder) | My Last Book with Alexander Poots

The History of Literature · Jacke Wilson / The Podglomerate

January 13, 202553m 0s

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Show Notes

What happens when a woman becomes obsessed with Herman Melville during the pandemic? What if the process of sorting fact from fiction in Melville's work inspires a midlife reckoning with her own marriage and ambition? And what if she (a poet) and her husband (a novelist, by the way) write a book about all of it? Well, the result would be something like Dayswork: A Novel, which has been called "a supremely literate achievement that wears its erudition lightly." In this episode, Jacke talks to the poet and her novelist husband, Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder, about what Melville means to them. PLUS Alexander Boots (The Strangers' House: Writing Northern Ireland) discusses his choice for the last book he will ever read.

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The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

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