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Our apologies as illness delayed the release of this episode.  This week we are reviewing a book that was hailed by some as one of the most important books of the decade-- and perhaps the century?  While we agreed The Sympathizer was a good read, opinions differed on whether or not it was great.  We also debated how important a novel voice is to the success of novel. For our series on Rich Country | Poor Country, we will read and discuss three novels: Yun Ko-eun's The Disaster Tourist Jun 3 - 17, Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer Jun 24 - Jul 8, and Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise Jul 15-29. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

We conclude our discussion of Yun Ko-Eun's The Disaster Tourist by comparing it to Parasite and Squid Game, two other Korean works that may share a similar message about capitalism. Does an anti-capitalist trend in Korea mean that Korean politics will soon become more like American politics? And, most importantly, how does this all affect Kid Rock's bank account? Tune in to find out. For our series on Rich Country | Poor Country, we will read and discuss three novels: Yun Ko-eun's The Disaster Tourist Jun 3 - 17, Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer Jun 24 - Jul 8, and Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise Jul 15-29. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

This week, we're continuing our discussion of Yun Ko-eun’s The Disaster Tourist with a focus on everyone's favorite topic: literary criticism! We're in the deep end of it this time, exploring whether the ecocritical concerns are weighed fairly against the book’s humanist ideals. Was this not-too-careful novel more careful about ecological disaster? For our series on Rich Country | Poor Country, we will read and discuss three novels: Yun Ko-eun's The Disaster Tourist Jun 3 - 17, Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer Jun 24 - Jul 8, and Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

This week, we read The Disaster Tourist by South Korean writer Yun Ko-eun, her first novel to be translated into English.  Labeled by reviewers as a literary thriller, eco-thriller, and political thriller, James found it more disastrous than thrilling.  But can the novel's ideas rescue it from the recycle bin of disappointing literature? For our series on Rich Country | Poor Country, we will read and discuss three novels: Yun Ko-eun's The Disaster Tourist Jun 3 - 17, Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer Jun 24 - Jul 8, and Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise. You can join our Reddit discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

This might be unlike any novel you've ever read before. It's a novel but it's nonfiction; it's about true events but it's important that you understand some parts are false; and it shows you the very human repercussions of a part of science that usually feels distant and intangible.  Tune into this mini-review to find out how this unusual, idiosyncratic novel has as much to say about our minds as it does the world around us. You can join our discussion here:https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

And that's a wrap for our series on the Novel in Stories! We examine how this kind of composite structure might work in film with Wong Kar-Wai's 2004 movie 2046, and discuss whether it is similar in structure to novels in stories. We also talk about some of our discoveries with this kind of "novel" structure. For this series, we will read and discuss three novels-in-stories: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad Mar 25 - Apr 8, Ali Smith's There But For The Apr 15- 29, and Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno May 6 - 20. You can join discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube You can also support us by buying a  book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too! We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

In this episode, we wonder who the heck Anthony Marra thinks he is, an American (!) writing about Russians (!!) in The Tsar of Love and Techno (!!!). Eyad asks if this is an issue. We then talk about possible good results from such transcultural writing and whether all writers are afforded such a luxury equally. Finally, we transcend to the stars alongside Kolya (spoiler?) to discuss a critic's notion of the cosmonomad transcultural writer. Enjoy! For this series, we will read and discuss three novels-in-stories: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad Mar 25 - Apr 8, Ali Smith's There But For The Apr 15- 29, and Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno May 6 - 20. You can join our book club discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube You can also support us by buying The Tsar of Love and Techno or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too! We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

In this episode we talk about the historical context of Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno. Sam begins by giving us a history lesson. We then try to apply this book to current events. James has a love affair with the word 'tenuous'. We end by ruminating over what themes make this novel work as a work of literature. Enjoy!   What is the historical context of the book? (1:15)  Is the historical context necessary? (6:05)  Does this book actually engage with history or is the historical events just window dressing? (11:00)  Is removing a confederate statue similar to the censoring that the book depicts about Soviet purges? (16:30)  Is Marra saying something about truth?  Or perhaps something about art? Or community? (20:50)   For this series, we will read and discuss three novels-in-stories: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad Mar 25 - Apr 8, Ali Smith's There But For The Apr 15- 29, and Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno May 6 - 20. You can join our book club discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube You can also support us by buying The Tsar of Love and Techno or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too! We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

Anthony Marra's first book A Constellation of Vital Phenomena was an award-winning bestseller and his third book Mercury Pictures Presents (set to be released in a few months) is getting a lot of buzz in the biz.  So naturally we decide to give our attention to Marra's overlooked middle child The Tsar of Love and Techno.  Reminiscent of Donna Tartt's Goldfinch, Tsar is fantastically written but we question where this belongs in the literary canon.  Other questions that we discuss: Is this a novel or a collection?  What's the story behind the weird Greek literary award this book won? And can someone explain to James what Sarah Jessica Parker is doing on the back of his book?!  These and more in this week's review.  For this series, we will read and discuss three novels-in-stories: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad Mar 25 - Apr 8, Ali Smith's There But For The Apr 15- 29, and Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno May 6 - 20. You can join our book club discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube You can also support us by buying The Tsar of Love and Techno or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too! We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

What is this book about?  Is it about class protest? Is it about trauma? Both? For this series, we will read and discuss three novels-in-stories: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad Mar 25 - Apr 8, Ali Smith's There But For The Apr 15- 29, and Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno May 6 - 20. You can join our book club discussion here:  https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube You can also support us by buying There But For The or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too! We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

We're continuing our look at Ali Smith's There But For The with an examination of empathy and borders. You might not imagine that those two themes go well together in a novel, but Sam makes a pretty convincing point in this episode. For this series, we will read and discuss three novels-in-stories: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad Mar 25 - Apr 8, Ali Smith's There But For The Apr 15- 29, and Anthony Marra's The Tsar of Love and Techno May 6 - 20. You can join our book club discussion here:  https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube You can also support us by buying There But For The or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too! We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

What is it about Jonathan Franzen's latest novel Crossroads that has many claiming it to be best novel yet by the most important novelist of our time? Expectations are incredibly high for this novel, the first in a proposed trilogy. Tune in to find out if the novel lives up to the hype. You can join our discussion here:https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and extended discussions for every episode. You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | Youtube You can also support us by buying Crossroads or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too! We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!