Underrated Books

Description: Jane Smiley's Greenlanders, among others.

Transcript: 

You can’t count people who’ve gotten the Nobel Prize right because they’ve gotten the Nobel Prize.  A book I’m surprised no one ever talks about, I’m not surprised, a book I’m disappointed no one ever talks about because I don’t really know of a better American novel from the last 20 years is Jane Smiley’s book “The Greenlanders” it’s her finest work to my knowledge, so I would mention that and while we’re talking about fine novels from the last 20 years, I would have to throw out “Infinite Jest” I know that it is much more spoken of but I still don’t think it got as much attention as it deserved, it’s a giant book, it’s a wonderful book.  So these things are relative, David Wallace, nor Jane Smiley, they’re not exactly unknown writers.  A little bit more in that category would be Christina Stead with “The Man Who Loved Children” which I’m on a bit of a personal crusade to call people’s attention to a genuine family novel masterpiece unlike any other book ever written, came out of America by an Australian ex-pat genius named Christina Stead and I’ll plug that too.

 

 

Recorded On: 4/1/08