On this episode of Recall This Book, John talks to Stephen McCauley, a novelist and Professor of the Practice of English and Co-director of Creative Writing at Brandeis. Nobody knows more about the comic novel than Steve, and there is no comic novelist he loves better than Barbara Pym, a mid-century British comic genius who found herself forgotten and unpublishable in middle age, only to roar back into print in her sixties. Steve and John’s friendship over the years has been sealed by the favorite Pym lines they text back and forth to one another, so they are particularly keen to investigate why her career went in this way.
In the episode, they talk about some of these favorite sentences from Pym, and then turn to the comic novel as a genre. They talk about the difference between humorous and comic writing, the earthiness of comedy, whether comic novels should have happy or sad endings, and whether the comic novel is a precursor to, or an amoral relief from, the sitcom. They also discuss some of Steve’s fiction, including his yoga series, and in Recallable Books John recommends Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell and Steve recommends After Claude by Iris Owens. You can find out more about the upcoming (March 22) meeting of the Barbara Pym society at the Harvard Law School here.
Discussed in this episode:
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Laurence Sterne
Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
“The Beast in the Jungle,” Henry James
The Thurber Carnival, James Thurber
The Group, Mary McCarthy
After Claude, Iris Owens
Pictures from an Institution, Randall Jarrell
An Unsuitable Attachment, Barbara Pym
Less than Angels, Barbara Pym
The Sweet Dove Died, Barbara Pym
Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth
The Object of My Affection, Stephen McCauley
The Sellout, Paul Beatty
My Ex-Life, Stephen McCauley
You can listen to this episode here:
(Episode transcript available here:McCauley Comic Novel )