Two Month Review

In this episode, Kaija, Chad, and Brian talk about the really awful men in this book, along with fragmentation, fractals, and postmodernism talk as they struggle to remember which character is which (“is that Anna or Ella?”) and how to get a grasp on the whole of the novel. They also discuss placing things into firm categories, Jungian psychotherapy, grand narratives, and wonder: Will this novel e...

In this section, Chad, Brian, and Kaija go over "Free Women: 3," asking if anyone is truly free, along with the next excerpt from the "Black Notebook," which includes a significant number of dead pigeons. They talk about the overall fragmentation of this novel, its specific non-linear approach, what's "real" and what's a literary game, the humor found in the book, and who exactly is James? As Kaij...

In this new episode covering up to page 352 of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook , Chad, Brian, and Kaija talk about the difficulty in keeping the various characters in the various notebooks straight—especially as the novel gets more recursive and hall of mirrors-like—the play with dates in the “Blue Notebook,” existential dread, fragmentation, and the breakdown of systems, how publishing works,...

Is The Golden Notebook just novels all the way down? Brian, Kaija, and Chad talk about the idea that the “Free Women” sections of the book are just another novel, that Anna Wulf is disgusted by everything and parodies it in her notebooks, about generational distrust, colors, musicals, and more. They don’t talk about how the ending of “Free Women: 2” is a perfect TV cliffhanger, leading directly in...

Chad, Kaija, and Brian finish off the first "part" of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook by looking at the Yellow Notebook (a novel called "The Shadow of the Third") and the Blue one (dreams, psychoanalysis, and newspaper clippings). They talk about the names, the constant doubling, the assumptions of what is "real" and what is "fiction," how men are awful, and more. This week’s music is “Nationa...

Brian returns this podcast to talk about his initial thoughts, especially as they relate to postmodernism and fragmentation. In the rest of the episode Chad, Kaija, and Brian discuss Anna’s first entry in her “Black Notebook,” which focuses on the time she spent in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with her socialist friends, which is the material she remixed into her novel, Frontiers of War. Also: Go Timbe...

This new season kicks off with a bit of an overview of Doris Lessing’s career and some of her fun quotes. Then, after getting into her 1971 introduction to The Golden Notebook (one of the best intros ever), Chad and Kaija dive into the first 80 pages, in which we’re introduced to Anna, Molly, Richard, and Tommy, along with the “Black Notebook.” This week’s music is “Communist Daughter” by Neutral...

Chad—the world’s biggest Kathy Acker stan?—Brian, and Kaija finish up their discussion of Kathy Acker’s Empire of the Senseless looking for possibly pathways to a better life, such as, becoming a pirate or joining a motorcycle game. They talk about Acker’s work as a map, they discuss the three-part structure, and, finally, Huckleberry Finn appears, tying this book back into James . . . They also a...

Chad doubles down on his love of Kathy Acker while Kaija continues to be unamused, and Brian sits somewhere in the middle. Nevertheless, this leads to a great discussion about revolution, if it felt rebellious reading Acker back in the 90s, forms of oppression (government, the uber-wealthy, language), and how the only escape seems to be by motorcycle or pirate ship. This week’s music is “ Rebel Gi...

This episode is the one to listen to if you find Empire of the Senseless /Kathy Acker distasteful, unpleasant to read, a slog, hard going, etc. That summarizes Kaija’s experience, whereas Chad argues for the value in books that refuse to get in line, and Brian talks about why Acker is so divisive. If you’re not reading along, this episode is a great summary of why Acker is lauded, while also coppi...

The second part of this season of the Two Month Review kicks off with a bang as Chad, Brian, and Kaija shift to talking about Kathy Acker and her Empire of the Senseless . It’s Kaija’s first exposure to Acker, so a lot of time is spent explaining where Acker came from, her aesthetic approach, the political moment of the mid-80s (and how that connects to now), elements of her life that frequently g...

First off: Congrats to Rodrigo Fresán & Will Vanderhyden for winning this year’s Republic of Consciousness Prize for Melvill !!! If you didn’t listen to our season on this novel, I suggest going back to it—and ordering a copy of the book from Open Letter . This week, Chad, Brian, and Kaija go over the last part of James by Percival Everett and all love the ending and the philosophical challenges i...

In the penultimate episode on Percival Everett's James , Chad, Kaija, and Brian discuss how unnerving Part II is to read (especially in relation to Brock), the choices that James is left with, the extended metaphor running throughout this part, the bits of humor in this book that's primarily filled with horrors, and much much more. This week's music is " Foot on Necks " by Sault. Next week we’ll c...

The most anxiety-filled section of James is under discussion this week, as we find out the horrific fate of Little George, and James is both beaten and then sold to a minstrel show. There are also questions raised about Huck that are quite intriguing, and a lot of masks, metaphors, and irony. This week's music is "Ends Meet" by Panda Bear, mostly because his new album is called Sinister Grift , wh...

In this episode, Chad, Brian, and Kaija talk about the role of James as a writer, how long James will parallel Adventures of Huck Finn , the geography of the U.S., and the malicious intent of people in power, con men, father figures, Huck and James’s relationship, and much more. This week's music is " Can’t Get Enough of It " by Sprints. Next week we’ll cover pages 124-185 (through the end of Part...

The 25th season of the Two Month Review will dive into two books related to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , starting with Percival Everett’s highly praised, award-winning, James. This week Chad, Brian, and Kaija talk about Huck Finn, the language games in the opening chapters of the novel, discuss masks, grifters, how the two books intersect, and much more. This week's music is " Request Deni...

Special guest Rodrigo Fresán joins Brian, Chad, and Kaija to celebrate being on the Republic of Consciousness longlist , talk about his novels, his career, the ideas he circles back to time and again, the idea of a writer creating their reader, what’s next for him, and much more. Also: The books for Season 25 are announced at the very end. The " Grifters Gonna Grift " t-shirt is still available an...

In the penultimate episode of this season, there’s a lot of talk about Melville’s relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne as we get more of Melville’s life as he bounces through time, writes Moby-Dick and the creation of “its own kind of reader: an inexhaustible reader. A reader that didn’t yet exist . . .” The " Grifters Gonna Grift " t-shirt is still available and still sexy. Next episode will be...

On the final episode of 2024, Chad, Brian, and Kaija talk about Nico C. and being unmoored from time, last words, footnotes and ellipses, some highlights from the past year, ice, and more. The " Grifters Gonna Grift " t-shirt is still available and still sexy. Next episode will be next week at the regularly scheduled time and will cover pages 189-245 of Rodrigo Fresán's Melvill . You can find the...

Lori Feathers ( Across the Pond podcast, Involutions of the Seashell , Interabang Books , and Republic of Consciousness Prize USA ) joins Chad and Kaija to talk about prizes— Melvill is longlisted for the NBCC Greg Barrios Prize for Translated Literature!—the narrative structure of Melvill , Nico C., and vampires. A lot of fun is had along the way. The " Grifters Gonna Grift " t-shirt is still ava...

With Melville's Fidèle receding into the dark distance, we turn our attention to Rodrigo Fresán's Melvill , a bombastic book about Alan Melvill and Herman and the passing down of stories from one generation to the next. On this special episode, translator Will Vanderhyden joins Brian, Chad, and Kaija to talk about translating Fresán, about the style and word play found in his books, about the foot...

Chad, Brian, and Kaija venture into the darkness and turn off the light on Melville's The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade , one of the oddest, most slippery books to be included in the Two Month Review. They talk about transcendentalism, self-reliance, Melville's interludes, Jean Giono's Melville , and more. And here's the " Grifters Gonna Grift " t-shirt mentioned in this episode. Next episode wil...

Opening with a couple of rants, this week's podcast is spicy and also tries to make sense of a few of the more perplexing parts of the book. There's a wonderful interlude in this section from the narrator themselves, and, apparently, nine jokes? And a magic trick involving coins. You'll have to listen to understand. And here's the " Grifters Gonna Grift " t-shirt mentioned in this episode. This we...

[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] "Grifters Gonna Grift" merchandise coming soon! This episode exposes just how useful footnotes can be as we transition from dusk to darkness, with the confidence-men being replaced by the Cosmopolitan. Under Discussion: The WWE, how nothing ever changes, the New Adam, l...

[Note: If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please resubscribe to this feed. The other one will be going away in the near future.] Chad and Kaija go it alone this week, talking about some of the more uncomfortable parts of the book to read in 2024, the Goneril story and the "evil touch," how almost every beat in this novel has a counterpart, the wonderful authorial intrusion discussing the "consist...