Cordelivres Criticism Club

In this episode of the Free and Direct Podcast, we are joined by repeat guest Brian Heston and our very own Associate Poetry Editor Alexandra Romero, to break down T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock . Alex and Brian lead us through a close reading of Prufrock, among the most significant poems of the 20th century, and a cornerstone of Modernist literature. We also get into Eliot’s li...

Welcome to this week’s episode of Cordelivres club! Today, we are joined by recurring guest Diane Josefowicz and Indirect Books’ new Publicist, Millie Oliver! We discuss Diane’s new book, Guardians and Saints , and the way she explores character, time, and place. We had Diane on an early episode to talk about her novel L’Air du Temps (1985) , and in today’s show we get into the ways she has traced...

Nothing was more natural than that these things should be the other things they absolutely were not. I hope you enjoy this conversation, and in the meantime—stay critical. Merci ! Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Get full access to Indirect Books at 1882literary.substack.com/subscribe

I hope you enjoy this conversation, and in the meantime—stay critical. Merci ! Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Get full access to Indirect Books at 1882literary.substack.com/subscribe

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, Nor the furious winter’s rages; Our Mrs Dalloway series rolls on into 2026 with critic extraordinaire Nicole Gantz joining the show to bring her expertise and lens to the novel. This is Part Two of our discussion with Nicole, looking at the book’s linguistic surface and the various ways in which Woolf structures her architecture to offer an insightful look at what...

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, Nor the furious winter’s rages; Our Mrs Dalloway series rolls on into 2026 with critic extraordinaire Nicole Gantz joining the show to bring her expertise and lens to the novel. Nicole focuses on the book’s linguistic surface and the various ways in which Woolf structures her architecture to offer an insightful look at what’s happening compositionally. This post i...

And it comes over her in a rush, the memory of what it used to feel like, being alive. This episode is our first look at a novel by Rachel Cusk, my favorite writer (or co-favorite, with Woolf), and, à mon avis, the most important novelist of the 21st century. We talk about The Bradshaw Variations, from 2009, looking at how Cusk’s narration and its interest in philosophical depth power the book. We...

This episode features the formidable friend of the journal, Devyn Andrews, joining the show to discuss Anna Burns’ Milkman. Devyn—Issue Seven L’Esprit contributor and fellow veteran of the UIC Program for Writers—brings her singular insight to this incredible novel and its very strange, highly compelling use of first-person. We get into the novel and break down its use of homodiegetic narration, a...

…seemed to suggest the possibility of madness as a kind of shelter. In the episode of Les Cordelivres Criticism Club, we dive deep into Rachel Cusk's 2024 novel Parade as an example of a work that pushes the boundaries of the novel form. We discuss how the book arguably represents a new frontier in utilizing the novel as a philosophical text while still maintaining compelling narrative elements. W...

She could probably return in time to destroy the notes. Happy New Year! This episode is the second half of our conversation on Mrs Dalloway intertextualities, looking at Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Robert Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway . We dove right back into composition, looking at how both novels look to make their readerly impact through plot-based narrative developments rather than through...

She is allowed, for now, to read unreasonably. This episode is the first half of our conversation on the intertextualities of Mrs Dalloway , looking at Michael Cunningham's The Hours and Robert Lippincott's Mr. Dalloway . We introduced the books, spending a little time on each and discussing the MRSD legacy more broadly before turning to the texts themselves. We talk about how both authors approac...

First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. In this episode of Les Cordelivres Criticism Club, we dive deep into the narration, language, and aesthetics of Woolf’s seminal novel Mrs Dalloway —maybe the greatest novel of all time? One could make a strong case. The discussion is somewhat based on an essay I presented at the 34th Annual International Conference this past July, titled ”The H...

Suddenly Elizabeth stepped forward and most competently boarded the omnibus, in front of everybody. This episode is the first in our series on Mrs Dalloway , for the 100th anniversary of its publication. In this episode, we talk somewhat generally about the novel, getting into Woolf's style and narrational mode, and how she manages to create a sense of her book being "lived-in."What's really inter...

A sharp spur of anxiety runs up her leg. This episode focuses on the second half of Eimear McBride's 2020 novel Strange Hotel , talking about the way her prose creates a parallel relationship between the reader’s repose to the text and the character’s response to memory. We looked at some more of that awesome McBride language, and had fun with quotes. Check out the first half of our conversation,...

In the end he needs reality, to measure his creation against. Our first memoir in the Cordlivres Club! On this episode, we’re talking Rachel Cusk’s The Last Supper , from 2009, about a summer spent in Italy with her family. It’s all about art, language, meaning, truth, tennis—you know, typical stuff. We get into Cusk's distinctive writing style, particularly her ability to blend abstract philosoph...

Our latest guest episode in the Cordelives Club doubles as our first author talk! The marvellous H. S. Cross joins us to talk about her new novel, Amanda. Heather and I talk about her belief in point-of-view, the MFA-less route she took to writing, how she researched and thought about her novel, and so much more. Amanda is a super cool book, and this episode is a great look both at it and at Heath...

What better way to tackle the most titanic of twentieth century novels—both within and beyond the text itself—than to bring in a very special guest? Indirect Books’ debut author, and noted literary maverick, Michael Nath joins to show to get stuck in to Joyce’s monumental Ulysses. We take a look at Episodes Four (“Calypso”) & Five (“The Lotus Eaters”), more or less, in this epic two-part conversat...

What better way to tackle the most titanic of twentieth century novels—both within and beyond the text itself—than to bring in a very special guest? Indirect Books’ debut author, and noted literary maverick, Michael Nath joins to show to get stuck in to Joyce’s monumental Ulysses. We take a look at Episodes Four (“Calypso”) & Five (“The Lotus Eaters”), more or less, in this epic two-part conversat...

She has no interest whatsoever in France. This episode focuses on the first half of Eimear McBride's excellent novel Strange Hotel , diving into its unique narrative structure, narrational techniques (including our old friend the present tense), immersive language, and use of memory. The discussion explores the novel’s Modernist inheritances and approach, including different levels of third-person...

Our latest standalone episode of the Free and Direct Podcast is here! The brilliant L’Esprit interns, Aerin and Anika, join the show to discuss their experiences working on the journal, their views on the state of literature, and a couple of short stories they wanted to check out. Get full access to Indirect Books at 1882literary.substack.com/subscribe

Our first guest episode in the Cordelives Club! My friend Brian—poet, professor, lover of Paris—joins to talk about James Baldwin’s brilliant short story “Sonny’s Blues", and tunes in an absolute tour de force. Brian takes us through the story from the sentence level out to the wider context of Baldwin’s life; we cover everything from the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s to Baldwin’s influences...

‘And the material doesn’t stain,’ the salesgirl says. This episode focuses on Muriel Spark's 1970 novel The Driver's Seat , diving into Spark’s author's technique of "getting in and out" of scenes and the way she mediates the reader-protagonist relationship. The third person present-tense narration continually—and fearlessly—drops us into the middle of scenes without explanation, using a strange,...

Welcome to the first episode of Les Cordelivres Club, conversations in revolutionary criticism from Indirect Books . This episode focuses on Virginia Woolf’s short story “In The Orchard,” and the foundational mode of analysis for literary critique: a consideration of narrative and narration. What is this distinction between narration and narrative in literature? What is the narrating entity and ho...

Welcome to our new series of applied literary criticism from the Free and Direct Podcast and Indirect Books! New podcast episodes will post on Wednesdays (cross-posted on our Free and Direct feed), with show notes posting on Saturdays (exclusive to Substack). Find show on our website , or anywhere else ( Apple , Spotify , Amazon , RSS ).The Cordelivres Criticism Club takes its name from a social c...