The Reader and the Writer

Welcome back! In this episode, Shari and Rhea conclude their discussion of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. They get deep into ideas of transfiguration, baptism, endings that don’t do what they want, and where the beauty is despite the great sadnesses. There is much to lament, much to rejoice over, much to wonder at in these final chapters. It also makes the following quote from Robinson’s inte...

Welcome back to R&W’s deep read of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. In this episode, Shari and Rhea discuss the feeling of darkness and mystery surrounding much of this section of the novel. They discuss Sylvie’s strangeness, Ruthie’s eccentric imagination, and Lucille being fed up with all of it. They talk about the role of dreams, the continued motif of water, and the strangeness of death tha...

Welcome back to our year long read of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. In this episode, Rhea and Shari break down the whole tragic event of Natasha’s inevitable break up with Andrei. They wonder how many more times Dolokhov will keep appearing where there’s trouble-making. They worry over Andrei’s heart and wonder over Marya’s words to him about forgiveness. They are finally satisfied with Tolstoy sp...

It’s time for a new book! Welcome to Housekeeping by Mariynne Robinson. In this episode, Shari and Rhea introduce listeners to the author, and this strange new place they find themselves now, Fingerbone, Montana, a vastly different world from early 1700’s England, for sure! They then dive into the narrative, talk about the eccentricities of the characters, the aliveness of the setting, and the pos...

Welcome to the last episode of Moll Flanders! In this episode Shari and Rhea dive deep into Moll’s moment of repentance and her life as a penitent afterwards. Do we believe her? Does she become a reliable narrator in the end? What is the difference between repentance and penitence anyway?? They also go back to the question they asked themselves early on: why does this novel feel so contemporary an...

Welcome to R&W’s on-going read of Moll Flanders . In this episode, Rhea and Shari talk about Moll’s brazenness with her thievery, the hollowing out of her soul, the events leading up to her capture, and how Defoe manages to truly make Moll “nameless” by the time she reaches the end—that is, the end of her “Course of Life for forty Years,” a “horrid Complication of Wickedness, Whoredom, Adultery, I...

Welcome back to Moll Flanders , the novel that reads like a slow motion train wreck. In this episode, Rhea and Shari discuss Moll’s continued decent and desecration of her soul. They discuss Moll as an addict; this insatiable need she has now developed to thieve after years of morally depraved choices. They wonder at Moll’s string of failed marriages and ask at what point these failures are becaus...

Welcome back to our year long read of War & Peace! In this episode, Shari and Rhea discuss all the drama that’s suddenly boiling over in this story. They discuss all the matchmaking that is suddenly happening, compare each couple’s foundation, complications, motives, etc. They talk about the Rostov’s downward spiral, and Pierre’s ever-deepening malaise over life. They discuss the connections they...

Welcome back to Moll Flanders! In this episode, Shari and Rhea continue to discuss Moll’s downward spiral. Why does Moll insist on this Gentlewoman status to the extreme detriment of herself and all her children she keeps birthing and leaving behind?? They talk more about Moll’s seeming lack of maternal compassion or instinct, and how much of it is due to the male author behind it. They discuss th...

Welcome to Part 2 (of six) of Moll Flanders . In this episode, Rhea and Shari spend considerable time discussing Moll’s character. Mainly: can she be trusted? Why does she keep making these missteps over and again? How many of her problems are really of her own doing? All this led to discussions of the unreliable narrator, the uniqueness of the first person narrative (particularly in this early En...

Welcome to Moll Flanders, R&W’s next slow read. In this episode, Rhea and Shari spend time introducing the background to this 18th Century novel and it’s author, Daniel Defoe, named by Henry James as the “father of the English novel.” They discuss the strange, autobiographical style of the novel, Defoe’s use of the novel form to criticize his country’s debtor laws and women’s lack of agency, how t...

Hello! Welcome to April’s reading of War & Peace. In this episode, Shari and Rhea do a deep dive in the contrasts and companionships continuing to form in W&P. They spend considerable time talking about Pierre and Andrei: their arguments about what matters, their individual directions and efforts, their loves, lusts, and greatest desires. They discuss Andrei’s turn toward life after his strange an...

Welcome to this final episode of Odyssey , translated by Emily Wilson. In this episode, Rhea and Shari discuss their deep love of Odysseus and Penelope’s reunion, and their utter confusion with Book 24—why it felt random, rushed, unnecessary, etc. They talked about where the climax was, and what the story is ultimately about. They talk about story telling as the collective love language of the anc...

Welcome back to the Odyssey! In this episode, Rhea and Shari discuss the host-guest relationships that truly are driving the story forward at this point. They wonder why Odysseus disguises himself rather than just come home and kick everyone out. They discuss the role of fate in the story and why they keep reading if they know how it all turns out in the end. But the thing they talk about the most...

Welcome to Part 2 of R&W’s discussion of The Odyssey . In this episode Rhea and Shari discuss just how complicated of a man Odysseus is. They discuss the real flavor they get of the story being originally told orally, the way it reads much like The Arabian Nights: stories within stories within stories. They also discuss all the spin offs and stories The Odyssey rhymes with and has inspired in the...

Welcome to our first episode of Homer’s The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson. In this episode, Shari and Rhea take a deep dive into the history of The Odyssey and Homer… or is it Homers? They also spend a LOT of time talking about metric verse, how it was originally written in the Greek (dactylic hexameter) and how Wilson translated it into iambic pentameter. We also talk about what the heck al...

Welcome to March’s reading of War and Peace , by Leo Tolstoy. Things are heating up in 1806 Russia. Rhea and Shari have lots to discuss. They talk about the sad—and predictable—outcome at Austerlitz, Andrei’s injury and the ways it’s changed him… and ways it has not. They discuss Pierre’s sad situation: his bizarre dual with Dolokhov, and this newest way he’s come “under the influence” of a force...

In this bonus episode of Pachinko , Shari and Rhea share their thoughts—in broad and generous strokes—on Apple TV’s film adaption of Pachinko . In order to not give spoilers, they spend most their time talking about screen adaptations in general, focusing on how trying to compare books to their movie (or TV show) counterparts is really futile, if your purpose is to judge whether one is better than...

Welcome back to this final episode of R&W’s deep read of Pachinko , by Min Jin Lee. In this episode, Shari and Rhea discuss the way Lee brought her multigenerational tale to a beautiful close. They discuss motherhood, the grace of hearing hard truths, grace in death, grace in forgiveness, grace in suffering, grace in everything. They discuss the way Lee reveals everything in the end through a rede...

Welcome back to R&W’s deep read of Pachinko , by Min Jin Lee. In this episode, Shari and Rhea spend most of their discussion lamenting Noa. Oh, Noa. Noa!! How could you! The pain. The agony. The heartache. But there is more to cover. They discuss Mozasu’s life, Solomon’s growing up as a Korean-Japanese, Hansu’s cracking demeanor, Haruki’s strange chapters, and everyone’s deep suffering. They discu...

Welcome back for Part Three of Pachinko. In this episode, Rhea and Shari connect some of their stand out quotes with major themes they see developing through the novel: suffering, love, fate, and home. They go back to the quote from Book II and continue to discuss how they see the quote being brought forth through the tensions between characters and their relationships with one another and their p...

Welcome to this second episode of War and Peace , R&W’s year long read. In this episode, Shari and Rhea talk and wonder about a whole host of topics. They talk about the scenes that stand out to them: Vasili’s cunning and manipulating, Old Bolkonsky’s gruff love, Nikolai’s obsession with the emperor, and Andrei’s Toulon. They do a deep dive in all study of contrasts Tolstoy is developing: Andrei -...

Welcome back to the R&W deep read of Pachinko , by Min Jin Lee. In this episode, Shari and Rhea discuss how the story is developing, and how their view of the characters is developing, too. They continue their ongoing discussion of how the opening quotes (the one by Dickens in Book I, and Park Wan-suh in Book II) are being enfleshed through the story telling for each section of the story. They dis...

In this episode, Shari and Rhea dive into their new book, Pachinko , by Min Jin Lee. They give some background on author, Min Jin Lee, and her motivations for writing Pachinko. They discuss the Korean Japanese conflict that is the backdrop for this generational Korean family drama. They discuss the significance of “beginnings” in this novel, as well as its almost-omniscient narrative style. They d...

Welcome to this last episode on Crossing the Mangrove . In this episode, Shari and Rhea discuss their thoughts on the ending: what surprised them, what annoyed them, whose narrative they were ultimately drawn toward, and what they think the story is really about. They talk about Xantippe’s character being an archtype of the first Adam, the role of “the Good” as Plato expresses it in The Republic a...