TMR 26.9: "The Two Women Kissed and Separated " [The Golden Notebook]
Kaija, Brian, and Chad reach “The Golden Notebook” inside of The Golden Notebook, and discuss the ways in which this novel push back against various interpretations, ways in which the world can break you, men and their microaggressions, men and their egotism and their I I I I, the ways in which this is and isn’t a feminist text, and more. The next season starts on July 3rd and will feature Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell. The full schedule is available here.After that, in September, season 28 will be about Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. Stay tuned for the reading schedule and information about the winter seasons! This week’s music is “Rebuilding Year” by Hallelujah the Hills.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com
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1:08:20
TMR 26.8: "I No Longer Had a Sense of Time" [The Golden Notebook]
On this, the penultimate episode of the season, Kaija and Chad talk about Anna’s dissociation and dissolution, Saul Green and who he really is, narrative and societal traps, a room of one's own, and if Marion peacing out on her family makes her the most free woman in the book. They also realize mid-podcast the connection between the asterisked numbers the yellow and blue notebooks. This week’s music is Steve Reich’s “Jacob’s Ladder: II. Vayachalom (And he dreamed)” performed by the New York Philharmonic.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com
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58:32
TMR 26.7: "And What Is the Next Stage?" [The Golden Notebook]
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 end with a braiding together or a spinning apart?This week’s music is “Schizophrenia” by Sonic Youth.Next week’s episode will cover up to the start of “The Golden Notebook.”You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com
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55:48
TMR 26.6: "The Dream Marked a Change in Anna" [The Golden Notebook]
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 Kaija calls out at the end of the podcast, the only possibility for this week’s music is “Kicking Pigeons” by [spunge].Next week’s episode will cover up to the start of “Free Women: 4.”You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com
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1:03:30
TMR 26.5: "Everything Will Be As Usual, In Fact" [The Golden Notebook]
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, the French, and more.This week’s music is “Jump Out” by Ezra Furman.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. And subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) about all things Dalkey Archive. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com
Each “season” of Two Month Review highlights a different new and amazing work of world literature, reading it slowly over the course of eight to nine episodes. Featuring a rotating set of literary guests—from authors to booksellers, critics, and translators—the individual episodes recap a short section of the book and use that as a springboard for a fun (and often irreverent) discussion about literature in a general sense, pop culture, reading approaches, and much more. Talking about great books doesn't need to be deadly serious, and the levity of 2MR makes it accessible to everyone (even if you’re not reading along). threepercentproblem.substack.com
Ireland