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Surprisingly humorless interviews, given the title, all of which are serious, quite downbeat and just plain unfunny.
Don't get me wrong: I can totally appreciate that comedians think it burdensome to have to be funny in their off-time, and that Ms. Gross's sucess is to a large extent attributable to her ability to put difficult to interview people at ease.
That said, the title of this collection is misleading, as there are no laughs at all, really, just some mildly interesting conversations (and that is being quite generous). No great revelations either, if you are at all familiar with people interviewed.
Disappointing, given the promising roster of comedians.
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It's uncanny: Whenever someone I have admired for years dies, on the subsequent day, Fresh Air plays the interview that Terry Gross did with that person fifteen or twenty years ago.
This is a collection of Terry Gross interviews with people who have made us all laugh for years. My favorite interviewer talking to my favorite comedians, this collection combines that rare mix of insight and laughter.
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What makes writers "tick" has always amazed me and so
when I came across FRESH AIR WRITERS SPEAK WITH
TERRY GROSS--an audiobook--I was hooked from just the title.
What a thrill it was to hear interviews conducted by Gross with
such notables as Stephen King, Maurice Sendak, James Baldwin,
Allen Ginsberg, and nine others . . . I loved hearing Norman
Mailer describe himself as having "an ego like a battleship" . . . and
I was moved by John Updike's account of how psoriasis affected his
life.
Gross apparently based this compilation on brief parts of longer interviews
she had conducted on her Peabody Award-winning program on public
radio, FRESH AIR . . . she is a talented interviewer, and I liked
the fact that the interviews all appeared as if they had been
conducted live; i.e., there were some brief pauses, as well as
breaks for unedited laughter.
Best of all, many of the authors read from their works . . . Philip
Roth had me marveling at how well he writes; it even sounded
better than when I've read it . . . and Billy Collins, an American
poet who served two terms as 44th Poet Laureate of the United
States, had me smiling when he recited "Victoria's Secret,"
a poem about reading a lingerie catalog.
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This collection of Terry Gross interviews is great listening. She does pretty quality interviews, an oasis in the NPR desert of matte monotone. This collection showcases some of her more interesting interviews. In particular, the authors on display here are beyond the ordinary, and it is in this situation that Terry Gross excels.
It should come as no surprise, I suppose, that the appeal of the individual interviews mirrors the value of the writings of the authors. Philip Roth, for example, is hilarious but with a deeper level of thought-provoking observations underneath the surface. Allen Ginsberg is idiosyncratic and eccentric in a way that can be both compelling and strangely unsettling. Norman Mailer is reflective but more interested in displaying his inflated, grandiose ego. John Updike speaks with polished style and has absolutely nothing of interest to say. The Davids, Sedaris and Rakoff, amuse with impious wit. Fran Lebowitz amuses with lonely, cheerless wit.
But a good interview, which Terry Gross for the most part provides, draws out a little extra from the writer. There is no revising, no editing. No opportunity to perfect the rhythm of the speech. So you get a little extra. With any luck, there is a touch of candor, a little insight into the self-obsessive world of the artist.
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**PLEASE NOTE: Several of the customer reviews for this item are actually reviews for another Fresh Air collection, "Fresh Air Laughs." This collection is called Writers Speak, and features 13 interviews with famous authors, not comedians.**
This is a great collection of Terry Gross interviews with a broad range of famous authors. Terry Gross is well-known as a great interviewer. Personally, I think she's a little overrated, as she seems to stumble over her questions sometimes, and leaves little bits of dead air here and there, which is awkward to listen to. But the CD isn't really about her, it's about the great writers she interviews.
Disc One: 75:18
STEPHEN KING, the famous novelist, is best known for stories like Carrie and The Dark Tower series. In this 2000 interview, he talks extensively about his horrific 1999 car accident. He discusses his reaction to Brian Smith's sentence for reckless driving, his painful recovery, as well as his spirituality.
MAURICE SENDAK, in a 1993 interview, talks about his children's book We Are All In The Dumps With Jack & Guy. (He's perhaps best known for Where The Wild Things Are.) He discusses the development of the story and the illustrations from two nursery rhymes. He also discusses his difficult childhood, the controversy over In the Night Kitchen, and why he doesn't do many book signings for children anymore.
RICHARD PRICE, whose very first novel The Wanderers brought him early fame, has also written a number of screenplays, perhaps most notably The Colour of Money. Here, in a 1986 interview, he talks about being Jewish when everyone assumes he's as tough and Italian as the characters he writes about. There's part of a 1992 interview as well, discussing his novel Clockers. He does a brief reading, and then talks about his research process and the real-world relationship between cops and drug dealers.
PHILIP ROTH spoke with Gross in 2001 about his trilogy that includes The Human Stain, a novel that examines political correctness and impotence. He also discusses growing up in a prominently Jewish neighborhood and the relationship between a writer and the people around him.
Disc Two: 69:03
JAMES BALDWIN was a well-known civil rights writer, best known for books like Go Tell it On The Mountain. In this 1986 interview, he talks about growing up in Harlem as the son of a preacher, and his own brief career following in his footsteps. He also discusses his status as a "controversial" writer in both the grey and white communities, nd his views on the gay movement and being labeled.
NORMAN MAILER, best known for his war novels like The Naked and The Dead and Armies of the Night, in a 1991 interview, talks about being a "two-fisted" intellectual. He discusses the difference between being in the Army and being at Harvard, and how this changed his self-image.
ALLEN GINSBERG, the Beat poet who wrote the infamous "Howl," talked with Terry in 1994 about his relationship with his mother and her mental illness, and how it influenced the poem. He also discusses the unexpected sucess of "America," his homosexuality, drug use, and friendship with Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. The interview wraps up with a discusion of the influences that came together in "Kaddish," another one of his great poems.
JOYCE JOHNSON was most famous for being Jack Kerouac's lover in the late 1950's. She talks a lot about Kerouac and his rise to fame, as well as her relationship with him. She reads a really great letter she wrote to him in response to his alcoholism, as well as a letter he wrote to her asking her to come to Mexico City.
JOHN UPDIKE is most famous for his Rabbit series, as well as The Witches of Eastwick. Here, he talks about writing his memoir, Self-Consciousness, in which he talks about his weaknesses (Psoriasis and stuttering, to name two.) and how they've shaped him as a person and a writer.
Disc Three: 58:17
DAVID RAKOFF is most famous for Fraud, a collection of witty essays, as well as a regular contributor to NPR's This American Life. This is a hilarious interview, which is kicked off by an excerpt from an essay about going mountain climbing. He also discusses his acting career, and how he invariably gets typecast as either gay or Jewish. Rakoff is very witty, and thinks quickly on his feet, making this one of the funniest interviews in the collection.
FRAN LEBOWITZ, who wrote Metropolitan Life and Social Studies in the late 1970's hasn't written anything since, and talks about making a career of not writing. She also talks about her writing habits and writing process, and how she feels about aging. (Which I feel was a sexist topic for Terry Gross to bring up - you don't hear her asking any of the older men about aging.)
DAVID SEDARIS, best known for his essay collections like Me Talk Pretty One Day and Holidays On Ice, shines in an early 1993 interview. The interview actually predates his books. He was a regular contributor to NPR, and still working his day job cleaning NYC apartments. There's also a snippet of a later interview, from 2000, after the publication of Me Talk Pretty One Day, in which he discusses growing up trying to hide the fact that he was gay.
BILLY COLLINS, former U.S. poet laureate, reads and discusses a few poems. In the interview, from 1998, he reads "Forgetfulness," which sparks a conversation of memory and the current trend of obscurity in poetry, and how this relates to writing for an audience. He follows that with a poem about contentment, "Osso Buco," and discusses the lack of art about happiness. He talks about his writing process as well, and concludes the interview by reading "Victoria's Secret," which is about a lingerie catalogue, and the unique language within it.
There isn't a single interview here that isn't worth listening to. However, don't make the mistake of buying the collection to listen to just one author. The interviews range from ten to twenty minutes on average, and in some cases aren't the full interviews. If you just want to hear what one author has to say, you'd be better off listening to them on NPR's website. However, this collection is worth buying for any writer interested in learning more about their craft, or anyone who enjoys listening to brilliant people talk about how they do what they do best.