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The Best of Writers & Company
Eleanor Wachtel is one of the English-speaking world's most respected and sought-after interviewers. This book, celebrating her show's twenty-five year anniversary, presents her conversations with legendary authors like Jonathan Franzen, Alice Munro, and J.M. Coetzee, who share their views on process, the writing life, and the hazards of literary fame.
320 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 2016
2 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Eleanor Wachtel
18 books4 followersEleanor Wachtel has been host of CBC Radio's Writers & Company since its inception in 1990
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 19, 2016
This is not the kind of book that you read from page 1 to 350 in one go. It's a compilation of in depth interviews with remarkable authors that took place over several decades. In terms of full disclosure, I have been an avid listener to Eleanor Wachtel's Writers and Company CBC Radio program for years. I have to add, though, there is an added quality to reading her in depth, perceptive interviews. I refer to the book regularly, whether to refresh my knowledge of a writer's work and life or to enjoy Eleanor Wachtel exquisite style and method to get the author being interviewed to reveal more about life and work than they might have wanted to before the interview. A rare talent for an interviewer.
March 15, 2018
This series of interviews between Eleanor Wachtel and different authors, over several years, in a radio program called “Writers & Company,” forms an illuminating book for readers and especially for Canadian readers.
What did I enjoy about this book?
Discovering new writers (new to me that is)
This book would have been even more enjoyable if I had actually read some of the texts discussed in these interviews. I’m sad to admit that Jonathan Franzen is the only author whose work I was familiar with. Some of these writers have won the Nobel Prize and I have yet to open any of their books: Orhan Pamuk, John Maxwell Coetzee, Toni Morrison. Sometimes I feel so uncultivated but then, there is too little time, too many books. Reason more to read the great ones first: classics or will be classics.
These People Have Things to Say
These authors have things to say that go way beyond their published work and some of them have lead interesting lives. They illuminate the human condition and, by focusing on what is immutable across time, shed a light on our current situation.
I learned about the story of Haiti while reading the interview with Edwidge Danticat and felt the courage it takes to immigrate to a new country, how it is a form of surrender.
Or from W. G. Sebald: “I mean, whatever you do is going to be wrong. And I think double binds govern, to a greater extent, almost all lives.” Or Sebald again on the strong historical link between Germany and its Jewish population on the cusps of the holocaust and the conspiracy of silence that followed.
Yiyun Li can be funny when she relates a horrible story as told by her grandfather about a famine and people eating their own children of all things. Or reflective when she discusses poisoning: “Poisoning happens all the time in China … Poisoning is a very passive-aggressive way to kill people. All murders are plotted, but poisoning has a special kind of plot. It has to be a very intimate crime; not only do you have to have access to poison but you also have to have access to people’s food or drink…” Her words on kindness resonate with me: “Kindness is something that we can choose to give or withhold.”
Toni Morrison told some awful historical truths about some black men getting placebos instead of treatment for syphilis so doctors could find out what would happen if syphilis was untreated. Through her I learned the sad story of Margaret Garner who killed her children rather than have them live in slavery. Morrison sheds light on racism as a function which is to make sure that poor whites never conspire or associate politically with poor blacks because that would destabilize the upper classes.
Zadie Smith still young and so wise: “But where does anybody’s will power or talent or ability come from? It’s a complete accident. It’s a kind of gift. But the question is, what do you take from that fact? Clearly a lot of people believe that they deserve everything that’s coming to them. They’ve been somehow especially blessed. I don’t know if I would feel that way.”
“It seems to me a part of middle-class … life that your circle is smaller and smaller … until it’s just you and your partner … The whole system is built to make sure that you are this kind of solid, isolated economic unit, and I think people are lonely inside it.”
“There have been thousands of years with white people thinking of themselves as the central subject. So it takes a long time to get used to the fact that you are not the centre of the universe.”
Anne Carson having this Buddhist like thought: “ … most of us … are just a collection of bits that don’t make sense.”
Learning about writing skills
From these authors, I learned about the arts and crafts of writing. Some of them approach it in surprising ways such as Orhan Pamuk creating a museum as a showcase for his book.
I’m very impressed how Aleksandar Hemon could publish successfully in English barely three years after settling in Chicago. He is funny too “If Nabokov managed to make love with the English language, I’m happy with heavy petting.”
Sebald on the effective use of symbols: “The more obvious you make a symbol in a text, the less genuine it becomes, so you have to try and do it very obliquely, so that the reader might read over it without really noticing it. You just try and set up certain reverberations in a text and the whole acquires significance that it might not otherwise have.”
I find Zadie Smith’s work ethic reassuring for would be writers: “I don’t write that much. There are people who write every day … but I go for months, and recently years, without writing fiction … The only thing I can’t help but do is read.
From the poet Anne Carson who is reinventing the genre by presenting the translation of a Greek poem on the left and her own creation on the opposite page, I learned that you can play with the form, take some freedom.
These authors talking about other artists
According to Sebald, Vladimir Nabokov: Speak, Memory, his autobiography, is a wonderful book. His reference to Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah reminded me that I never finished watching this necessary series.
Frome Zadie Smith I got Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Middlemarch by George Eliot.
Conclusion
Writing this review I got excited about all these art works that I have yet to meet. I will definitely make an effort to read some if not all of the authors interviewed.
What did I enjoy about this book?
Discovering new writers (new to me that is)
This book would have been even more enjoyable if I had actually read some of the texts discussed in these interviews. I’m sad to admit that Jonathan Franzen is the only author whose work I was familiar with. Some of these writers have won the Nobel Prize and I have yet to open any of their books: Orhan Pamuk, John Maxwell Coetzee, Toni Morrison. Sometimes I feel so uncultivated but then, there is too little time, too many books. Reason more to read the great ones first: classics or will be classics.
These People Have Things to Say
These authors have things to say that go way beyond their published work and some of them have lead interesting lives. They illuminate the human condition and, by focusing on what is immutable across time, shed a light on our current situation.
I learned about the story of Haiti while reading the interview with Edwidge Danticat and felt the courage it takes to immigrate to a new country, how it is a form of surrender.
Or from W. G. Sebald: “I mean, whatever you do is going to be wrong. And I think double binds govern, to a greater extent, almost all lives.” Or Sebald again on the strong historical link between Germany and its Jewish population on the cusps of the holocaust and the conspiracy of silence that followed.
Yiyun Li can be funny when she relates a horrible story as told by her grandfather about a famine and people eating their own children of all things. Or reflective when she discusses poisoning: “Poisoning happens all the time in China … Poisoning is a very passive-aggressive way to kill people. All murders are plotted, but poisoning has a special kind of plot. It has to be a very intimate crime; not only do you have to have access to poison but you also have to have access to people’s food or drink…” Her words on kindness resonate with me: “Kindness is something that we can choose to give or withhold.”
Toni Morrison told some awful historical truths about some black men getting placebos instead of treatment for syphilis so doctors could find out what would happen if syphilis was untreated. Through her I learned the sad story of Margaret Garner who killed her children rather than have them live in slavery. Morrison sheds light on racism as a function which is to make sure that poor whites never conspire or associate politically with poor blacks because that would destabilize the upper classes.
Zadie Smith still young and so wise: “But where does anybody’s will power or talent or ability come from? It’s a complete accident. It’s a kind of gift. But the question is, what do you take from that fact? Clearly a lot of people believe that they deserve everything that’s coming to them. They’ve been somehow especially blessed. I don’t know if I would feel that way.”
“It seems to me a part of middle-class … life that your circle is smaller and smaller … until it’s just you and your partner … The whole system is built to make sure that you are this kind of solid, isolated economic unit, and I think people are lonely inside it.”
“There have been thousands of years with white people thinking of themselves as the central subject. So it takes a long time to get used to the fact that you are not the centre of the universe.”
Anne Carson having this Buddhist like thought: “ … most of us … are just a collection of bits that don’t make sense.”
Learning about writing skills
From these authors, I learned about the arts and crafts of writing. Some of them approach it in surprising ways such as Orhan Pamuk creating a museum as a showcase for his book.
I’m very impressed how Aleksandar Hemon could publish successfully in English barely three years after settling in Chicago. He is funny too “If Nabokov managed to make love with the English language, I’m happy with heavy petting.”
Sebald on the effective use of symbols: “The more obvious you make a symbol in a text, the less genuine it becomes, so you have to try and do it very obliquely, so that the reader might read over it without really noticing it. You just try and set up certain reverberations in a text and the whole acquires significance that it might not otherwise have.”
I find Zadie Smith’s work ethic reassuring for would be writers: “I don’t write that much. There are people who write every day … but I go for months, and recently years, without writing fiction … The only thing I can’t help but do is read.
From the poet Anne Carson who is reinventing the genre by presenting the translation of a Greek poem on the left and her own creation on the opposite page, I learned that you can play with the form, take some freedom.
These authors talking about other artists
According to Sebald, Vladimir Nabokov: Speak, Memory, his autobiography, is a wonderful book. His reference to Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah reminded me that I never finished watching this necessary series.
Frome Zadie Smith I got Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and Middlemarch by George Eliot.
Conclusion
Writing this review I got excited about all these art works that I have yet to meet. I will definitely make an effort to read some if not all of the authors interviewed.
September 11, 2016
What a brilliant collection of literary interviews, hosted by the highly intelligent and astute Eleanor Wachtel. Not only does she familiarize herself with the author's biography, Wachtel also displays a deep understanding of the author's works. Listening carefully to her subject, Wachtel follows up on comments in order to peel back the onion and enter into new explorations of understanding.
My favourite interviews were with Alice Munro, Jonathan Franzen, Doris Lessing, Mavis Gallant and Zadie Smith.
My favourite interviews were with Alice Munro, Jonathan Franzen, Doris Lessing, Mavis Gallant and Zadie Smith.
September 9, 2024
I read this book because I'm interested in all Literature Nobel Laureates whose names appear in this book. But it ends up for me that I cannot get much out of their interviews. Many of them sound too abstract, even too emotional with little rationality! Is this just me?
I suspect this may be because of the fact that, in the past 30 years or so, I rarely read any fictions (maybe, 3 or 4 such books but more than 100 pop science). Is it possible that too many years of reading non-fiction books of the pop-science genre renders me unreceptive to imaginative fictional notions?
Then I also has a question on how many non-fiction writers have ever been bestowed with Nobel? AI app tells me 5 out of the total of 120 writers ! (Churchill was one of these few, surprise!) Too few indeed. Why so? I hope there is a movement telling the Nobel committee it's time to turn their attention more to non-fiction writers!
I suspect this may be because of the fact that, in the past 30 years or so, I rarely read any fictions (maybe, 3 or 4 such books but more than 100 pop science). Is it possible that too many years of reading non-fiction books of the pop-science genre renders me unreceptive to imaginative fictional notions?
Then I also has a question on how many non-fiction writers have ever been bestowed with Nobel? AI app tells me 5 out of the total of 120 writers ! (Churchill was one of these few, surprise!) Too few indeed. Why so? I hope there is a movement telling the Nobel committee it's time to turn their attention more to non-fiction writers!
November 4, 2017
Such a fantastic read! Love listening to this womans soothing voice and brilliant insightful questions on the radio - translated into words allows you more time to ponder those great questions - and to get to know those writers - it feels - almost personally. What a treat for book lovers and a brilliant way to discover new writers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews