American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 108: What the Dead Men Say

In this episode, we look at "What the Dead Men Say", in which Philip K. Dick introduces the concept of half-life and plays with the power of media and corpoations.

Episode 251: Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy (7)

More of Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy".

Episode 250: Theodore Dreiser: An American Tragedy (6)

Part six of my review of "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dresier.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 107: War with the Fnools"

More silliness from 1964 Philip K. Dick in "The War with the Fnools".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 106: Oh! To be a Blobel

More family drama in Philip K. Dick's short story "Oh! To be a Blobel".

Episode 249: Theodore Dreiser: An American Tragedy (5)

Episode 248: Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy (4)

Things start to get complicated for Clyde and his love life in part four of my review of "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dresier.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 105: Orpheus With Clay Feet

Another short story by Philip K. Dick published in 1964, one of his most prolific years. This one is on creativity and inspiration, with a sci-fi twist.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 104: Novelty Act

Mostly this episode contains things we covered in my review of "The Simulacra", but the story "Novelty Act" does differ from the novel's main themes in a few ways.

Episode 247: Theodore Dreiser: An American Tragedy (3)

Part 3 of my review of "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser. This section focuses on how Clyde Griffiths finds a new job as a supervisor in a collar factory.

Episode 246: Theodore Dreiser: An American Tragedy (2)

Part 2 of my review of Theodore Dresier's "An American Tragedy".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 103: Waterspider

In this 1964 short story, Philip K. Dick writes himself into a tale about time travel and the origin of creativity.

Episode 245: Theodore Dreiser: An American Tragedy (1)

Part 1 of a 9 part series on Theodore Dresier's excellent book "An American Tragedy". In this part we meet Clyde Griffiths and his family, think about the urban missionary movement of the Progressive era and ponder the impact of that lifestyle on young people.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 102: The Penultimate Truth

In this one-off episide, I will be looking at Philip K. Dick's "The Penultimate Truth". It is a rich novel on fake news, labor, power, and time travel. It is one of Dick's stronger political novels.

With this novel we are done with the novels of 1964. Coming up, the stories Dick published in 1964.

Episode 244: Willa Cather: One of Ours (3)

My final thoughts on Willa Cather's "One of Ours" as I close this series on Willa Cather's early works. Next up, Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy".