American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

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".

Episode 243: Willa Cather, One of Ours (2)

Part two of my thoughts on Willa Cather's novel "One of Ours".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 101. Clans of the Alpane Moon

A one off episode giving my thougths and complete review of "Clans of the Alphane Moon" by Philip K. Dick.

Episode 242: Willa Cather: One of Ours, Part 1

Willa Cather's Great War Novel "One of Ours" starts in familiar territory, rural Nebraska. Let me know what you thoguht of this one. Here are my comments.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 100.5. The Simulacra, Part 5

And that is all she wrote for "The Simulacra". Here are my final thoughts. Up next is a one off episode on "The Clans of the Alphane Moon"

Philip K. Dick Book Club: The Simulacra, Part 4

Part 4 of my thoughts on Philip K. Dick's 1964 novel "The Simulacra".

Episode 241: Willia Cather, My Antonia (2)

The second part (0f two) of my comments on Willa Cather's "My Antonia".

Episode 240: Willa Cather: My Antonia, Part 1

The first half of my thoughts on Willa Cather's "My Antonia", a great novel on the American frontier and the social history of American immigrant women.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 100.3: The Simulacra (3)

More of mny comments on Philip K. Dick's "The Simulacra".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 100.2: The Simulacra (2)

Part two of my thoughts on Phiip K. Dick's "The Simulacra".

Episode 239: Willa Cather: The Song of the Lark-4

The conclusion of my thoughts on Willa Cather's novel "The Song of the Lark".

Episode 238: Willa Cather: The Song of the Lark (3)

Part three of "The Song of the Lark" by Willa Cather explores Thea's soul searching as she comes to a crisi in her musical education in Chicago.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 100.1: The Simulacra (1)

Part one of my review of Philip K. Dick's 1964 novel "The Simulacra". It's a good one.

Episode 237: Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark (2)

In the second part of Willa Cather's "The Song of the Lark", Thea arrives in the barren wasteland of Chicago in order to contuine her musical education only to discover her talent as a singer.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 99.5: Martian Time-Slip (5)

The conclusion to my thoughts on Philip K. Dick's brilliant novel "Martian Time-Slip".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 99.4: Martian Time-Slip (4)

We are nearing the end of "Martian Time-Slip". In this part of the novel, things get a little bit weird.

Episode 236: Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark (1)

First part of my review of "The Song of the Lark", a heafty novel by Willa Cather about becoming an artist, the rapidly changing frontier, and the costs of being a career woman.

Episode 235: Willia Cather, O Pioneers, Part 2

The second half of my review of Willa Cather's "O Pioneers". Next up, "The Song of the Lark."

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 99.3: Martian Time-Slip (3)

More of my thoughts on Philip K. Dick's novel "Martian Time-Slip".

Episode 234: Willia Cather, O Pioneers, Part 1

The first episode of a two part series on Willa Cather's novel "O Pioneers".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 99.2: Martian Time-Slip (2)

Part two of my series on Philip K. Dick's 1964 novel "Martian Time-Slip".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 99.1: Martian Time-Slip

The first part of my thoughts on Dick's 1964 novel "Martian Time-Slip". Oh, it is so good!

Episode 233: Willa Cather, The Troll Garden

The first episode in my series on the early novels of Willa Cather. We begin with her collection of short stories on art and artists, "The Troll Gardens".

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 98: If There Was No Benny Cemoli

A bit more on the media and the mythology of history in "If There Was No Benny Cemoli", another a Philip K. Dick's 1963 short stories.

Episode 232: James Weldon Johnson: Essays (2) and Poems

I close out my series on turn on early 20th century Afircan-American writers with a look at some more essays by James Weldon Johnson and some of his poems.

Next up, Willa Cather's early works.

Episode 231: James Weldon Johnson: Essays (1)

In this episode, I look at some of James Weldon Johnson's early essays and the introductions to some of his edited work.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 97: Stand-by and What'll We Do With Ragland Park

In this episode I will look at two Philip K. Dick tales that make up a single story. "Stand-by" and "What'll We Do WIth Ragland Park" together make a short novel about the media, automated political power, folk music, and posthumanism.

Philip K. Dick Book Club: Episode 96: Days of Perky Pat

Back to some Philip K. Dick short stories. The first we will look at is "The Days of Perky Pat" a tale about war, the future, and Barbie dolls.