S3 Ep. 21: Breaking the Mold: Christopher Buckley and Sara Paretsky on Reinventing Genre

fiction/non/fiction

In this episode, acclaimed modern crime writer Sara Paretsky and political satirist and novelist Christopher Buckley join Fiction/Non/Fiction co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to talk about pushing against the boundaries of genre writing. Buckley discusses how political satire has been redefined in the era of reality-television-star-turned-president Trump, and why his new novel Make Russia Great Again is a faux memoir. Then, Paretsky speaks about making the male-dominated detective fiction genre her own with the best-selling V.I. Warshawski series, and reflects on her recent collection Love & Other Crimes, which also features the iconic character.

To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. And check out video excerpts from our interviews at LitHub’s Virtual Book Channel and Fiction/Non/Fiction’s YouTube Channel.

This podcast is produced by Andrea Tudhope.

Guests:

• Christopher Buckley
• Sara Paretsky

Selected readings for the episode:

Christopher Buckley

• Make Russia Great Again
• But Enough About You
• They Eat Puppies, Don’t They?
• Losing Mum and Pup
• Supreme Courtship
• Boomsday
• No Way to Treat a First Lady
• Florence of Arabia
• Little Green Men
• Wry Martinis

Sara Paretsky

• V.I. Warshawski novels
• Indemnity only
• Fallout
• Fire Sale
• Hardball
• Love & Other Crimes
• “Acid Test”
• “Miss Bianca”
• “Flash Point”
• Anatomy of Innocence
• 
  

Others:

• “Christopher Buckley’s ‘Make Russia Great Again’ is the Trump satire we’ve been waiting for” by Ron Charles
• “Sarah Cooper Doesn’t Mimic Trump. She Exposes Him.” by ZZ Packer
• Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
• “Fawlty Towers” - Television series
• “‘Art of the Deal’ co-author: Trump ‘couldn’t care less tens of thousands are people are dying’” - MSNBC interview with Donald Trump’s ghostwriter Tony Schwartz
• “This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin
• Hilary Mantel
• Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump
• Fiction/Non/Fiction interview with Curtis Sittenfeld
• Fiction/Non/Fiction interview with Jabari Asim
• Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Anna Katherine Green
• S.J. Rozan
• Raymond Chandler
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
• Dorothy L. Sayers
• Raymond Chandler
• John D. MacDonald
• Rex Stout
• Jabari Asim
• John Conroy
• Lee Child

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices