Episode · Conversations with Tyler · 2020-04-08
Tyler Cowen & Emily St. John Mandel: books mentioned on Conversations with Tyler
Emily St. John Mandel on Fact, Fiction, and the Familiar
When Tyler requested an interview with novelist Emily St. John Mandel, he didn't expect that reality would have in some ways become an eerie mirror of her latest books.
Tyler Cowen recommended The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, and discussed Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Emily St. John Mandel recommended The Pale King by David Foster Wallace and others and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. and others, and criticized Infinite jest by David Foster Wallace.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Glass Hotel
The Glass Hotel is a compelling novel by Emily St.
Recommended“her new book out is the glass hotel which i think is her very best deepest most subtle novel”
Where to get it
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Station Eleven
Station Eleven by Emily St.
Discussed“uh her biggest selling book to date is station 11.”
Where to get it
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Infinite jest
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is a sprawling, maximalist novel exploring addiction, entertainment, and modern American culture.
Critiqued“i just found infinite jazz to be really overrated”
Where to get it
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The Pale King
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace is an unfinished, posthumously published novel that explores boredom, bureaucracy, and the inner lives of Internal Revenue Service employees.
Recommended“but that being said i love the pale king even though he never finished that novel”
Where to get it
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A Canticle for Leibowitz
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M.
Recommended“the one that really grabs my imagination is a a 1960 novel called the canticle for leibowitz by walter miller which is one of my favorite books i read that when i was about 15 and it kind of blew my mind”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (7) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“something that fascinated me about the bernie madoff story on which the crime in the glass hotel is based and just to backtrack a little bit none of the people in the glass hotel are real it's not a novel about madoff”
“which is definitely the case in the glass hotel um vincent's closest friend is marella who's who's basically a trophy wife”
“any money that i have comes from the wild success of station 11 my previous book and that is which is also going to be a mini series”
“i've done a lot of lectures over the past few years for station 11.”
“but station 11 is a fundamentally hopeful book and i've you know just going from the extremely unscientific metric of my twitter timeline um i get the impression that a lot of people are reading it because of the hope you know at the end of the pandemic”
“so they have a number of common characters miranda i think is the same miranda liam provent is the same first and last name what's your meta take on the two novels and their overleaf”
“about another project i've been working on which is um the television adaptation of the glass hotel and that's been fun it's my first time writing for tv”