Friend of the blog Alan Cheuse gave his NPR listeners a few hot tips on Summer titles. Now he stops by here to share a few words about his selections.
Confessions of a Reader by Alan Cheuse
I love fiction, I'm a fiction addict, I should join Fiction Anonymous...
I know, I know.
But twice a year, once just before the winter holidays and again at the beginning of summer, I do a longer piece of reading recommendations and include some nonfiction and poetry and so break the bonds of the fiction addiction.
Seriously though, the US is a neo-Puritanical nation. Many people see no use in fiction. It ain't true, so it ain't worth your time. How many of these folks don't dream? Without fiction we'd have nothing but the practical side of things. Imagine how many of our compatriots live...in a world without Odysseus or Anna Karenina or Emma Bovary or Mrs. Dalloway or Gatsby or Frank Bascombe? Without Sappho or Jane Hirschfield?
So in these round-ups I try to include nonfiction with a narrative drive or a lyrical essence, hoping to draw in the non-dreamers with our drug of choice....
Read on, dream on....
A.C.
Espionage, poetry, or a fresh memoir of a life in jazz, Alan's complete NPR Summer Reads can be found here.
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