Another new episode from our sister programme SPOILER - to subscribe to SPOILER, please go to www.spoilerpodcast.co.uk
This week, against Paul’s express wishes, the Spoiler team have accepted a listener request and are reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s philosophical fantasy novel ‘The Buried Giant’. This dense meditation on collective memory pretty much splits the team three ways, with professed fantasy fan Rachael wishing for more fantastical elements and Andy, who is ambivalent at best about the fantasy genre, pleased to find the emphasis more on themes and ideas than on ogres and pixies. Paul, meanwhile, is perplexed and frustrated by the slow pace, the lack of action and the fact that everyone is so unnecessarily courteous. It doesn’t help that certain elements of the book also remind him of Chris de Burgh! Regardless of their opinions on the text itself, the team use it as a jumping-off point for interesting discussions on our reaction as human beings to concepts and events that we struggle to process. And everyone agrees that the numerous critical comparisons with ‘Game of Thrones’ are as lazy as DJs who play The Bangles ‘Manic Monday’ on a Monday morning.
Elsewhere, Rachael takes a sublimely uplifting look at Kazuo Ishiguro’s lesser-known stint as a jazz lyricist, with plenty of lovely musical interludes to enjoy.
This week’s scale: A giant in the world of fiction or a book that should be buried deep, deep in the ground
ROOM 9 – April 2011: Brendan Cleary, Louis Malloy, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
ROOM 8 - March 2011: World Book Night, Grace Atuhaire, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Joe Evans
ROOM 7 - February 2011: World Book Night, 101 Books to Read Before You Die, Sarah Ann Juckes
ROOM 6A - THE READING ROOM CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!
ROOM 6 - December 2010: Simon Scarrow, G L Twynham, Maeve Binchy, Louis Malloy
ROOM 5 - November 2010: Black Swan Green, The Wire, Paul Heaton, Sue Moorcroft
Paul Heaton Interview
ROOM 4 - October 2010: Jane Austen Book Club, Fiona Linday, Sue Moorcroft
ROOM 3 - September 2010
ROOM 2 - August 2010
ROOM 1 - July 2010
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