Benjamin Markovits on Basketball, Family, and Illness

‘The people I like to write about are what I would describe as moderately successful failures.’

Benjamin Markovits is here to talk about his new and twelfth novel, THE REST OF OUR LIVES, published by Faber and Faber.

Tom Layward has made a pact with himself. After his daughter moves out of college, he’s moving out too. His wife had an affair, and he feels like he owes himself a road trip across America. He takes  in the sights, sounds and basketball games of the American heartland and beyond. But he’s deferring some health issues and it seems like it’s only a matter of time before his body asks him to stop and slow down, some of which was inspired by Ben’s own experiences.  

Ben’s novel, You Don’t Have to Live Like This, won the James Tait Black Prize for fiction. He was a Granta Best of Young British Novelists. His writing has featured prolifically in mainstream publications. 

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Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!

https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984

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Rippling Points

2.42 - Why Tom goes on a roadtrip
4.12 - Feelings of failure and sport
7.10 - Constructing the narrator
9.00 - Tom’s difference to other narrators of Ben’s
11.30 - Pick-up basketball
15.15 - East Coast privilege
16.00 - The NBA - basketball and race
21.20 - Katharina Volckmer in conversation 
22.45 - Tom’s relationship with his children
23.57 - Tom and Ben’s illness
26.58 - Matters of life and death
28.10 - Doctors and writers
29.45 - Ben’s next steps

Reference Points

Philip Roth

John Updike

Ben’s novels

The Syme Papers
Playing Days
You Don’t Have to Live Like This
The Sidekick