Listen "The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon"
Episode Synopsis
Our guests are both Backlisted old hands: Professor Sarah Churchwell, Professor in American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London and Sam Leith, literary editor of the Spectator. We are discussing the 1966 postmodern novel The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, by some way his shortest book, but no less complex and intriguing for its relative brevity. Sound the muted post horn! Also in this episode, Andy extols the subtle virtues of former guest Susie Boyt’s novel, Loved and Missed while John discovers the Ukrainian-American poet Ilya Kaminsky’s dramatic sequence, Deaf Republic, which tells the stories of a fictional town falling under foreign occupation.
Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
07:38 - Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt.
14:43 - Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky.
22:16 - The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Timings: (may differ due to variable advert length)
07:38 - Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt.
14:43 - Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky.
22:16 - The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
* To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops.
* For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm
*If you'd like to support the show, listen without adverts, receive the show early and with extra bonus fortnightly episodes, become a Patreon at www.patreon.com/backlisted
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More episodes of the podcast Backlisted
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
28/10/2025
Imogen by Jilly Cooper - Revisit
13/10/2025
The Eye Of the Beholder by Marc Behm
15/09/2025
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
01/09/2025
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
18/08/2025
A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney
04/08/2025
The Ballad of Halo Jones by Alan Moore
21/07/2025
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
08/07/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.