{"id":15916,"date":"2023-03-14T13:36:39","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T17:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=15916"},"modified":"2023-03-14T13:37:02","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T17:37:02","slug":"episode-530-christopher-bollen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-530-christopher-bollen","title":{"rendered":"Episode 530 – Christopher Bollen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 530:
\nChristopher Bollen<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_530_-_Christopher_Bollen.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“I feel like every novel I write is a reaction to the previous one. With The Lost Americans, I felt like I needed to get away from cafe society and the art world and dive into politics.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Christopher Bollen<\/a> returns to the show to celebrate his thrilling new crime novel, The Lost Americans<\/a> (Harper). We talk about his childhood obsession with ancient Egypt and how it led him to set the novel in Cairo, what’s gotten easier & tougher after 5 novels, what it was like to write this one while under lockdown, and why he dived into politics and the global arms trade this time around. We also get into our respective (and multiplying) midlife crises, the tarot reader who told him he’d only write 9 books (!), the reading education he got from judging the PEN Faulkner awards, the debts he owes past writers (& the time he bought a plant for Robert Stone), and why he’d like to learn to paint. Oh, and we discuss our share postcard fetish, the horror novel he’s writing, his rediscovery of Philip Roth, the loss of artistic reputation, and a LOT<\/em> more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read The Lost Americans<\/a>!<\/p>\n

(And go listen to our 2015 conversation<\/a>!)<\/em><\/p>\n

“One thing about living in New York \u2014 at least until recently \u2014 is that you had access to all of these intellectuals. Their lives were here. You could meet your idols; they weren’t just faraway people who rolled through town at a Barnes & Noble.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n