{"id":16386,"date":"2023-10-23T15:11:54","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=16386"},"modified":"2023-10-23T15:11:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:11:57","slug":"episode-560-adam-sisman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-560-adam-sisman","title":{"rendered":"Episode 560 – Adam Sisman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 560:
\nAdam Sisman<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_560_-_Adam_Sisman.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 still think he’s the definitive novelist of the Cold War, and a major novelist in trying to understand Britain’s post-imperial struggle\/sleepwalk.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>With The Secret Life of John le Carr\u00e9<\/a> (Harper), Adam Sisman reveals the secrets he couldn’t publish in 2015’s John le Carr\u00e9: The Biography<\/a>, and explores how serial deception & betrayals \u2014 through the multiple affairs le Carr\u00e9 (a.k.a. David Cornwell) conducted during both of his marriages \u2014 can provide a key to understanding the late, great spy novelist. We get into how Adam became a combo detective-psychoanalyst-confessor during his work on the biography, how he learned of le Carr\u00e9’s messy private life, why he decided to wait until after the author and his wife had died before publishing this new book, and why these new revelations ought not to diminish le Carr\u00e9’s literary stature. We talk about le Carr\u00e9’s monumental achievements chronicling the Cold War and Britain’s decline (& his top 3 le Carr\u00e9 novels), the man’s undeniable charm & his self-mythologizing, the times when he thought the biography might not happen, how he felt when le Carr\u00e9 published a memoir<\/a> after Adam’s biography came out, and the ways in which le Carr\u00e9’s upbringing \u2014 abandoned by his mother, reared by a con man father he struggled to escape from \u2014 may have contributed to his devotion to duplicity & seduction. We also discuss the moment Adam realized that biography is a human process, his thoughts on the new Errol Morris documentary with le Carr\u00e9<\/a>, the limits of interviews in general (NO!), what it means to put le Carr\u00e9 behind him with this new book, and plenty more. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read The Secret Life of John le Carr\u00e9<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“David [John le Carr\u00e9] just had to seduce everybody, if not literally then at least emotionally. When he turned on the charm, I don’t think I ever met anyone who was such intoxicating company.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n