Loveletters galore! Lists without context! Repurposing life for fiction! More puzzles! Terrible book reviews! An insufferable, pretentious elementary school essay! This episode has it all—and more! (As Lamont would say.) This week's music is "All Your Fails" by Kevin Drew. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel and you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts,...

In honor of two recent John Barth reissues—The Sot-Weed Factor and Chimera, both Dalkey Archive Essentials—John Domini (The Archeology of a Good Ràgu, The Color Inside a Melon, and this appreciation of Barth, among other works) and Max Besora (author of the intro to Sot-Weed Factor along with the very much Barth inspired The Adventures and Misadventures of the Extraordinary and Admirable Joan Orpí, Conquistador and Founder of New Catalonia) joined Chad W. Post to talk about these two titles...

Chad and Brian kick off the new season in near hysterics over the first little chunk of Gilbert Sorrentino's Mulligan Stew. From talking about the rejection letters—and near batshit reader's report—prefacing the book, to all the bad writing about the "flawless blue" sky, to the ever-changing dialog tags in Anthony Lamont's detective novel, to the New York Yankees, this episode is a hodgepodge of jokes and observations, and instant love for this wondrous, wooly masterpiece. This week's music...

Brian returns to help breakdown the ending to Rodrigo Fresán's "Part Triptych." Is it earned? Is it sincere?? Is this all a Jacob's Ladder scenario??? Chad and Brian debate that along with concepts of time in fiction, the Karmas, the wetness of Latvian meat, Melvill and Mulligan Stew. Fun is had as this long, amazing Fresán journey comes to a close . . . This week's music is "Big Sky" by The Kinks—a throwback to TMR season one. Stay tuned for the Mulligan Stew schedule, which will drop this...

For the first time in the history of the Two Month Review, Chad had to go it alone. He stuck in there, didn't get too crazy, and covered the last chunk of Part II of The Remembered Part. Illness, heartbreak, mental anguish, suicide, Ella, and a mission. It's all in this episode. This week's music is "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" by Concrete Blonde Next week we'll be covering pages 644-700 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our YouTube channel. You can...

Veeeeekingdor!!!!! This week's episode is pretty wild, with stories of Riga FC, stoic faces, Fresán's visit to the University of Rochester, Kurt Vonnegut, Andrei The Untranslated (follow his blog!, support his Patreon!), the purpose of book readings and the most uncomfortable ones, time and fiction, and much more! And visit Three Percent on Tuesday to find out what book we'll be reading in season twenty!! This week's music is "Malachi" by Grouplove. Next week we'll be covering pages...

Well, we did it: One whole episode just about baseball and books about baseball and baseball memories and anything else baseball. Caitlin Luce Baker of Island Books, James Crossley of Madison Books, and Dan Wells of Biblioasis join Chad W. Post from Open Letter to pick their "all-time favorite" books about baseball.  This week's music is "The Yips" and "Eraseable Man" by The Baseball Project. Caitlin's Picks: The Cultural History of Baseball by Jonathan Fraser Light The Brothers K by...

Former TMR guest Patrick Smith returns to discuss his reread of the first two volumes of the trilogy, how Fresán's writing inspires him, hanging on to flights of prose, all of the wind in this book, what it means to fall, dogs, and much much more. It's a comprehensive, deep look into what it takes to be a good reader, Ricardo Piglia's "The Last Reader" and the paradoxes at the center of this novel. This week's music is "These Things Will Come to Be" by DJ Seinfeld, all for the outro bit of...

Chad and Kaija break down the final bit of the first part of the third volume in Fresán's trilogy (phew), revisit the "is this difficult to read?" discussion, and talk about the articles about Fresán in the new issue of Latin American Literature Today. And at the very, very end, Chad makes a startling admission. This week's music is "Life Worth Missing" by Car Seat Headrest. Next week we'll be covering pages 355-421 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to our...

Separated by 10 hours—like podcasting jet lag?—Chad and Brian work through some observations and rants (specifically about a s****y NY Times list of the best American books between 1981 and 2006, which consists almost entirely of Philip Roth and John Updike and only two books by women), about this section of The Remembered Part. Chad argues for being willing to be confused while reading and they discuss whether or not Fresán's works are confusing. There's also the usual amount of banter and...

From Nobel Prize favorites to Proust to competitive cliques on the mountain, this week's episodes is almost as sprawling as the ex-writer's airplane thoughts. Bit more plot dropped into this section of Fresán/Vanderhyden's book, but there's also a lot about IKEA, his death and rebirth, his insincerity, and his loathsome success. This week's music is "Adore Adore Adore" by Sprints. Next week we'll be covering pages 204-281 (full schedule), and you can watch it live here, or by subscribing to...

Kaija Straumanis pinch hits this week for a discussion about Lost, airplanes, the past and nostalgia, writers vs. narrators, autofiction, how hard it is to sustain a rant, ghosts, pop culture references, where we are in Fresán's trilogy, and much more. The Remembered Part keeps gathering steam, and you'll want to catch up after listening to this so that you can be there for the explosive conclusion to one of the century's greatest literary trilogies. This week's music is "Tropic Morning...

Maybe not the most informative of recaps, but Brian and Chad discuss what the love about Fresán's writing, things they recall from the first two volumes of the trilogy, ideas about what to maybe expect (Dracula + Proust), peppered with the usual amount of jokes and antics. This week's music is "Pontius Pilate's Home Movies" by The New Pornographers. Next week we'll be covering pages 1-82 (full schedule), and you can watch it live by subscribing to our YouTube channel. You can purchase each...

In this episode, Chad talks with Olga Castro (Univ. of Warwick), and translators Jacob Rogers (Galician), Mara Faye Lethem (Catalan), Robin Munby (Asturian), and Aritz Branton (Basque) about literatures from the official (and unofficial) languages of Spain, ways in which the regional governments support translation from these languages, the burden of pitching, challenges and joys, books you should know about, and much more.  This week's music is "We Will Live for Ages" by Hjaltalín. Things...

The final episode of this season focuses on The Unmapped Country: Stories and Fragments, focusing on the titular story/unfinished novel, along with a few other shorter pieces. The gang looks back at all of Ann Quin's books, speculate on what her career might have been had she lived another couple decades, whether of not she should be taught in a creative writing class, and more. This week's music is "Web in Front" by Archers of Loaf. You can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube...

Chad, Brian, and Kaija finish up their discussion of Tripticks, which basically devolves into reading out the funniest lines they can find from the this trippy-dippy, wild-ass ending. Some analysis is made of the deconstruction of male narratives, the Beats, the Dashiell Hammett of it all, and more, but come prepared for some fun and laughs. This week's music is "How Does the Story Go?" by Sprints. You can watch next week's discussion of Tripticks live on YouTube, Thursday December 29th....

NIGHTRIPPER!!!!!!!!! This week's music is "Dirty Boots" by Sonic Youth. You can watch next week's discussion of Tripticks live on YouTube. (Reading schedule can be found here.) And you can find all previous seasons of TMR on our YouTube channel. And you can support us at Patreon and get bonus content before anyone else, along with other rewards, the opportunity to easily communicate with the hosts, etc. Follow Open Letter, Chad Post, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information...

Kaija Straumanis filled in for a domestically distressed Brian, and Chad went all psych0-philosophical on this week's episode, talking about schizoid personality splits, R. D. Laing, reading the various parts of Passages simultaneously, postulating wild hot takes, and saying "f**k off" to a wide swath of bad actors. (Looking at you, Kanye.) This week's music is "Outlook for the Future" by Inventions. You can watch next week's discussion of Tripticks live on YouTube. (Reading schedule can be...

Kaija Straumanis joins Chad and Brian this week to talk about orchids, hot takes (did S. sleep with L.?? how exactly did she die?), creepy British dudes, symmetry in Three, Ann Quin's statement on threesomes, the ambiguity of the text, and much more. This week's music is "What Went Down" by Foals. You can watch next week's discussion of Passage live on YouTube at 4pm ET on Thursday, December 1. (Reading schedule can be found here.) And you can find all previous seasons of TMR on our...

Chad and Bria dive into Three, discussing the humor of the dialogue, the poetic-cinematic techniques Quin employs, monogamy and marriage, whether or not L was a collaborationist or worse, the importance of the number three, the play-like elements of the books, anti-mimetic writing, and much more. It's a fun episode complete with dog barks, laughs, unanswered questions, and a decent amount of insight into Three for anyone feeling lost. This week's music is "Lost Heads" by Moon Duo. You can...

Dead dummies, drowned tramps, resolving the Oedipal complex, the forever incompleteness of the number "3," sex, the sea, slapstick comedy, irony, competing desires of domesticity versus the desire to escape, the beautiful ending and the reverse coda, and much more is discussed on this episode covering the whole of Ann Quin's Berg.  Now Chad and Brian move on to Quin's second novel, Three, which came out in 1969 and, in a way, begins right where we left off, opening  "with the disappearance...

Chad and Brian dive into the first half of Berg this episode, mispronouncing words, talking about the literary scene Quin came out of, whether or not Berg/Greb is an incel, the humor found in the book, and more. (Inevitably there's a dig at Ohio somewhere in this recording.) This week's music is "When a Woman Is Around" byUnloved. You can watch next week's discussion of Berg live on YouTube at 4pm ET on Wednesday, November 9th. (Reading schedule can be found here.) And you can find all...

The eighteenth season of the Two Month Review is all about Ann Quin's books—all four novels and her collected stories and fragments—and starts off with an overview of who she was, the context of experimental British writing in the 1960s, how/why Quin has been underappreciated, some info on supplementary critical materials, and much more. This week's music is "HaHaHome" by twen. You can watch next week's discussion of Berg live on YouTube at 4pm ET on Wednesday, November 2nd. (Reading...

Katie and Chad tackle this section alone, discussing the revolutionary background of the main characters, going off into Bernadine Dohrn, the SDS, the Weather Underground, and direct action. They also talk about the timeline—as far as they understand it—the challenges of translating legal terms, Danny's multiple read throughs of the text, and much more. This week's music is "Simulation Swarm" by Big Thief. If you like what you hear, review, rate, and support us on Patreon! You can watch...

In addition to talking about the Trump/Tesla/Lockwood conspiracy theory, our hosts this week discuss "bone avalanches," how translators are paid, the global literary network available for "experimental" books translated into English, "runts," Lativa's obsession with MILF graffiti, "catching fire," and driving a convertible off a cliff. This week's music is "Bicameral" by The Range. If you like what you hear, review, rate, and support us on Patreon! You can watch next week's episode (June...