From Maureen Corrigan of NPR Books:
Stewart O’Nan is an unfailingly smart and affecting novelist, but never more so, I think, than when he writes about the economic struggles of ordinary folks. His great 2007 novella, Last Night at the Lobster, is about the last shift at a closing seafood restaurant in a crummy New England mall. Now, O’Nan has just published a powerful new novella about the unemployed called The Odds.
Read or listen to the story
on NPR Books.
Listen to Stewart’s piece in All Things Considered — the audio will be available around 7pm tonight!
If you listen to NPR’s Fresh Air tomorrow, you’ll hear Terry Gross interview Stewart O’Nan. This post will be updated with the online link once the audio becomes available.
Update: from NPR Fresh Air – What It’s Like To Be An Elderly Widow, All ‘Alone’
The Joy Of The Mundane In ‘Emily, Alone’
by Maureen Corrigan
It takes a deft hand to do justice to the ordinary. Most novelists don’t even bother to try, which is why most novels are about a rip in the fabric of the routine. It’s tough to find fiction ambitious enough to tackle the story of a run-of-the-mill job, a hum-drum family; but, if the mundane matters to you, then Stewart O’Nan is your man.
A discussion with Susanne Lettenbauer of NDR Kultur (Northern German Radio) regarding Songs for the Missing, 1/16/2009.
The Works of Stewart O'Nan 