S1E28 - Jennifer Egan - Reading Deeply
We met with one of the foremost novelists of our time and Pulitzer Prize winner, Jennifer Egan, to discuss the medium of fiction, the novel, her process, her works and the role of the novelist in democracy writ large. In an age where AI has begun to encroach on seemingly sacrosanct domains of human endeavor like creative writing, Egan gives us hope that writing from human imagination will forever give us unrivaled access to the mind of another person. In what became a masterclass in Egan’s personal writing style, she illuminated how her own improvisation allows her to channel all the forces that exist around her and operate through her. The novel demands that we resist the forces of distraction that dilute us. Fiction delivers compressed knowledge, and preserves our mental agility and our ability to question authority. It is not only entertaining, it is a pillar of a healthy democracy. In her leadership of PEN America, she saw first hand how threatening novels and novelists can be to autocratic regimes. While indifferent to literary reviews, Egan adores her readers and all they teach her. Most captivating are Egan’s methods of tapping into her unconscious and her imagination — the wellspring of her career. Find renewed determination to read deeply by listening deeply to our charming guest, Jennifer Egan. Join us.
Biography
Jennifer Egan is the author of several novels and a short story collection. Her 2017 novel, Manhattan Beach, a New York Times bestseller, was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was chosen as New York City’s One Book One New York read. Her previous novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times book prize, and was named one of the best books of the decade by Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. Her new novel, The Candy House, a sibling to A Visit From the Goon Squad, was recently named one of the New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2022, as well as one of President Obama’s favorite reads of 2022.
https://jenniferegan.com/
Photo Credit: Pieter M. Van Hattem
Conversation recorded on March 3, 2023.