Lauren Groff

Anyway, um, but, you know, I think I wouldn't want to do that.

I will say that the Juliet Liao, um, there are bits of that interaction that are drawn from when I met Lauren Groff in person.

Mm.

Uh, she, like, did an event in Chicago, and I had the opportunity to meet her, and she was...

Anyway, yeah.

[laughs]

There is also, um, of course, a lot of, including Lauren Groff, there are, um, lots of real authors and books referenced throughout the novel, but, uh, Anna Kavan's, um, Sleep Has His House is one of Parker and Selena's sort of shared all-time favorites.

Is that a favorite of yours as well?

yeah anyways it's it's a I really liked that story too I love things about nuns

oh my god yes because you love Lauren Groff's Matrix right and they're young

yeah yes yes I love that I have a trilogy of perfect nun books Groff's Matrix Agatha Little Neon by Claire Luchette and um Stoneyard Devotional by Charlotte Wood perfect three perfect nun books

Okay, so I did look it up, and Story of an Hour was published in 1894.

How weird can divorce get?

One of my favorite short story collections, Lauren Groff, it's all about Florida.

And that's great.

I can understand that.

No, excuse me.

Yeah, All the, All the Pretty Horses with Lauren Groff.

A- and the first two, we'll talk about those in a second, but that's in Zero to Well Read.

And coming soon, because next week we see on Netflix, East of Eden is coming out, the Florence Pugh-led, uh, Zoe Kazan adapt- adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic novel.

Jill Lepore is on a future episode.

Percival Everett is on a future episode, both teachers as well.

Lauren Groff is on one and I know she's, that she's done some teaching.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

We end the series, episode six, with Lauren Groff, a brilliant contemporary author, three-time National Book Award finalist, discussing Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses.

The shift from Marilynne Robinson to Cormac McCarthy is a profound curatorial statement.

If Robinson represents the quiet theological conscience of America, McCarthy represents the blood, dust, and stark brutality of its origin myths.

Well, it's just a, such a wonderful body of work and a continuing wonderful body of work.

You own a bookstore in Minneapolis called Birch Bark Books, and you're part of this great and powerful, uh, sorority of writer bookstore owners, Ann Patchett, Emma Straub, and soon Lauren Groff, who is opening a bookstore in Florida.

I didn't know Lauren Groff was doing this.

Oh, yes.

Read about it.

It's got that same nerve, that same willingness to walk you all the way into a marriage and show you the part that nobody puts on the Instagram feed.

I can absolutely imagine Lauren Groff would love this book.

This is My Husband by Maud Ventura.

This one was really, really good.

I thought it was better than An American Marriage and a lot of people would agree with me there.

Poor Lauren Groff didn't even make it to bridesmaid status this time.

But there are like a lot, there are a lot of books, right? I really was hoping to see the new Chloe Benjamin would have been really fun, right? Something that I kind of already have on my TBR just as an excuse to read them a little bit sooner, but I'll live and I will find a way to slot them in later this year, I guess.

Yes.

And now book critic Suzanne Perez looks at a brave and sometimes shocking short story collection that she says is a literary gut punch.

Lauren Groff's new short story collection, her first since Florida in 2018, is no doubt one of this year's most anticipated titles, and with good reason.

The nine stories in Brawler explore the best and worst of humanity and the intense range of human emotion.

As one character aptly puts it, in every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death.

All nine stories are bold and emotional, and there's not a dud in the bunch.

For Marginalia, I'm Suzanne Perez.

Brawler by Lauren Groff was published by Riverhead Books.

Thanks for joining us for Marginalia.