Ron Charles

Right.

Um, w- to which Ron Charles wrote a really nice response that we'll leave in the show notes as well called "Libraries Are Not the Problem".

Um, you know, like public libraries are fighting for their lives and for their funding, especially under the Trump/Vance administration.

Mm-hmm.

Claire was six when her father died of cancer.

In reviewing her new novel, former Washington Post book critic Ron Charles wrote, "Among the swelling collection of books confronting our imperiled planet, Claire Vaye Watkins' fiction remains defiantly alive.

Her stories and novels are rooted in the American West, that awesome expanse of dunes and deserts that uninformed observers would call empty.

Where life has adapted to the damning conditions of heat and drought, Watkins finds characters burned away to their elemental anxieties and desires." Claire Vaye Watkins, welcome to Fresh Air.

How about that? You know what I'm talking about, right?

Ron Charles, Jr.:

Yeah.

Ron

Ron

Charles, Jr.: Tennis, tennis, tennis.

Ron Charles,

Jr.:

But first, a little bit about our guest.

Ron Charles is an American book critic.

His awards include the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award, and he was one of three jurors for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

He spent seven years as the Christian Science Monitor's book review editor, and in 2005, he began reviewing books for the Washington Post, where he stayed for two decades.

It is easily one of the best reads in the whole book world.

Now, as Shakespeare would have it, onto our darker purpose, or our brighter purpose in this case.

Ron Charles is known for being an enthusiastic champion of books.

In that way, he is a kindred spirit to me.

It's incredible.

We talked to book critic Ron Charles this week about another element that Margaret just alluded to of Dolly Parton's legacy.

Listen.

I don't think you can name anyone else who has done more for literacy in America than Dolly Parton, which is kinda surprising 'cause we think of her as this great country singer, but then there's this whole other legacy.

I saw a really interesting review.

I think maybe it was Ron Charles saying-

I saw this too

... you know, could've, he, he was admiring it for having, I don't know if restraint is the right word to say, but like taking a different tactic on something like this.

Danticat is always on my list.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, and I'm, you know, I think we're all gonna be sad for a long time about what happened to the Washington Post's book coverage and Ron Charles not having a position there anymore.

But as a reader, I am delighted that Ron Charles has the leash off on Substack-

I saw a really interesting review.

I think maybe it was Ron Charles saying-

I saw this too

... you know, could've, he, he was admiring it for having, I don't know if restraint is the right word to say, but, like, taking a different tactic on something like this.

Danticat is always on my list.

Mm.

Uh, and I'm, you know, I think we're all gonna be sad for a long time about what happened to The Washington Post's book coverage and Ron Charles not having a position there anymore.

But as a reader, I am delighted that Ron Charles has the leash off on Substack-