From Kirkus Reviews:
Schumock's interviews with writers on his Portland, Ore., radio program are generally entertaining if not enlightening. These transcriptions of one-hour talks from KBOO radio's Between the Covers program suffer from a lack of framework. No dates a re given for the interviews; the brief author bios are updated only to the time of the interview, not to this book's publication. Thus, there are vague references to a ``most recent'' novel or ``latest'' collection, but no mention of a writer's later work s or accomplishments. And Schumock's prefatory remark that ``anyone who reads this book in its entirety will gain a much broader perspective on American literature in the second half of the 20th century'' certainly overstates his case. The lack of time-fr ame doesn't matter much in some of the interviews: William Styron's focuses on literary influences and his determination that his first novel, Lie Down in Darkness, not be a ``standard, autobiographical, young man's novel.'' Schumock discusses literary in fluences with several of the writers, most effectively with Thomas McGuane, who cites Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano as ``essential reading for modern writers.'' Paul Theroux's interview, done near the release of My Other Life (1996), looks at autobiog raphy, noting that the author is, in effect, a ``character'' similar to a fictional creation. Lorrie Moore, one of just three women collected here (the others are Carol Shields and Carolyn Kizer) sees writing as ``the process of creating new worlds . . . a kind of scary and mad project.'' In Tobias Wolff's fascinating interview, the acclaimed short-story writer connects the ``fragmented nature'' of his transient youth with his reluctance to attempt a full-length novel. Almost all the interviews are conclu ded with the silly convention of asking, if you were stranded on a desert isle, what two books would you want? Surprisingly few had clever responses. Sufficient introductory and follow-up material might have provided a boost for this merely diverting coll ection. (10 pp. author photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review:
The discussions veer from the strictly literary to the magnetically personal, the asthetic to the anecdotal..." -- Booklist
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