Audiobook recommendations?

[Steven Koteff]

This is from memory so may not be perfect. I think it comes from the
section/chapter on McEwan. Part of the thing being that McEwan has a knack
for finding the unfindable (e.g. Kundera) and befriending them.

I think this story comes while Hitchens is working for the *New Statesman*.
In the wake of some censorship ordeal--somebody has written a book the
English government has forbidden from being published, I think--Hitchens
gets a call from someone claiming to be TRP. He is skeptical, but through
some series of details no one else could've known (I don't think Hitchens
shares these) the caller convinces Hitchens that he (the caller) is Pynch.
He says he is travelling (in Europe, I think) and that his friend McEwan
has told him (TRP) about this censorship thing. He wants to know if there's
anything either of them (TRP or Hitchens) can do to right this injustice.
Hitchens explains that the UK has no law protecting freedom of
speech/press. Thus their options are limited. I don't think the matter is
explored much further (at least not in Hitch's account).

But Hitch says he then made some clumsy and thinly-veiled effort to get
Pynchon to meet/befriend him, or to establish some sort of more regular
contact. Which TRP sees through. Pynchon laughs and ends the call.

On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 8:42 AM, Perry Noid <coolwithdoc at gmail.com> wrote:

> Do tell
> On Sep 18, 2014 4:58 AM, "Steven Koteff" <steviekoteff at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Not sure how he's regarded in these parts, but I found Christopher
>> Hitchens reading his own memoir (*Hitch-22*) to be a great time. He's a
>> great reader of his own work and, if you don't have much experience with
>> him, a much more earnest and compassionate (not merely contrarian or coldly
>> and purely logical) guy than you might think. There's some surprisingly
>> emotional and straightforward stuff about his parents that is very moving,
>> in addition to a lot of funny stuff about other literary types (Amis[es],
>> Rushdie, McEwan, Vidal, etc.) and a *lot *of firsthand stuff about
>> politics and revolution in other countries. If any of that interests you.
>>
>> Also there's a little anecdote about a phone call from TRP that I imagine
>> has been discussed in these parts, but I'd be happy to retell what I
>> remember of it if anybody wants.
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 12:32 AM, David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Another audiobook recommendation: Disgrace (Coetzee). That one's really
>>> stuck in my craw.
>>>
>>> I'd love to hear more recommendations from other people.
>>>
>>> > From: dpayne1912 at hotmail.com
>>> > To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>> > Subject: RE: Audiobook recommendations?
>>> > Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 04:55:18 +0000
>>>
>>> >
>>> > Yes, the True Grit audiobook is great. I have a long commute. Thank
>>> god for audiobooks. True Grit sticks out in my memory for the story and for
>>> the reader.
>>> >
>>> > I also liked: Oryx and Crake (Atwood), Swamplandia (Karen Russell),
>>> Telegraph Avenue (Michael Chabon), The Third Reich (Bolano), and Train
>>> Dreams (Denis Johnson).
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, 19 Mar 2014 17:09:57 +0100, jstremmel at gmail.com wrote,
>>> > I definitely agree: She has a nice drawl as Mattie, knows the book
>>> since she was ten, and what she has to say about it is as at least as smart
>>> as her own books.
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, 19 Mar 2014 18:57:57 -0400, malignd at aol.com
>>> >
>>> > Ah, Charles Portis.  True Grit's great.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 11:15 am, Charles Albert <cfalbert at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Just finished reading True Grit and can only imagine that a narrated
>>> version would be sublime.
>>> >
>>> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pUmz4PJOvo
>>> >
>>> > I will leave it to others to determine whether the choice of Donna
>>> Tartt as reader was a wise one.
>>> >
>>> > love,
>>> > cfa
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 11:05 AM, Dave Monroe <
>>> against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > Fiction, nonfiction, science fiction, just particularly interesting to
>>> listen to, is all. Thanks! -
>>> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=nchon-l
>>>
>>
>>
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