The Virtual Memories Show

No conversation this week, unless you count me talking to myself. This episode, I share some thoughts and memories about my father, following his death last week at the age of 88 — or 87, depending on who he was lying to — along with the eulogy I gave at his funeral. • More info at our site [https://chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-646-eulogy] • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Stripe [https://buy.stripe.com/dR603B83MbhS4XS3ce], Patreon [https://patreon.com/vmspod], or Paypal [https://paypal.me/vmspod], and subscribe to our e-newsletter [https://buttondown.email/vmspod]

How did Russian Jews wind up migrating to Galveston, Texas in the early 1900s? How did the image of America as melting pot come into existence? How did a family memoir evolve into a forgotten history of Zionism? Find out during my conversation with Rachel Cockerell [https://www.rachelcockerell.co.uk] about her amazing new book, MELTING POINT: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land [https://bookshop.org/a/4669/9780374609269] (FSG)! We talk about the tightrope walk of composing a history solely out of primary sources and why she eschewed the author's voice for this book, her grudging acceptance of Robert Caro's maxim to Turn Every Page [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14071694/], and how her perspective on Jewishness changed over the course of writing the book. We get into the once-titanic literary figure of Israel Zangwill [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Zangwill] and how he gave it up to find a homeland for the world's Jews, how Zangwill invented the notion of the melting pot and whether he truly believed in assimilationism, the inspiration of George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo [https://bookshop.org/a/4669/9780812985405] on Melting Point, and how Rachel got over the notion that the past was just a lead-up to now. We also discuss her next book on Halley's Comet and whether she'll stick with her primary sources-mode in future books, how her family reacted to seeing their stories (& contradictions) on the page, how a 90-year-old distant relative stole the show, and a lot more. Follow Rachel on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/rachelcockerell/] and Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/rachelcockerell.bsky.social] • More info at our site [https://chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-645-rachel-cockerell] • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Stripe [https://buy.stripe.com/dR603B83MbhS4XS3ce], Patreon [https://patreon.com/vmspod], or Paypal [https://paypal.me/vmspod], and subscribe to our e-newsletter [https://buttondown.email/vmspod]

Thirty-plus years in the making, the graphic adaptation of Paul Auster's THE NEW YORK TRILOGY [https://bookshop.org/a/4669/9780553387643] (Pantheon) is here at last! Paul Karasik [https://www.paulkarasikcomics.com] rejoins the show from Yaddo Artists Retreat [https://yaddo.org] to talk about the process of adapting Auster's postmodern crime novels into comics, how he collaborated with David Mazzucchelli (CITY OF GLASS) and Lorenzo Mattotti [http://chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-120-laboratory-of-imagination] (GHOSTS) on the first two and how he wound up drawing the third book, THE LOCKED ROOM, how these novels possessed him for decades, and the moment when he understood what each novel was really about. We get into how he met Auster at a parent-teacher conference shortly after the New York Trilogy came out, the moment of truth when Auster first saw the pages for City of Glass, the freedom (and restriction) Auster offered for the project, and whether Auster got to see the finished pages before his death in 2024. We also discuss Paul's comics upbringing, how his mother supported his habit (and maybe melted her son's brain by getting him a book of R. Crumb comics at 12 or 13), his lack of confidence in his drawing and his supreme confidence in his teaching, how meeting Art Spiegelman changed his life, why he's starting an online graphic novel workshop [https://www.paulkarasikcomics.com/graphic-novel-lab], the immense inspiration of staying at Yaddo (and how he learned The Two Rules Of Yaddo), and a lot more. Follow Paul on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/karasikkomiks/], support his Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/paulkarasik], and check out his Graphic Novel Lab [https://www.paulkarasikcomics.com/graphic-novel-lab] • More info at our site [https://chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-644-paul-karasik] • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Stripe [https://buy.stripe.com/dR603B83MbhS4XS3ce], Patreon [https://patreon.com/vmspod], or Paypal [https://paypal.me/vmspod], and subscribe to our e-newsletter [https://buttondown.email/vmspod]

One of my fave guest/friends, Kate Maruyama [https://kate-maruyama.squarespace.com], rejoins the show to celebrate her wonderful new novel, ALTERATIONS [https://bookshop.org/a/4669/9781960018755] (Running Wild Press)! We talk about the book's long gestation/publishing history, Kate's love of old Hollywood & costume design, closeted movie stars and how she told the story of a gay relationship in the '30s & '40s, and how it felt to write a non-horror horror story. We get into her own Hollywood experience in the '90s, how it informs Alterations, and how it felt to repeatedly smash into the glass ceiling, as well as how ghosts creep into everything she writes, how older people become invisible but have stories to tell, and how important it was to have a champion in Toni Ann Johnson [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Ann_Johnson] for this novel. We also discuss present-moment Los Angeles, the craft book about novella-writing she's co-writing, the need to decolonize her writing students, the (maybe non-existent) influence of Jodie Foster's Home For The Holidays [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113321] on Alterations, the essay she wrote around the decline & death of her mother, Kit Reed [https://www.kitreed.net], and more. Follow Kate on Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/katemaru.bsky.social] and Instagram [http://instagram.com/katemaruyama] • More info at our site [https://chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-643-kate-maruyama] • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Stripe [https://buy.stripe.com/dR603B83MbhS4XS3ce], Patreon [https://patreon.com/vmspod], or Paypal [https://paypal.me/vmspod], and subscribe to our e-newsletter [https://buttondown.email/vmspod]

With his fantastic new book, EMINENT JEWS [https://bookshop.org/a/4669/9781250193407] (Holt), writer and critic David Denby [http://denby-david.com] explores the impact on American culture of Jews Unbound through profiles of Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. We talk about how he selected his four subjects, how each of them came of age in an environment that Jews hadn't experienced in millennia, the ways each handled the responsibilities of family against their careers, the difference between "Jew" and "Jewish," and which one unfolded the most to him over the course of writing the book. We get into why Bernstein's greatest role may have been as a teacher, how Mailer's magnetism persisted way beyond its expiration date, how Friedan changed the world but was always challenged by her midwest upbringing, and whether Brooks was being disingenuous when he made musical numbers of our the Inquisition and Hitler. We also discuss judgements David made over the course of his career as a movie critic [https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/david-denby], what he did when he finally gave up reviewing and how he eased back into the cinema, why he revisited the Lit Hum [https://www.college.columbia.edu/core-curriculum/classes/literature-humanities] course at Columbia a few years ago, after previously revisiting it 30+ years ago for Great Books [https://bookshop.org/a/4669/9780684835334], his take on my my lightning round of classic lit questions, his non-Le Carré experience in East Berlin, his reaction to my parents taking me to History of the World: Part 1 [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082517/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1] when I was 9, and more. Follow David on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/davidrdenby/] • More info at our site [https://chimeraobscura.com/vm/episode-642-david-denby] • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Stripe [https://buy.stripe.com/dR603B83MbhS4XS3ce], Patreon [https://patreon.com/vmspod], or Paypal [https://paypal.me/vmspod], and subscribe to our e-newsletter [https://buttondown.email/vmspod]