Bowie Book Club Podcast - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I’ve been listening for years, due to being a Bowie fanboy since college. After following the podcast, I’m a fanboy of Kristianne and Greg. I love Kristianne’s voice and laugh. And I love that Greg makes Kristianne laugh with his sense of humor. I hope Kristianne does audio books so I can hear her voice even more, and I hope they continue for many years with podcasts beyond Bowie’s 100 book list.

It’s a great idea - I love Bowie, and I love books - but I realized 10 minutes into the first episode I listened to, which was about the Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces, that if you’re going to listen to a podcast about books, it should be one led by people who understand literature, and know how to properly evaluate a book. Not everybody is going to like the same books but these guys don’t really know what they’re talking about. They totally misunderstood this book, which is a classic. Admittedly, I stopped listening but one of the first things they should have talked about is the setting, because it is an intrinsic part of the novel. It takes place in New Orleans in 1960 and that setting is of the utmost importance. One of the things that makes it stand out and ulways mentioned when properly discussed is that the author has an incredible ear for dialect and for depicting the city. These guys obviously didn’t get the humor at all - they thought it was one- dimensional and compared it to that of a sitcom. Nothing could be further from the truth. Much of the humor comes from the absurdity of it all and the characters are not stereotypes, as they say. They are all extremely likeable in their ridiculousness (it was shocking to me that they only liked two of the characters when all of them are so funny and richly described.) The protagonist, Ignatious, is one of the great characters of literature and is the biggest buffoon of them all. He is unique and multilayered. (there’s even a statue of him in New Orleans!) It’s not a “deep” novel - it’s not exactly Faulkner or something- but that’s the type of book it is - it is a picaresque novel, like Joseph Andrew’s, and it IS satirical. It points out the folly with all these characters, including the protagonist. There is no deep message but it’s hilarious. If they had done a little bit of research, they could also have talked about the author, because the story of how the book came to be is pertinent. if they don’t get it, or like it, that’s one thing, but it’s not interesting to sit and listen to the discussion of a novel by somebody who could just be the person sitting next to you on the subway train or your neighbor. I thought they would have some interesting insights, but they can’t even get it right. So there’s no way I would listen their evaluation of the other 99 books that were on Bowie‘s list of favorites. however, if it’s your thing to listen to the ramblings of two friends who know nothing about literature, go for it.