we’re closing out our second-person module with one of our strongest books yet: open water by caleb azumah nelson. after talking about the pitt (and the mount rushmore of tv), we talk about the lack of irony in open water and the way its naturalistic style makes you forget it’s written in second-person. we talk about the way nelson writes about media (and how it feels like a barry jenkins movie), how good he is at describing music, and the good lineage of books with “water” in the title. we ask: what would this be like if it was set in the u.s.? we admire the amazing circumstance of the main characters’ meeting, how glad we are at what this book did NOT become, and the shortcut nelson uses to existing art (and the intertextuality it has with other modern media). would this make a good movie? we reflect back on the mixed bag of a module.

reading list for season thirteen

interior chinatown by charles yu

if on a winter’s night a traveler by italo calvino

bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney

suicide by édouard levé

the malady of death by marguerite duras

how like a god by rex stout

the diver’s clothes lie empty by vendela vida

the night circus by erin morgenstern

a man asleep by georges perec

open water by caleb azumah nelson