Episode: Ep149: Literary Friction - Dark Comedy with Lorrie Moore

Dark humour - do you love it or hate it? Do you find it cathartic or macho? Can humour ever be too dark, and is it a useful political tool? This month our guest is the one and only Lorrie Moore, who joined us to talk about her latest novel, I Am Homeless if This is Not My Home, a story about grief and ghosts and history that is equally funny as it is philosophical. It follows Finn, who in 2016 is visiting his dying brother in a hospice in New York. Finn's stay is interrupted by the news that his ex-girlfriend Lily, who worked as a therapy clown, has killed herself, which sets off a road trip with her talking corpse. All this is punctuated by letters from a boarding house proprietor in the post-Civil War American South, about a mysterious lodger that has come to stay… Tune in for all of this, plus the usual recommendations.

Recommendations on the theme, Dark Comedy: Octavia: Hot Milk by Deborah Levy Carrie: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

General Recommendations: Octavia: Open Throat by Henry Hoake Lorrie: Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck Carrie: The Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes

Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/july-dark-comedy-with-lorrie-moore

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