This Week: Nicholson Baker’s HUMAN SMOKE
April 25th, 2008
Host Francesca Rheannon talks with Nicholson Baker about his acclaimed new book, HUMAN SMOKE: The Beginnings of World War II; The End of Civilization.
In a departure from his usual genre, fiction, Baker turns his eye for telling detail to an examination of the cavalier disregard for the human consequences of war by leaders on all sides of the conflict. We hear about how Churchill’s warmongering and Roosevelt’s anti-Semitism exacerbated the war’s civilian toll. We also hear of the courage of a few who dared to speak against the headlong rush to battle. We spend most of the hour in an in-depth conversation with the author.
Also, we take a last chance to celebrate poetry month by bringing Joshua Krugman, a member of the upcoming generation of poets, on air to read a few of his poems. Krugman’s work won first prize in the youth division of the Poet’s Seat competition and is an editor of Albany Road, the student literary magazine of Deerfield Academy.
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