EPISODE #104 “Inside the Scents” 03-24-14
This week on “Books du Jour,” our guests gather around a table at City Winery to discuss the scent of their new book and share some musing. Mark Slouka, Lara Vapnyar, Edmund White.
One of the most interesting aspects about scents is that they are always intimately tied to a location and more particularly to soils. Our three guests carry a distinctive sense of place.
Mark Slouka, “Brewster,” writes about Brewster, NY, a poignant novel of coming of age, based in the late 60s’, about a young man seeking his place in this small country town. There is little wandering outside the borders.
Lara Vapnyar complicates the issue of identity by straddling two continents and two time frames. Her “Scent of Pine,” moves back and forth between the outskirts of Moscow and the countryside of Maine.
Edmund White, on the other hand, with “Inside a Pearl,” which refers to Paris, the French capital, continues his peripatetic wandering through the French cultural corridors. His sense of place is about relocation and shifting identity.