The New York Times Book Review Podcast has selected the February 12, 2016 podcast, Andrew Solomon on Love and Death, for inclusion in a collection of 10 Memorable Conversations, in honor of the Podcast’s 15th anniversary.
Excerpt
In 2016, Andrew Solomon wrote about five books that concerned the subjects of death and dying. As he described them in his review: “one by a historian; two by hospice workers; one by a widow; one by a man who is dying himself.” Solomon’s visit to the podcast to discuss his piece and those books resulted in one of the more emotional and profound episodes in the show’s history. “Part of what’s compelling about these books is that the enormous beauty that’s in them constitutes a form of hope,” Solomon said. “So on the one hand, that people die, and on the other hand, that people live so richly in that instant before they die. And when you read these books, not only do you have to reconcile yourself to your own mortality, you also think, ‘Maybe I can do that as beautifully as they did, and if I can, maybe it won’t be so bad for me, for the people I leave behind; maybe the death of someone else won’t be so bad for me.’ There’s a strange comfort that’s buried in these books.”
For the complete list, including memorable podcasts by Toni Morrison, Andre Agassi and Stephen King, Christopher Hitchens, Jeanette Winterson, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and David Wallace Wells, Reginald Dwayne Betts, and Daniel Mendelsohn, please visit the New York Times.
