The Bob Edwards Show, June 14-18, 2014
Monday, July 14, 2014: Bob talks to Anthony Marra about his novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, which has just come out in paperback. It was a New York Times bestseller when it was published in May 2013. This week it was shortlisted for the Pen Literary Award (for first fiction). The novel is set in a small village in Chechnya, a breakaway republic in southern Russia during the 1990’s and early 2000’s. During these years, Russian troops abducted anyone suspected of helping or sympathizing with Chechen separatists. Marra’s characters in A Constellation of Vital Phenomena are not the soldiers, or partisans in the war, but ordinary people doing whatever they can to survive in a war zone. Then, we hear a new commentary from children’s book writer and illustrator Daniel Pinkwater.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014: Just six weeks before Linor Abargil won the Miss World competition in 1998, she was kidnapped, raped, and stabbed by an Israeli travel agent in Italy. Filmmakers Cecilia Peck and Inbal Lessner tell this story in Brave Miss World, a documentary on Abargil’s experience and her work to end sexual violence. Brave Miss World is available on Netflix. Then, we remember world-renowned conductor Lorin Maazel. In 2008, Bob visited Maazel’s Virginia home to speak about the opera camp he ran there, his time with the New York Philharmonic and their unusual trip to North Korea. Lorin Maazel died Sunday at the age of 84.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014: Once identified by art historian Robert Rosenblum as the 20th century’s “most overrated and underrated artist,” Andrew Wyeth’s work has long been a polarizing force in American art. A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art titled Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In highlights the artist’s fascination with windows. Curator Nancy Anderson talks with Bob about Wyeth’s work and life. Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In is open until November 30, 2014. Then, Jolie Holland was one of the founding members of the folk band The Be Good Tanyas. She’s been described as embodying “everything weird and wonderful in the history of American music.” Her new solo album Wine Dark Sea is now out.
Thursday, July 17, 2014: Documentary filmmaker Dan Cohen’s new film, Alive Inside, won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It shows the remarkable power of music on those suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Cohen talks with Bob about his film and the experiences that inspired it. The film opens tomorrow in New York City. Then, Bob talks with Cowboy poet Baxter Black about his latest book, Poems Worth Saving, a collection of Baxter’s favorite poems he’s done over the years.
Friday, July 18, 2014: First, Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times joins us each Friday for an analysis of politics, but this week he’s offering book suggestions appropriate for your day at the beach. Then, Bob talks with director Richard Linklater about his latest movie ‘Boyhood’ which he filmed over 12 actual years. The only special effect is watching the main character grow up on screen…starting in elementary school and ending on his first day in college. The story follows family moves, unfortunate stepfathers and broken hearts and stars newcomer Ellar Coltrane as Mason, and Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as his biological parents.