I begin this episode of Marginalia a bit red in the face. You see, I interviewed Jenny Offill about her novel, Weather, on March 6. It was the last interview I conducted in-studio at the station. The next week we started working from home.
The abrupt change affected many of us. My reading habits changed drastically. The focus of my work shifted dramatically. I’ve conducted a few more interviews from a home studio, and I’ve even managed to produce a couple of those into podcasts. But something was stopping me from returning to that conversation with Jenny Offill. I finally finished the edit last week and, hopefully, have cleared a mental hurdle.
So allow me to introduce you to Jenny Offill and her novel, Weather, because even though I’m tardy, this novel is still so timely. You might recognize Offill from her first two books, Last Things and Dept. of Speculation. Weather, like the others, is quite spare, right at 200 pages with a lot of white space. The main character is a librarian, and through her, Offill introduces some pretty powerful topics: family, addiction, and climate change.
So let’s get to it. Here’s our conversation:
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Weather: A Novel by Jenny Offill is published by Knopf.
Marginalia was produced at KMUW Wichita. If you like this podcast, please consider leaving a rating or review on Apple Podcasts.
Engineers: Mark Statzer and Torin Andersen
Editor: Lu Anne Stephens
Producer: Beth Golay
Follow Beth Golay on Twitter @BethGolay.
