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Filmmaker, artist, author, and mainstream cultural icon John Waters visits the podcast this week to talk about his first novel, “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance.” The book introduces three generations of women in the Sprinkle family and their very complicated (and antagonistic) relationships with each other. The first of them we meet is Marsha, an unrepentant thief and a misanthrope in general; but Waters says that he still wants us to support her.
“She’s so crazy and so terrible that at first you can’t believe it,” says Waters. And she takes herself very seriously, like all her fans. No one in this book has much of a sense of humor about themselves, which, I think, can be funny, in the same way that when I made a movie, the main thing I said to each actor was, ‘Never wink at the audience. . Say it like you believe every word.’”
Also on this week’s episode, Elizabeth Harris talks about this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners; and Dwight Garner and Jennifer Szalai talk about books they recently reviewed. John Williams is the host.
Here are the books discussed by critics in The Times this week:
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