Two Month Review

On this week’s episode, Kaija reaches her breaking point, Brian has Stockholm syndrome, and Chad is in danger of an Anchylosis. They also talk about travel-writing, time in narrative, donkeys, Sancho Panza, pabulum, and how much Tristram hates France. It’s a strange volume in a strange book, but one that’s awash in funny bits—and a few moving ones! This week’s music is “In France” by Frank Zappa.Next week’s episode will cover Volume VIII of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. If you want to follow along, the complete schedule can be found here.To support Open Letter directly, please visit this “donation” link. (All contributions via this link go directly to Open Letter’s account.)And to support Coffee House Press’s ongoing fundraising campaign, click here.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Harold Rogers (Tropicália) comes on to talk about his new novel, Humpty Dumpty, and Laurence Sterne’s influence on his writing. After that, the conversation turns to how best to handle marital disputes, the tragic nature of Volume VI of Tristram Shandy, the infamous line drawing and blank page, and Sterne’s sudden swerve.This week’s music is “Literary World” by BODEGA.Next week’s episode will cover Volume VII. If you want to follow along, the complete schedule can be found here.To support Open Letter directly, please visit this “donation” link. (All contributions via this link go directly to Open Letter’s account.)And to support Coffee House Press’s ongoing fundraising campaign, click here.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Kicking off this week’s episode is a little game of which came first: a well-known invention, or Volumes I & II of Tristram Shandy. After that, Kaija, Brian, and Chad discuss Volume V, especially the mix of humor and sadness this section contains, and how Sterne’s style overpowers his plot points. They also guess what comes next in the novel, talk about Tristram’s accident, and get into Anatomy of Melancholy and the “Tristrapaedia.” This week’s music is “The Circumcision Song” by Gifted but Twisted.Next week’s episode will cover Volume VI. If you want to follow along, the complete schedule can be found here.To support Open Letter directly, please visit this “donation” link. (All contributions via this link go directly to Open Letter’s account.)And to support Coffee House Press’s ongoing fundraising campaign, click here.Upcoming Open Letter EventsAll October: Asymptote Book Club for The Strongest Woman in the World.Saturday, October 17, 2pm ET: Translating Scandinavia at Scandinavia House, NYC.Friday, October 23, 5pm ET: Boudoir Book Club at The Siren and the Sea, Rochester, NY.Saturday & Sunday, October 24-25, Lara Moreno will be at the FILNYC festival to discuss The City and her other books. She’s on a panel on the 24th at 2pm ET, and one on the 25th at 1pm ET. Both are at John Jay College.Click here for more information on Open Letter’s Icelandic-themed Translator Triptych, and click here to learn about The Family by Sara Mesa & Katie Whittemore. (DRCs of The Family are available on Edelweiss+.)You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Brian’s off-grid, so Chad and Kaija take on Volume IV of Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by themselves. They start by bantering about the Nobel Prize for Literature before getting into “noses,” the metafictional games in this volume, the importance of names, whether you can get a baptismal do-over, and much more. This week’s music is “Say My Name (Remix)” by Morgan Seatree x Florence + The Machine.Next week’s episode will cover Volume V. If you want to follow along, the complete schedule can be found here.To support Open Letter directly, please visit this “donation” link. (All contributions via this link go directly to Open Letter’s account.)And to support Coffee House Press’s ongoing fundraising campaign, click here.Upcoming Open Letter EventsAll October: Asymptote Book Club for The Strongest Woman in the World.Saturday, October 10, 4pm CT: Spotlight on Icelandic Women Writers at Open Book, Minneapolis, MN.Saturday, October 17, 2pm ET: Translating Scandinavia at Scandinavia House, NYC.Friday, October 23, 5pm ET: Boudoir Book Club at The Siren and the Sea, Rochester, NY.Saturday & Sunday, October 24-25, Lara Moreno will be at the FILNYC festival to discuss The City and her other books. She’s on a panel on the 24th at 2pm ET, and one on the 25th at 1pm ET. Both are at John Jay College.And click here for more information on Open Letter’s Icelandic-themed Translator Triptych.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

On this week’s episode, which covers Volume III of Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Brian shares some weird stuff about geese from Rabelais along with an AI-created reading list on the “evolution of metafiction.” And all three co-hosts talk about how fun this book is to read, but also wonder what the book’s overall “joke” might be. They also discuss noses (or “noses”), “The Author’s Preface” and Macedonio Fernández, and some of the novel’s wordplay. Next week’s episode will cover Volume IV. If you want to follow along, the complete schedule can be found here.To support Open Letter directly, please visit this “donation” link. (All contributions via this link go directly to Open Letter’s account.) And to support Coffee House Press’s ongoing fundraising campaign, click here.Upcoming Open Letter EventsAll October: Asymptote Book Club for The Strongest Woman in the World.Friday, October 2, 1pm ET: Open Letter Salon for The City.Saturday, October 3, 1pm ET: Time and Water: Film Screening and Conversation at Scandinavia House, NYC. Also screening at the Central Park Conservancy Film Festival on October 7th at 7pm on the lawn between Cherry Hill and Sheep Meadow.Tuesday, October 6, 7pm ET: The 2026 Icelandic Translator Triptych at Scandinavia House, NYC.Wednesday, October 7, 7pm ET: Screening of Time and Water at the Central Park Conservancy Film Festival.Saturday, October 10, 4pm CT: Spotlight on Icelandic Women Writers at Open Book, Minneapolis, MN.Saturday, October 17, 2pm ET: Translating Scandinavia at Scandinavia House, NYC.Friday, October 23, 5pm ET: Boudoir Book Club at The Siren and the Sea, Rochester, NY.Saturday & Sunday, October 24-25, Lara Moreno will be at the FILNYC festival to discuss The City and her other books. She’s on a panel on the 24th at 2pm ET, and one on the 25th at 1pm ET. Both are at John Jay College.And click here for more information on Open Letter’s Icelandic-themed Translator Triptych.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Kaija’s jet-lagged but back, ready to digress and digest double entendres with Chad and Brian. Along with recapping this volume of Tristram Shandy—Toby and Trim’s plan, the collision between Obadiah and Dr. Slop, Yorick’s Sermon, Walter’s midwifery ideas—they talk about the initial reception of this book, the worst type of footnotes, the editorial inclination to favor the transmission of information over voice-driven joyful meanderings, and one of many reasons why Bret Stephens sucks. This week’s music is “Planet Desperation” by Car Seat Headrest.Next week’s episode will cover Volume III. If you want to follow along, the complete schedule can be found here.Upcoming Open Letter EventsFriday, September 25, 4:30pm ET: What French and Francophone Literature Offers the American Imagination at Albertine Books, NYC.All October: Asymptote Book Club for The Strongest Woman in the World.Friday, October 2, 1pm ET: Open Letter Salon for The City.Saturday, October 3, 1pm ET: Time and Water: Film Screening and Conversation at Scandinavia House, NYC.Tuesday, October 6, 7pm ET: The 2026 Icelandic Translator Triptych at Scandinavia House, NYC.Saturday, October 10, 4pm CT: Spotlight on Icelandic Women Writers at Open Book, Minneapolis, MN.Saturday, October 17, 2pm ET: Translating Scandinavia at Scandinavia House, NYC.Friday, October 23, 5pm ET: Boudoir Book Club at The Siren and the Sea, Rochester, NY.And click here for more information on Open Letter’s Icelandic-themed Translator Triptych.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Kaija (“Medically Confirmed Sleepyhead,” her words) was asleep for the recording of this, so you only get Chad and Brian this week. They introduce Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by going over Volume I. There’s some biographical info at the start, then they talk about shaggy dog stories and digressions, “nominative determinism,” some interesting ideas from the 1700s about sperm and conception, the em-dash problem in the Penguin Classic edition, and how to handle all the footnotes without destroying the flow of reading.They also discuss the other Substack currently reading Tristram Shandy, and the discussion group they’re having on the first and third Fridays of every month—which is open to the public both in person at the CUNY Graduate Center and on Zoom. (Subscribe for free to get the Zoom link.)This week’s music is “Fingers and Thumbs” by Tristram Shandy.Next week’s episode will cover Volume II. If you want to follow along, the complete schedule can be found here.You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

Instead of breaking down any books this episode, Kaija, Brian, and Chad talk about some of the books they read this past summer, including a few Nabokov titles, Big Bang by David Bowman (NOT the 2001 character), Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman (longlisted for the Booker Prize!), and several more. Then, they lay out the next three seasons of TMR, explaining some of the connections between these various books . . . This week’s music is “Summertime Clothes” by Animal Collective.The next three seasons of TMR are announced in this episode, and the reading schedule for the first one will be available on September 10th. What, you think I would tell you which books we’re doing here in the show notes? The three forthcoming books in the Icelandic-centric Translator Triptych curated by Lytton Smith are:* Boudoir by Sigrún Pálsdóttir, translated by Lytton Smith* The Strongest Woman in the World by Steinunn G. Helgadóttir, translated by Larissa Kyzer* 12 Women + Under a Volcano by Svava Jakobsdóttir, translated by Esja Alyssa MatichAnd you can get all three for $35 (almost 40% off) in this special bundle, and you can subscribe to receive the next 5 or 10 Open Letter titles here. Information about “The 2026 Icelandic Translator Triptych” (October 6, 7pm) and “Translating Scandinavia” (October 17, 2pm), both taking place at the Scandinavia House in New York City is available here. Finally, if you’d like to support Open Letter’s publications, our podcasts, Three Percent, the Translation Database, etc., please consider contributing via this link. Thanks in advance! Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

This week, Kaija, Chad, and Brian talk about how well Morgner landed the plane, the ethics of recommending books to bar patrons, what the second and third volumes of this trilogy might be like, how the book works as parody, Viktor Shklovsky, and much more. This week’s music is “Detachable Penis” by King Missle.We’ll announce a new slate of TMR seasons in the upcoming weeks. Till then, stay tuned, and explore our extensive back catalog of more than 150 episodes. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) for all things Dalkey Archive. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com

This week, Brian, Kaija, and Chad talk about the unknown world of references Morgner is playing with, picaresque novels, the joys of writing tedious prose, the American healthcare system, and Beatrice’s fate.This week’s music is “Out of This Place” by Car Seat Headrest.Next week: We finish this! You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.Follow Open Letter, Two Month Review, Chad W. Post, Kaija Straumanis, and Brian Wood for random thoughts and information about upcoming guests. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the Three Percent substack for information about Open Letter Books and literature in translation writ large.Also consider subscribing to the Mining the Dalkey Archive substack and its respective podcast (Apple, Spotify) for all things Dalkey Archive. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit threepercentproblem.substack.com