The God of Small Things with Mina Seçkin (Author of The Four Humors)

Oh boy, we're tackling a BIG one this week! This week’s guest is Mina Seçkin, whose novel THE FOUR HUMORS is a meandering and thoughtful exploration of family secrecy and cultural identity. Our main character, Sibel, is a college student visiting family in Turkey along with her white American boyfriend, and the pressures of adulthood and losing her father culminate in inexplicable headaches. Sibel becomes fascinated with the theory of the four bodily humors and ancient medicine, and slowly finds her way through not only this ancient field, but the covered-up ancient secrets of her own family. The book is compelling; equal parts coming of age and family saga, with the added texture of an at-times abrasive protagonist.

Seçkin calls Arundhati Roy's THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS one of her all time favorite books, and together she and I discuss the remarkable prose of this novel, its Faulkner-esque experiments with time, and the deep understanding of childhood trauma. There is also the matter of explaining one's cultural background without overexplaining, defining an audience for your work, picking the ideal writing snacks, and so much more discussed in this episode. There are also many, many other book recommendations, in case your list needs growing.

Books discussed: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian, The Vietri Project by Nicola DeRobertis-Theye, Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang, Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

Follow Mina on twitter @minaseckin and on instagram @littlebutta

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