Defector Reads A Book Is Going Long In September And October [Update]

Update (11/2): We have a couple DRAB-ers out this week, so we're giving the class an extension and postponing our discussion of Tristram Shandy to Wednesday, November 16. Talk to you then!

Summer might be in denial right now, but the nights are indeed cooling and coziness is imminent. That had us looking for a big tome, one we could sit with for a good month and a half. So we are headed to the 18th century. Next up we'll be reading Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, a novel ahead of its time and possibly ours. Published between 1759 and 1767, this book is packed with weird tangents, blank pages, marbled pages, proto-stream-of-consciousness, squiggles, diagrams, and timeless goofs and gags. Tristram begins the book describing his failure to get born, and the dude only heats up from there.

We hope you'll join us for this two-monther. To get a copy, try your local library, independent bookstore, or Bookshop.org. (There, you’ll also find a list of previous Defector Reads A Book selections and some other staff favorites.)

Then meet us here on Wednesday, November 2 Wednesday, November 16 to chat. We’ll be sure to send out a reminder in The Cipher, the daily newsletter that goes out to all Pal-and-up subscribers. Thank you all for the lively C.L.R. James discussion. Now let's go figure out what the hell Laurence Sterne was getting up to.