In this episode of Private Life , Rachel Kushner reads an excerpt from Leslie A. Fiedler’s Love and Death in the American Novel (1960), which was reissued by New York Review Books in April. In Kushner’s selection, Fiedler writes about Mark Twain and the themes and characters of his books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

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Kushner is best known for her novels Telex from Cuba (2008), The Flamethrowers (2013), and The Mars Room (2018). Her most recent novel is Creation Lak e (2024).

Leslie A. Fiedler (1917–2003) was a literary critic and novelist. His books include The Stranger in Shakespeare (1972), Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self (1978), and Fiedler on the Roof: Essays on Literature and Jewish Identity (1991) .

Last week’s episode featured Edwin Frank in a conversation about Fiedler’s literary criticism and Love and Death in the American Novel .…