S9 Ep. 34 Ben Fountain on Rasputin and Trump’s Coming Third Term
Novelist Ben Fountain joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss his new book, Rasputin Swims the Potomac. Fountain's satire, set in the not-to-distant future, describes the furor, scandal, and hysterical “weeping sickness” that arrives in the wake of the fictional President’s decision to seek an unprecedented third term. Fountain talks about the technical choices he has made to fictionalize Trump, including the decision to redact his name. He also reflects on the roles of the other characters in the novel, including Clarence Thomas Jr., a Black reporter unrelated to…
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