PODCAST · arts
The NEW Torchlight List
by RNZ
Professor Jim Flynn talks with Wallace Chapman about his controversial list of the best modern books.
Episodes
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The New Torchlight List: Best Books & Authors
It's Jim's final countdown and he rates the authors from the very best, through to those he wants to read more of, promising authors, those not quite good enough, the unpromising - and the just plain awful. He tells Wallace he still loves reading - but he won't do another book like this again:...
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The New Torchlight List - Asia and the Middle East
This chapter of The New Torchlight List takes in a big geographical area and a variety of cultures.
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The New Torchlight List: Africa
Jim agrees with Wallace's love for Disgrace, by South African writer J.M. Coetzee - though Jim says Coetzee's "not brilliant". He describes the Cairo trilogy by Egyptian Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz as "a landmark work". Jim recommends Somalian writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali "for an unparalleled...
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The New Torchlight List: New Zealand & Australia
Jim Flynn and Wallace Chapman discuss Australasian literature. Wallace takes on Jim over Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries - too long, says Jim. Not so, says Wallace. Jim says Catton can write but she needs to get her talent under control - "too much good material". He says Janet Frame also can…
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The New Torchlight List: Europe
Jim Flynn tells Wallace Chapman that Italian Umberto Eco's best work is The Name of the Rose but this comes with a warning as Eco "loves to demonstrate his learning. The plot is interrupted by long essays which interest me because I teach medieval theology ..." Of best-selling Norwegian author Jo...
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The New Torchlight List: Ireland
Jim Flynn and Wallace Chapman discuss modern Irish literature. Jim rates John Banville's "wonderful style", but is less enamoured with John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The sex in Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls (which was banned in Ireland in 1960) he deems "incredibly tame stuff".
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The New Torchlight List: Britain
Some of Jim's favourite writers feature in this episode - V.S. Naipaul and Kazuo Ishiguro who, he says, is "perhaps the greatest novelist of our generation. His work is going to make him one of few novelists writing today who will be read throughout this century." Jim also rates Hilary Mantel's...
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The New Torchlight List: South America
Jim and Wallace discuss South American writers, including the politics and the passion reflected in the great writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - recommending the memorable Love in the Time of Cholera but urging readers to avoid The Autumn of the Patriarch at all costs. This book, written in one...
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The New Torchlight List: North America
Jim Flynn discusses North American authors and tells Wallace Chapman that everyone must read Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. He also highly rates Philip Roth and Toni Morrison, but Wallace and Jim agree that Don DeLillo's Underworld, which received "extravagant praise", isn't really up to snuff.…
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The New Torchlight List: The Need to Read
Jim Flynn is a world expert on human intelligence, and the author of many ground-breaking books on intelligence, philosophy and politics. He came from a poor family and owes all his success to reading great books. So the Emeritus Professor of Politics at Otago University was disturbed to find…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Professor Jim Flynn talks with Wallace Chapman about his controversial list of the best modern books.
HOSTED BY
RNZ
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How many episodes does The NEW Torchlight List have?
The NEW Torchlight List currently has 10 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The NEW Torchlight List about?
Professor Jim Flynn talks with Wallace Chapman about his controversial list of the best modern books.
How often does The NEW Torchlight List release new episodes?
The NEW Torchlight List has 10 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Who hosts The NEW Torchlight List?
The NEW Torchlight List is created and hosted by RNZ.
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