Nathan Englander spoke last night at the local JCC as part of our Jewish book fair. I spoke with him for a couple of minutes after his talk. Englander is smart, funny and seems to be truly a nice person. He left afterward with two friends from college who now live in Minneapolis. This was not planned. Englander did not know they would be there and his college friends weren't even sure Englander would remember them. He did and invited them out.
I've written before about Englander's new novel, the Ministry of Special Cases. No review from me can match what Englander himself says about his work. So listen to Englander.
The audio isn't great, but what follows is an MP3 of Englander talking about Ministry of Special Cases, writing in general, politics, freedom, history, and more.
Don't think this is some stale academic presentation. Englander is funny as hell. If he's coming your way, buy a copy of his newest book and go see him. If he's not reading nearby you'll have to suffer through my poor audio recording: