NPR’s first summer reading pick: John Gardner’s “The Sunlight Dialogues”

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National Public Radio’s ‘All Things Considered’ recommended novelist John Gardner’s ‘The Sunlight Dialogues’ yesterday in its first segment on suggested summer reading. You may remember that in the 1970s Gardner was a provocateur, insisting that most contemporary literature was ‘tinny’ and insubstantial. Critics were divided on his work: Some called him a genius, author of such lyrical and perfectly constructed works as ‘The King’s Indian’ and ‘October Light’; others thought he was a didactic bore, citing books like ‘The Wreckage of Agathon.’

One thing most agreed on, however, was that Gardner cut an enormously romantic figure, with his long white hair, good looks, leather jacket and pipe--to say nothing of his tragic and untimely death at 49 in a 1982 motorcycle accident. The one novel of his that seems deserving of claims to greatness is ‘Grendel,’ which is ubiquitous on high school English syllabi and began drawing new audiences to ‘Beowulf’ more than 30 years before Seamus Heaney’s popularization. But NPR has decided to focus on ‘The Sunlight Dialogues,’ a sometimes-overlooked story about the brooding conversations between a policeman and a captive madman fluent in classical mythology. NPR provides an excerpt from the book, as well as an opportunity to hear Gardner’s son, Joel, read from it.
--Nick Owchar