We welcome special guest Stewart O’Nan, author of The Odds, Last Night at the Lobster, A Prayer for the Dying, and many, many more, to discuss a book he calls “a great American novel no one has read.” Theodore Weesner’s The True Detective tells the story of a child’s abduction from multiple perspectives: the family of the victim, the kidnapper, and the detective attempting to break the case. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill procedural; instead the book seeks to mine the the complicated emotional terrain of its characters, exploring how they’re affected by this web of tragedy.

In the second half of the show, we talk with Stewart about his own writing process: his tendency to labor over sentences, how he keeps himself chained to a desk for eight hours a day, and why you should get over yourself and just write some damn books. Plus: Mike’s visit to a porn store, Tom’s obsession with his sales figures, and Stewart’s admiration for the works of Jonathan Franzen.

As always, you can listen to the show here, by clicking on the little player below, or you can download the mp3 file and do with it as you please. Or visit the iTunes store, via the link below, where you can download this episode and become a (free) subscriber, so you’ll get each week’s episode as soon as it’s released.

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Thanks for listening!

Download Episode 18: Theodore Weesner, The True Detective