Franzen's literary touchstones, decades in, decades out.<br /><br />Question: Which writers inform your work? <br />Jonathan Franzen: Reference points for me, decade in, decade out, [William] Shakespeare and [Franz] Kafka, decade in and decade out. <br />It so much depends on what you happen to read when you're 19 or 20, and your eyes are open to literature. And then I don't know if [Rainer Maria] Rilke's novel [The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge], his only novel is a great book or not, but it was one of the touchstone texts for me. I learned how to read literally in part by reading that book, and part by reading Kafka, and in part by reading Shakespeare, Ibsen another; if one can mention two playwrights in a list of five books. Because they were where I learned how to read, they remain the examples that come to mind when I'm trying to say something about literature. <br />So we have Ibsen and we have the Rilke novel, we have all of Kafka, we have all of Shakespeare and I think probably I'd want to say something like, [F. Scott Fitzgerald's] "The Great Gatsby," just to make sure there's an American on the list. <br />Recorded On: April 1, 2008
