logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2023
1h 24m

Episode 532 - Priscilla Gilman

Gil Roth
About this episode

With her new memoir, The Critic's Daughter (Norton), Priscilla Gilman explores her relationship with her father, Theater Critic and Yale Drama professor Richard Gilman (as well as with her mom, literary agent Lynn Nesbit). We get into the perils of literary-kid memoir, the NYC book-scene she grew up in, her parents' divorce and how it led to her learning way too much about her dad's sexuality at 10 years old, and the challenges of capturing her early selves without jarring the reader. We also talk about how much she enjoyed recording her own audiobook, the role of the critic and the golden age of literary reviewing, what she'd ask her dad if he were around now, the disconnect between her parents' public & private personae, and the lessons she had to learn for herself about love, marriage, and parenthood. Plus, we share a literary lightning round, some football talk, and our Thurman Munson memories! Follow Priscilla on Twitter and Instagram • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack

Up next
Aug 19
Episode 650 - Dan Goldman
With RED LIGHT PROPERTIES: Unfinished Business (Kinjin Storylab), writer/cartoonist Dan Goldman brings us a wildly entertaining graphic novel of midlife, the afterlife, and the south Florida real estate market. We talk about how the concept for RLP grabbed hold of him 20+ years b ... Show More
1h 42m
Aug 13
Episode 649 - David Levithan and Jens Lekman
With SONGS FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S WEDDINGS (Abrams Press), writer David Levithan and singer-songwriter Jens Lekman bring the collaborative alchemy, as 20 years of fandom/friendship lead to this wonderful novel about a Swedish singer-songwriter — J — who finds a side-career playing or ... Show More
1h 7m
Aug 5
Episode 648 - Sacha Mardou
With PAST TENSE: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself In Therapy (Avery), cartoonist Sacha Mardou brings us a phenomenal graphic memoir about the midlife process of overcoming lifelong traumas and anxiety. We talk about her decision to to make her therapy process (& sessions) ... Show More
1h 11m
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2024
Priscilla Gilman
The Critic's Daughter is an exquisitely rendered portrait of a unique father-daughter relationship and a moving revelation of family and identity. Author Priscilla Gilman joins to talk about her memoir, a candid account of loss and grief, forgiveness, and love. Hosted on Acast. S ... Show More
1h 8m
Oct 2022
452 Charles and Mary Lamb | A Letter To My Transgender Daughter (with Carolyn Hays)
In this episode, Jacke takes a look at two topics. First, the story of Charles and Mary Lamb, whose children's book Tales from Shakespeare (1807) was published more than two hundred years ago and has never been out of print. Part of the literary circle that included Romantic-era ... Show More
1h 2m
Dec 2021
The Life of a Jazz Age Madam
In 2007, Debby Applegate won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Most Famous Man in America,” her biography of the 19th-century preacher and abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher. Applegate’s new book, “Madam,” is another biography, of a very different subject: Polly Adler, who ran a brothel and ... Show More
57m 54s
Apr 2023
504 Persuasion (Book Two) (with Mike Palindrome) | My Last Book with Juliette Bretan
Persuaded by the well-meaning Lady Russell, Anne Elliot turns down prospective suitor Frederick Wentworth. Will life give her a second chance at love? And if so, can she persuade herself to take it? In this episode, Jacke talks to Mike Palindrome, President of the Literature Supp ... Show More
1h 21m
Jul 2021
A Heartbreaking Novel About Mothers, Daughters and Secrets
The latest pick for Group Text, our monthly column for readers and book clubs, is Esther Freud's “I Couldn’t Love You More,” a novel about three generations of women grappling with secrets, shame and an inexorable bond. Elisabeth Egan, an editor at the Book Review and the brains ... Show More
56m 44s
May 2022
Brian Morton on ‘Tasha: A Son’s Memoir’
Brian Morton, an accomplished novelist, has turned to nonfiction for the first time in his new book, “Tasha: A Son’s Memoir.” On this week’s podcast, he discusses his mother’s life, the difficulties in taking care of her toward the end of her life and what led him to write a memo ... Show More
36m 7s
Nov 2019
Ep 208: The underappreciated art of literary forgery
Charlie Lovett joins Anne to discuss the enduring power of not only stories but the books themselves, how books connect people of all ages, and of all times, how we can preserve literature for future generations, the joy of a book as a physical object, the art of literary forgery ... Show More
50m 4s
Oct 2021
Elizabeth Strout with Isy Suttie
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout joins Isy Suttie to discuss the third book in her Lucy Barton series, ‘Oh, William!’. Using objects like a ring gifted to her by a great aunt and a postcard of the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald as a starting point, Strout muses on t ... Show More
38m 10s
Aug 2022
434 The Story of the Hogarth Press Part 1 - Virginia Woolf's First Self-Published Story
Virginia Woolf has long been celebrated as a supremely gifted novelist and essayist. Less well known, but important to understanding her life and contributions to literature, are her efforts as a publisher. In the decades that she and her husband operated the Hogarth Press - star ... Show More
57m 9s