The Big Book Project

Lori Feathers
  • 4.0 (4)
  • BOOKS
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

The Big Book Project is a multi-venue reading experience for bibliophiles fascinated by long or dense works of fiction and interested in discussing them with others, one novel at a time. The works selected will be capacious novels from the mid-nineteenth century through today that possess an abundant writing style or complexity in structure and themes. The notion that reading need not be a solitary activity has special resonance with these novels given that there is much to discuss, elaborate upon and question in the authors’ expression of ideas. I like to think of these novels as abundant because I appreciate their richness and volume, characteristics bestow a sort of grace to luxuriate with the text. The critic and scholar Alexander Nehamas writes that when a work of art beckons, it is because we do not fully understand it but feel the strong desire to do so. And it is this deliberative process, the journey, of trying to understand why a novel is extraordinary that I want to explore with fellow readers at The Big Book Project.We discuss books like Roberto Bolaño’s 2666

  1. 12H AGO

    Steven Moore on "Last Time Around," William Gaddis & the Future of the Big Novel

    https://substack.com/@thebigbookproject (Lori recorded this interview on a different device, and we apologize for the poor quality of her audio.) For five decades Steven Moore has been one of the most thoughtful champions of the kinds of novels we read at The Big Book Project — the abundant, stylistically ambitious works that reward slow attention. He is the foremost scholar on William Gaddis, the editor who worked alongside David Foster Wallace on Infinite Jest, author of a two-volume alternative history of the novel, and a former editor at Dalkey Archive Press. If your bookshelves are groaning under the weight of capacious fiction there is a very good chance that Steven Moore played some role in getting it out into the world. In this conversation Steven joins host Lori Feathers to discuss his new collection, Last Time "Around": Essays, Reviews, Interviews. They discuss why Gaddis turned toward the nineteenth-century Russians, what W. M. Spackman understood about style that most critics still miss, and why a sense of humor is closer to a sense of rebellion than to mere lightness. The conversation moves into the question of artistry, that elusive quality that separates literature from fiction, and Steven argues for the kind of close attention that asks why an author chose dusk rather than twilight — the choices that take a second reading to even notice. They discuss the small presses that have come to the rescue of literature, dwindling book coverage, and whether there is still an audience for the big, brainy, erudite novel of the kind that once changed Moore’s life. Toward the end Lori draws Steven into a round-robin, asking Steven to opine on novels by, among others, Lucy Ellmann, Susanna Clarke, Mervyn Peake, Joseph McElroy, Gertrude Stein, John Cowper Powys, and James Elkins. If you love long novels, dense novels, novels that ask something of you — subscribe to The Big Book Project on YouTube and follow along on Substack. Host Lori Feathers reads the abundant works of fiction with fellow bibliophiles, one extraordinary novel at a time.

    1h 4m

  2. MAY 8

    The School of Night with Richard Bailey

    https://substack.com/@thebigbookproject Watch the full episode on youtube:  As we continue reading The School of Night by Karl Ove Knausgaard, Richard Bailey joins me to talk about Part Two of the novel. Richard is my fellow bookseller at Interabang Books and simply, one of my favorite people to talk to about books, ideas, and the creative process. As we continue to try to understand who Kristian is, the direction and intent of his photography, and the influences on him of the mysterious Hans and the Faustus story, Richard and I discuss, debate, and challenge each other about Kristian’s character and the philosophical underpinnings of the novel. I hope that the discussion enhances your own reading of the novel.

    1h 1m

  3. MAY 5

    News From the Empire with Ron Restrepo

    The name Fernando Del Paso was new to me two and a half years ago when author, publisher, and Dalkey Archive Press alum Martin Riker introduced me to Palinuro of Mexico. What a revelation this late Mexican novelist! Here was an author who wrote wildly, exuberantly, and explored consciousness, memory, and the ineffable mysticism of the world in such a compelling way. It didn’t take me any time at all to go out and purchase a second-hand copy of his only other novel to be translated into English, News From the Empire, a thematically different novel than Palinuro, but with that signature, uncontainable writing style. It’s such a pleasure, then, to find a fellow fan of Del Paso, who, like me, wants to foist these novels on adventuresome readers in the US.  Ron Restrepo is one of the most intrepid readers I know, and I had fun talking to him about News From the Empire. We discuss that wonderful style, the novel’s polyvocal narration, and how Del Paso interrogates notions of empire and historiography. I hope that this conversation will persuade you to read this exuberant, funny, and tragic novel. Or if not, perhaps you will enjoy our discussion of the brief reign in Mexico of two European royals: Maximillan of Hapsburg Austria and his Belgian bride Charlotte, the daughter of King Leopold, I, and how Europe’s imperial ambitions in Latin America were debated, at times resisted, and other times poorly implemented, with the United States, France, Spain, and the Church in Rome each exercising its power in pursuit of conflicting interests. i

    57 min

  4. APR 17

    Reading The School of Night with Chad Post

    https://substack.com/@thebigbookproject Chad W. Post, publisher at Open Letter Books and translation studies instructor at the University of Rochester joins Lori Feathers on The Big Book Project to discuss the first 145 pages of Karl Ove Knausgåard's The School of Night. They explore Knausgaard's ouvre, the companion novels in his The School of Night constellation, as well as some of the author's autobiographical writing in the My Struggle series. Chad and Lori talk about Kristian's ambition and his art; the enigmatic Hans; and, how Kristian deflects all criticism about himself and his work. They dig into Knausgåard's distinctive style and the way his detailed explanations of Kristian's way of seeing and organizing his world is so difficult for other authors to imitate. Whether you are reading the novel along with us or simply want to hear what Chad has to say about Karl Ove Knausgaard's work, you will enjoy the discussion.

    48 min

  5. MAR 6

    Chaos, Holy Fools & Don Quixote in Dostoevsky’s The Idiot with Prof. Michael Sexton

    https://substack.com/@thebigbookproject Dostoevsky’s The Idiot is too much—too many characters, too many plot points, too much chaos—and that’s exactly what makes it extraordinary. In this episode of The Big Book Project, host Lori Feathers sits down with Professor Michael Sexton, a devoted reader now on his fourth reading of the novel, to dig into Part Two, Chapters VII through XII. They talk about the riotous scene where a motley crew of young nihilists storms in to demand money from Prince Myshkin—a scene so over-the-top that Michael confesses he skipped it on previous readings but now finds it devastatingly funny. Lori and Michael explore how Dostoevsky parodies nihilistic thought through these characters and why the women in the room are furious at this attempt to humiliate the Prince and call the scene a madhouse. They linger on one of the novel’s most complex characters, Lizaveta Prokofyevna, who Michael sees growing into a great comic creation of Dostoevsky across his readings—a woman who ridicules the dying Ippolit for making speeches and then pulls him to her bosom in a moment of devastating maternal tenderness. The conversation turns to a foundational question of the novel: is Prince Myshkin best understood through the figure of Don Quixote or through the tradition of the holy fool? Michael brings in Miguel de Unamuno’s Our Lord Don Quixote and Nabokov’s Lectures on Don Quixote; Lori pushes back, arguing the Prince’s interiority and complexity exceed what Cervantes gave us. They also discuss Nastasya Filippovna’s shadowy, sinister presence lurking in the background, the theme of doubleness and duplicity as both a motif and a structural principle in Dostoevsky, and Chapter VII—a seemingly throwaway exchange between the Prince and Lizaveta that both Lori and Michael argue is indispensable, written in the style and spirit of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Timestamps: 00:00 Welcome & Introduction to This Week’s Reading 01:14 Dostoevsky Is “Too Much”—And That’s the Point 05:14 The Nihilists Storm In: Comedy and Chaos 09:19 Lizaveta Prokofyevna: From Foolish Woman to Holy Fool 15:07 The Prince’s Friends React—Insult and Dignity 18:42 Chapter 12: Oscar Wilde Meets Dostoevsky 22:08 Nastasya Filippovna’s Sinister Shadow 25:58 Don Quixote, Christ, and Prince Myshkin 36:50 Dostoevsky’s Christianity, Russian Nationalism, and Harold Bloom 41:14 The Idiot as One Chapter of a Larger Novel 42:30 Doubles, Duplicity, and Keller’s Confession 45:43 Why Chapter 12 Is Indispensable Subscribe to The Big Book Project and join the group read of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. New posts every Tuesday and Thursday on Substack. Follow along, leave your thoughts, and read along with Lori and the community.

    48 min

  6. FEB 25

    Reading D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow with Mark Haber

    https://substack.com/@thebigbookproject D.H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow rewards readers willing to move inward — into the psychological depths of a single family across three generations — rather than outward toward the conventional satisfactions of plot and incident. In this episode of The Big Book Project, host Lori Feathers is joined by novelist Mark Haber for a rich, searching conversation about one of Lawrence’s most extraordinary and, as both agree, somewhat underappreciated works. The Rainbow traces the Brangwen family through the pressures of nationality and gender, the primal forces of love and sexual desire, and the slow, irreversible transformation of a world that once measured time by the seasons. Lori and Mark explore how Lawrence sustains narrative intensity across three generations using a remarkably tight circle of characters — no strangers arrive to upend the story, no dramatic external events intrude — relying instead on what Mark notes as the novel’s defining quality: its passionate psychological interiority. The conversation moves through the novel’s most compelling terrain: the question of whether The Rainbow is, as some critics have charged, misogynistic, or whether Ursula Brangwen — the novel’s fierce, searching third-generation protagonist — represents someone genuinely radical for her era; the treatment of sexuality as a primal, deeply psychological force rather than mere titillation; the immigrant narrative embedded in Lydia’s Polish origins and what it contributes to the novel’s portrait of cultural difference; the role of religion and nature as competing — or perhaps complementary — forms of the sacred; and the tender, unusually intimate portraits of father-daughter relationships that mark the book as distinctly working-class in its emotional priorities. Mark Haber also discusses his forthcoming novel, Ada and shares his current reading, including a deep immersion in Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. Mark Haber is the author of three novels, most recently Lesser Ruins, and an editor at Coffee House Press. His fourth novel, Ada, is forthcoming in July. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction & Welcome 00:17 Why The Rainbow? Mark’s Curveball Pick 02:10 The Brangwen Family & Tight Circle of Characters 05:09 Three Generations in Under 500 Pages 08:44 Sexuality and the Psychological Interior 12:09 Is The Rainbow Misogynistic? Female Agency in Anna and Ursula 17:35 Flux and Consistency: Lawrence’s Narrative Rhythm 22:09 Is It a Dark Book? Tone, Mood, and Hope 24:33 Overwriting, Purple Prose, and Literary Genius 28:08 Religion, Faith, and Nature as the Sacred 33:43 Lydia’s Polish Origins and the Immigrant Narrative 38:06 Passion, Nature, and Human Longing 39:28 Father-Daughter Relationships Across Generations 47:16 Mark Haber’s Forthcoming Novel Ada 49:39 Current Reading and What’s Coming Next

    55 min

  7. FEB 18

    Reading Faulkner's Go Down, Moses with Dr. Larry Allums | The Big Book Project

    William Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses is one of those novels that resists easy summary — and that resistance is precisely what makes it so worth discussing. In this episode of The Big Book Project, host Lori Feathers is joined by Faulkner scholar Larry Allums for a deep, unhurried conversation about one of Faulkner’s most structurally ambitious and morally searching works. Go Down, Moses occupies a deliberately uncomfortable formal space — neither quite a novel nor quite a short story collection — and Lori and Larry explore how that ambiguity is central to the book’s meaning rather than incidental to it. They trace Faulkner’s decision to arrange the chapters outside of chronological order, examine why the McCaslin family genealogy is essential reading before the first page, and follow Ike McCaslin from boyhood to old age as he grapples with inheritance, land ownership, and the accumulated moral weight of what his family has done and left undone. The episode gives extended attention to “The Bear” — the novel’s longest and most mythically charged section — where Old Ben emerges not merely as an animal but as something closer to a totem for the land itself. The mentorship of Sam Fathers, the ritual dimensions of the hunt, and the way Faulkner’s extraordinary nature writing creates a kind of sacred space outside ordinary human corruption are all examined at length. Lori and Larry also discuss the surprising vein of dark comedy running through the novel. The conversation does not look away from what Go Down, Moses most urgently demands: a reckoning with the entangled bloodlines of the McCaslin and Beauchamp families, the unacknowledged moral debts of the slaveholding South, and the question of whether the McCaslins's legacy of inheritance is an attempt to rectify a wrong or a form of denial and evasion. Larry Allums is a William Faulkner scholar who previously joined The Big Book Project for the group read of Absalom, Absalom! His expertise and genuine love for Faulkner’s fiction make him one of the most illuminating guides available to this particular literary terrain. Subscribe to The Big Book Project for readings and discussions of novels that reward the full measure of attention you bring to them. Where to Find the Host The Big Book Project on Substack Follow on Instagram Watch on Youtube Chapters: 00:00 Introduction & Welcome Back to Larry Allums 01:20 Publication History of Go Down Moses 07:20 Non-Chronological Structure & Family Genealogy 13:00 Ike McCaslin — Childhood to Old Age 18:30 Humor in The Fire and the Hearth 27:50 Lucas Beauchamp & Inheritance 40:20 Interiority and Character Consciousness 47:55 Old Ben the Bear & Sam Fathers 55:50 Ike’s Renunciation of the Land 59:50 McCaslin Characters Across Faulkner’s Fiction 01:03:30 Final Reflections & Reading Tips

    1h 7m

  8. JAN 22

    Translating the Impossible: Ursula Phillips on Ice by Jacek Dukaj

    https://substack.com/@thebigbookproject In this episode of The Big Book Project, Lori Feathers is joined by translator Ursula Phillips to discuss her extraordinary translation of Ice, the monumental, genre-defying novel by Polish author Jacek Dukaj. Clocking in at nearly 1,200 pages, Ice is both an alternate-history epic and a philosophical meditation on truth, language, power, and perception. Phillips guides us through the novel’s vast imaginative scope—from its reimagining of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century, and its complex political, religious, and commercial entanglements in a world frozen by ice, to the deeply personal story of its hero, the Polish mathematician Benedykt Gierosławski, who travels to Siberia in search of his exiled father. Along the way, Phillips offers insight into the intellectual and technical challenges of translating such a singular work. This conversation moves fluidly between plot, prose, and process, exploring how Ice engages with 19th-century novelistic traditions while pushing the boundaries of science fiction, historical fiction, and metaphysical inquiry. Phillips also reflects on narrative voice, linguistic instability, and the role of the translator as both craftsman and interpreter. What We Discuss in This Episode An overview of Ice’s alternate-history premise and frozen world after the Impact The novel’s protagonist, Benedykt Gierosławski, and his search for his exiled father, who has become a cult figure in the Land of Winter Political theories, religious movements, and commercial interests shaped by the Ice The historical and speculative roles that the Russian Empire and the Trans-Siberian Railway serve in the novel’s plot. The unusual shifts in narrative voice and perspective and how this is executed. The translator’s postscript and the philosophical problems of language and meaning The technical and conceptual challenges of translating a 1,200-page novel Dukaj’s lush, sensory language Connections to Kafka, Dostoevsky, and the 19th-century “big novel” tradition Recommendations on other Polish literature for readers to explore Notable Moment Lori reads a striking passage describing Benedykt’s first experience wearing frosto-glaze glasses—a scene that transforms the world into a riot of color and movement, highlighting the novel’s extraordinary visual imagination and the precision of Phillips’s translation. About the Guest Ursula Phillips is an acclaimed literary translator specializing in Polish literature. Her translation of Ice has been widely praised for preserving the novel’s philosophical depth, linguistic complexity, and stylistic ambition. About the Book Ice by Jacek Dukaj is an alternate-history novel set in a world reshaped by a mysterious climate-altering event. Blending science fiction, political theory, metaphysics, and historical fiction, the novel interrogates how truth, logic, and power shift under radically altered conditions. Listener Tip Ice includes a Glossary and Dramatis Personae to help readers navigate its neologisms and cast of characters. Links and Resources: 📚 The Big Book Project on Substack 🎙️ Follow The Big Book Project on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube ➡️ Follow on Instagram

    1h 20m
See All (32)

Ratings & Reviews

4
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

The Big Book Project is a multi-venue reading experience for bibliophiles fascinated by long or dense works of fiction and interested in discussing them with others, one novel at a time. The works selected will be capacious novels from the mid-nineteenth century through today that possess an abundant writing style or complexity in structure and themes. The notion that reading need not be a solitary activity has special resonance with these novels given that there is much to discuss, elaborate upon and question in the authors’ expression of ideas. I like to think of these novels as abundant because I appreciate their richness and volume, characteristics bestow a sort of grace to luxuriate with the text. The critic and scholar Alexander Nehamas writes that when a work of art beckons, it is because we do not fully understand it but feel the strong desire to do so. And it is this deliberative process, the journey, of trying to understand why a novel is extraordinary that I want to explore with fellow readers at The Big Book Project.We discuss books like Roberto Bolaño’s 2666

Information

  • Creator
    Lori Feathers
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    32
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Big Book Project
  • Show Website
    The Big Book Project