July 23, 2001 - As they have done since the year 800, Sicilians hunt huge bluefin tuna, using net traps set on the floor of the Mediterranean. It was here that tuna was first canned in olive oil, a development that opened a world wide market. Now the entire catch is sold to Japanese, and flown direct to the Tokyo fish market where a single tuna can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Those changes have done little to change how the Sicilians fish. Author Theresa Maggio first saw the hunt almost a decade ago, and returned year after year to watch the ancient ritual, which she says cannot last much longer due to over fishing in other parts of the world. She told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr her book "Mattanza" (mah-TAN-zah) is named for the final slaughter.
July 16, 2001 - In Carol Muske-Dukes' novel "Life After Death" a St. Paul woman tells her husband, in a fit of anger, to drop dead. The following day he does just that, collapsing of a heart attack while playing tennis. She is left angry, confused, guilty, and troubled by strange memories, such as the time he proposed to her in New York. Carol Muske-Dukes says when she began writing "Life after Death", she intended to write a satire on the funeral industry in the spirit of Evelyn Waugh and Jessica Mittford. But as she did her research, talking to funeral directors, she began wanting to write a book about what actually happens to people, both living and dead, when someone passes away. Then, as she told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr, things took a bizarre twist. The week she mailed the finished manuscript for publication, her own husband collapsed and died on a tennis court.
July 11, 2001 - When author Ann Patchett heard the story of how terrorists seized a group of dignitaries at the Japanese Embassy in Peru and held them hostage, she felt there was an operatic quality to the story. She took that feeling and created "Bel Canto" the critically acclaimed novel about what happens when a world famous soprano is seized by terrorists, along with dozens of international businessmen in an un-named South American country. As the stand-off drags on, from days into months hostages and captors become almost an extended family, tied together by the soprano's singing. Ann Patchett told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr she wanted to create a utopia.
June 7, 2001 - "Take the advice of no one." This is the credo of August Kleinmann, 78 year old immigrant, self-made millionaire and central character of Ethan Canin's new novel "Carry Me Across the Water." Canin is currently on the faculty of the Iowa Writers Workshop, although he's probably the only MD on the staff. He took a brief sojourn into medicine as a backup in case his writing career failed to take off. Canin told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann the novel is the story of his hero's journey to the US and then his journey of atonement late in life, when he reaches out to the family of a Japanese soldier he killed during World War Two.
June 7, 2001 - "Take the advice of no one." This is the credo of August Kleinmann, 78 year old immigrant, self-made millionaire and central character of Ethan Canin's new novel "Carry Me Across the Water." Canin is currently on the faculty of the Iowa Writers Workshop, although he's probably the only MD on the staff. He took a brief sojourn into medicine as a backup in case his writing career failed to take off. Canin told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann the novel is the story of his hero's journey to the US and then his journey of atonement late in life, when he reaches out to the family of a Japanese soldier he killed during World War Two:
June 6, 2001 - In Sarah Stonich's first novel "These Granite Islands" a woman hospitalized after a stroke drifts in and out of the present, and back to the summer of 1936. It was then, when her husband and sons had gone off on a weeks-long** camping trip, that Isabel met Catherine, a friend who would change her life.
May 30, 2001 - Novelist Colson Whitehead says he first heard the story of John Henry through a cartoon film shown in a grade school history class. The tale of the hammer-swinging steel-driving man who beat a steam engine appealed to him, but also left many questions, some of which he tries to answer in his new book "John Henry Days." The critically acclaimed book follows some of the people attending the celebration around the release of a John Henry stamp. It also traces the legend and its modern echoes in racial strife, labor conflict, and fear of new technology. Whitehead told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr part of his fascination with the John Henry legend is how Henry beats the steam drill, but then collapses and dies.
May 24, 2001 - A profile on Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä, who has been named new music director of the Minnesota Orchestra. Report contains various commentaries and interviews about the conductor and his leadership style.
May 17, 2001 - Over the last few weeks bright orange and black butterflies have been returning to the Minnesota landscape. As ever the Monarchs look remarkably fresh for having flown a long and circuitous route from their winter homes in Mexico. That journey has long been a source of fascination and mystery to humans. Every year volunteers, many of them school students, tag thousand of butterflies in the hope they will be captured in Mexico, and reveal a little more about how the Monarchs make their trip. For her book "Four Wings and a Prayer" author Sue Halpern spent almost a year travelling the Monarch flyways meeting the scientists and others who are trying to piece the puzzle together. She told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr her fascination began in Mexico. Author Sue Halpern will read from her book "Four Wings and a Prayer" at the Como Lakeside Pavilion on North Lexington Avenue in St Paul tonight at 7.
May 11, 2001 - In Nani Power's novel "Crawling at Night," a Japanese chef leads a lonely, but obsessed, life in New York. His obsessions? Making the best sushi possible, and finding his lost love. He's been forced to move from his homeland to the U.S. by a dark secret, and finds his new life hard. In Japan his skills preparing raw fish were revered: in America they prompt irritating remarks.