CAT Book Club: Madame Nielsen in San Francisco

In case you missed it, we began March by introducing Madame Nielsen to book club readers here. And we’ve been talking about The Endless Summer and our other book club reads at #TheCATBookClub(opens in a new tab). Follow along as we read and join in on the conversation. Now we continue our discussion of The Endless Summer.

Madame Nielsen was at Green Apple Books on the Park in conversation with Veronica Scott Esposito on March 8 and we have audio for you(opens in a new tab).

The event kicked off with Madame Nielsen reading from her novel The Endless Summer, translated by Gaye Kynoch, and published by Open Letter Books. Madame Nielsen brought her novel to the event in a paper bag (“I treat my book like they do alcohol in New York City,” she laughs).

Here are some takeaways from the conversation:

• Madame Nielsen is an extremely captivating reader. This is a book we could absolutely listen to. It was lovely to hear this prose read aloud; you can really feel these long, intricate sentences stretching out over a series of ideas or actions.
• Madame Nielsen explains that she writes by reading her work aloud and names Marcel Proust as an influence. She also acknowledges Flaubert, Céline, and Duras.
• She says, “I’m obsessed with this…the enigma of the sentence. To try to create sentences which are on the verge of…or where they burst.”
• She explains that she does something completely different with each book. She would get bored if she wrote the same thing over and over, like Patrick Modiano.
• We learn from Madame Nielsen that Gaye Kynoch is obsessed with tennis and Wimbledon.
• This is not a straightforward book and it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly it is about. Madame Nielsen is asked to describe what this book is about. Is it a love story? Why so many elements?
• What is the “endless summer”? Listen to Madame Nielsen’s answer around 25:00.
• Madame Nielsen talks about her impressions of San Francisco. She calls Haight Ashbury “creepy” and relates it brilliantly to the idea of an “endless summer.”
• On the enterprise Das Beckwerk, identity, and her past as a “nameless being.”

And there’s so much more. Take a listen!