Donald Antrim began writing about his family shortly after his mother died. She was a ferocious alcoholic and – as he puts it – "operatically suicidal.” She’s also the central figure in his searing memoir The Afterlife (St. Martin's Press), an exploration of his intense and complicated relationship with his family.
Antrim is the author of three novels — Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, The Hundred Brothers and The Verificationist (Knopf) — and a regular contributor to the New Yorker.
Eleanor Wachtel spoke to Donald Antrim from the CBC’s New York studio. They discussed how he never wanted to write about his mother and their relationship until after she died, why he felt he needed to grant himself permission to write his memoir, and what it was like to live with a "Jekyll and Hyde alcoholic" for a mother. Listen to their conversation here.
First aired September 14, 2008 on Writers & Company. [runs 52:15]
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