Alexandra Suich Bass

speaker

194 appearances 5 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 13 Jul

Alexandra Suich Bass’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 3.

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The Intelligence from The Economist · Pulp fiction v the classics: summer reading · 25 May 2026 podcast

So I am more in the heavy literary camp on holiday than I am in the escapist camp.

But of course, the best books can merge both good writing and escapism.

Mm-hmm

I think the books world is always a bit ambivalent about commercialism.

And so if something has sold well and is on the New York Times bestseller list, you oftentimes hear from literary people that it's not worth reading.

I would think that one of the factors with both of the recommendations we heard is how they've aged and how they've aged differently.

And that of course hugely determines how future audiences read them.

And I read American Wife maybe 10 years after it came out.

It was commercial.

It was on the New York Times bestseller list.

It came out in early 2009, right after the Bush presidency.

And so it was a roman acclais that felt very

Very close to the hearts and minds of readers.

And I just think the themes it explores of the inner lives of a woman who doesn't have power, who's standing behind her husband, have now kind of been played to death, including with speculation about the current president and his wife and when she is or is not there.

So I didn't feel that it aged as well.

I think some feel Jillie Cooper.

uh has aged brilliantly.

Don't you think it also depends on how a reader comes away feeling, like whether it was time well spent?

Because something can be very badly written and greatly escapist.

And you can still feel like it was time well spent.

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