S6 Ep. 5: The Author of Election on the Election: Tom Perrotta on Tracy Flick’s Return and the Midterms

fiction/non/fiction

Novelist Tom Perrotta joins Fiction/Non/Fiction hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss the upcoming midterm elections through the lens of his new novel, Tracy Flick Can’t Win, his second about the title character. Tracy Flick serves as an avatar for elite liberalism—a way many view the Democratic Party, he argues, whether the Dems are aware of it or not. Perrotta talks about what it means for his character, and many Americans, to be Republicans at heart while finding it necessary to lean toward the Democratic Party in light of Trump-era Republicanism. He also reads from the novel and explains how #MeToo influenced his decision to return to the iconic heroine.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/.

This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Selected Readings:

Tom Perrotta

• Election
• Tracy Flick Can’t Win
• Mrs. Fletcher
• The Leftovers
• Little Children
• Bad Haircut
• The Wishbones
• Joe College
• The Abstinence Teacher
• Nine Inches

Others:

• "Rhyming Action," by Charles Baxter, from Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol. 35, No. 4 (also in Burning Down the House)
• 5 scenarios that could decide the Senate in 2022, The Washington Post
• On Feminism and Fictionalized Histories: Curtis Sittenfeld Tackles Centrism, Clintonism and All Things ‘Hillary Rodham’ (Fiction/Non/Fiction Season 3, Episode 18)
• Charles Baxter

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