Review of Speaking Volumes by Ramona Koval

Ramona Koval appeared at this year’s Brisbane Writers Festival, being interviewed, along with Anna Krien, by Stephen Romei. She discussed a number of interviews included in Speaking Volumes, making mention, amongst others, of Harold Pinter and Joyce Carol Oates, for quite different reasons. She makes a fascinating interviewee, so open to whatever is asked her, and willing to sing as well – in Yiddish! Although there is no singing mentioned in the book, Koval notes that she and Saul Bellow spoke some Yiddish after their interview ended.

This collection of her interviews with writers contains a large proportion of the ones included in an earlier book, Tasting Life Twice: Conversations with Remarkable Writers, with some updates. The difference is that six of the writers in the 2005 book are not included in the later one, but are replaced by interviews with Margaret Drabble, André Brink, John Banville, Jeanette Winterson, Hanif Kureishi, Anne Enright, John le Carré and Barry Lopez.

Continued here at Transnational Literature.