Selected Essays | Lauren Oyler on Elif Batuman

The Point Podcast

On this episode of “Selected Essays,” Jess and Zach talk with Lauren Oyler about her essay “Desperately Seeking Sebald,” which was published in Harper’s in 2021 and Elif Batuman’s “The Murder of Leo Tolstoy,” which was also published in Harper's in 2009 and then later collected in her book The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read Them as “Who Killed Tolstoy?”

บท

1. Selected Essays | Lauren Oyler on Elif Batuman (00:00:00)

2. Introducing Elif Batuman and “Who Killed Tolstoy?” (00:01:43)

3. Batuman’s style and tone (00:08:51)

4. Why this essay? (00:13:06)

5. Satire (00:16:37)

6. Murder investigation? (00:25:05)

7. Writerly attitude (00:27:39)

8. Lauren’s “Desperately Seeking Sebald” (00:31:42)

9. The travel essay (00:35:45)

10. Comedic relief (00:41:47)

11. Dreading writing (00:46:40)