LARB Radio Hour: Russia, Romance, Revolution! Janet Fitch’s "The Revolution of Marina M."

Janet Fitch talks about her new work, "The Revolution of Marina M.," which tells the story of a young woman poet in the early days of the October Revolution.

By LARB Radio HourJanuary 5, 2018

Janet Fitch, author of the legendary novel White Oleander, joins co-hosts Eric Newman and Medaya Ocher to talk about her new work, The Revolution of Marina M., which tells the story of a young woman poet coming of age in the heady, early days of the October Revolution. Fitch talks about her approach to writing such a sweeping novel, her visits to Russia before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, how she's able to represent sex so well on the page, and the importance of balancing the utopian dream with mundane reality when writing about, and living through, revolutions.