In this episode, we dive headfirst into the raw, surreal, and unforgettable world of Cruddy by Lynda Barry. Part coming-of-age, part fever dream, Barry’s cult classic is a dark, jagged tale told through the scrawled notebook of a teenage girl named Roberta. We unpack its haunting narrative, twisted humour, and graphic novel-style illustrations—exploring how trauma, truth, and storytelling bleed into each other in this unforgettable text.

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For this episode it was our utmost pleasure to interview author DC Frost about her debut novel, A Punishing Breed, published by Red Hen Press.

DC Frost is a second-generation Angelino. For almost twenty years, she has worked as a fundraiser at a small private liberal arts college in the heart of Los Angeles, and before that PBS and Variety. Denise has published several literary fiction short stories in journals including UCLA’s Westword. DC loves and respects Southern California, a melting pot of class and culture that is often misrepresented and misunderstood in popular fiction and media. DC lives in Eagle Rock, California, with her husband, who is an NPR journalist and reporter, and three rescue dogs. DC and her husband have an adult son, a filmmaker, who resides in Los Angeles.

A Punishing Breed - A Synopsis
A Punishing Breed, the first in a series of novels featuring Detective DJ Arias, is a murder mystery that takes place in Los Angeles, the city of angels, freeways, Santa Ana winds, and honeysuckle slithering through chain-link fences and perfuming LA’s dark streets and neighbourhoods. Detective Arias hunts for a murderer on a liberal arts campus that prides itself on its progressive curriculum but is rife with jealousy, racial and sexual tensions, and a hierarchy as real and destructive as a medieval fortress. DJ Arias, good at his job because he sees the worst in people, is challenged by the college community, a neighbourhood recluse, and a young Latino gardener he sent to jail ten years ago for a hit-and-run accident. Through the course of his investigation, Arias will find out no one is who they appear to be. He begins to reclaim his humanity by adopting a dog he names Evidence and finding the clues to a crime born from a dark secret not contained in the past but alive in the present, which will cast destruction and murder on the denizens of the small liberal arts campus.

You can purchase a copy of A Punishing Breed from:
1. Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/86470/9781939096173
2. https://www.amazon.com.au/Punishing-Breed-DC-Frost/dp/1939096197

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Here at the Pleasure of the Text, many a time has the topic of translation come up. In this episode we consider the art of translation further, and take a deep dive into the different translations of Albert Camus's, The Outsider.

As always, if you like our videos, please like and subscribe to our channel, The Pleasure of the Text, for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEp9cZ4HOovyKHeNEDt_BwA

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