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The Literary Hall of Shame
08 September 2026

The Literary Hall of Shame

Marlon and Jake Read Dead People

About

In our last episode of the season, Marlon and Jake take on the worst books by the best authors—or at least, authors they usually love. They discuss why a journalist’s instincts can be both a gift and a curse when writing fiction, the importance of a great editor, writers who seem more interested in ideas than people, and novels that try so hard to be current they end up aging badly. Tune in for a conversation about literary misfires and wasted genius.


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    The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches
    In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches 
    The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
    Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
    The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
    I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe 
    Orlando by Virginia Woolf
    Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
    A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
    Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
    The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
    The Golden Bowl by Henry James
    My Son’s Story by Nadine Gordimer
    Quicksand by Nella Larsen
    The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming
    The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
    Hotel by Arthur Hailey
    Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins
    The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins
    Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
    Whirlwind by James Clavell
    Gai-Jin by James Clavell
    The Breast by Philip Roth
    Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
    Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow
    Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellow
    A Small Town in Germany by John le Carré
    The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré
    A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
    The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett
    The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
    Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
    Until August by Gabriel García Márquez
    Heartburn by Nora Ephron
    Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer 
    The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
    The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
    India: A Wounded Civilization by V. S. Naipaul
    The Power Broker by Robert Caro
    Terrorist by John Updike