Episode
In Daniel Mason’s Comic Novel ‘Country People,’ California Collides with New England
- Podcast
- KQED's Forum
- Published
- Sep 3, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3288
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
Acclaimed novelist Daniel Mason’s latest book, “Country People,” centers on Miles, a stalled PhD student of Russian folklore, who is married to a brilliant academic. A visiting stint at a prestigious liberal arts college in rural Vermont sends their family of four, plus the perfect dog, careening through a different America of Slim Jims, forests, and local legends. It’s both a sendup of academia—Mason’s a Stanford professor of psychiatry, after all— and those intrepid Californians, like himself, who head to New England in the summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices