The Rhetorizer

Jul 26 2024 44 ep. 59 mins
The Rhetorizer Podcast artwork

The world's greatest book show. Each season, we do a deep dive into one topic. For season 2, we're covering the gritty world of Noir, filled with murder, betrayals and schemes gone wrong. Season 1: Philip K. Dick.

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NOIR: Songs About Schemers and Losers

Jul 26 2024 50 mins  
After spending a year with scoundrels, schemers and various other losers, we're wrapping up our noir season. We share some noir-themed songs and discuss some of the highlights of our reading list. Jacob's playlist: One Way or Another - Blondie Wicked Game - Chris Isaak Money Money Money - ABBA Kevin's playlist: Psycho - Jack Kittel Goodbye Earl - The Chicks The Girl

NOIR: Crook Manifesto (Colson Whitehead)

Jul 12 2024 74 mins  
When the Jackson 5 come to town, furniture salesman Ray Carney slips back into the criminal underworld to secure tickets for his daughter. We return to two-time Pulitzer winner Colson Whitehead for the follow up to Harlem Shuffle. Now, it's the 70s, the city is in turmoil, and Ray Carney and his friends are older than ever.

NOIR: The Many, Many Talented Mr. Ripleys (Patricia Highsmith et al)

Jun 21 2024 64 mins  
With the arrival of Netflix’s Ripley, we revisit Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, about a charming murderer’s European vacation. Hollywood can’t get enough of this scoundrel! What's the deal with that? Plus, Roxane provides the DEFINITIVE list of HOTTEST RIPLEYS. And Kevin gets a lift from Alain Delon’s alleged SECRET LOVE CHILD. TUNE IN to h

NOIR: Harlem Shuffle (Colson Whitehead)

Jun 07 2024 69 mins  
A furniture salesman keeps getting pulled into the criminal underworld of 50s and 60s Harlem. It's part heist, part revenge plot and part social satire, filled with characters who don't usually get the spotlight in crime books, like the fence, the ageing muscle, and the crooked banker. Note to you, dear listener: after reading this book, we decided do an episode on its se

NOIR shorts: Harlan Ellison's sci-fi crime thriller

May 24 2024 41 mins  
One of science fiction's greatest bastards, Harlan Ellison, brings us a story of a telepath's encounter with a serial killer on death row. The story is called "Mefisto in Onyx." You can find it in The Best American Noir of the Century Anthology.

NOIR: The City and the City (China Miéville)

May 10 2024 58 mins  
Worlds collide in this fantastical police procedural that's as much Borges as CSI. A detective who lives in a city that shares physical space with a different city finds himself at the centre of a case that puts him in grave danger, at risk of crossing the shapeless secret police known only as Breach. Our hosts are divided on this one!

NOIR: Out (Natsuo Kirino)

Apr 26 2024 65 mins  
Four women who work the night shift at a factory in Tokyo get pulled into the criminal underworld after one of them murders her husband. The most gruesome and bleak novel we've covered this season, Out was first published in Japanese in 1997 and later became Kirino's first book translated into English.

(Film) NOIR: Cutter's Way (1981)

Apr 12 2024 54 mins  
Is it a secret prequel to The Big Lebowski? A "sunshine noir"? The last gasp of New Hollywood? Cutter's Way is a grimy adaptation of Cutter and Bone, starring Jeff Bridges (AKA The Dude) and John Heard (AKA Mr. McCallister) as two dysfunctional lowlifes who get caught up in a blackmail plot. Check out our previous episode, where we talked about the novel Cutter and

NOIR: Cutter and Bone (Newton Thornburg)

Mar 22 2024 75 mins  
In this overlooked gem of the mid-70s, two aimless losers get involved in a blackmail plot, or maybe a murder plot, or maybe just a paranoid fantasy. A girl is murdered and pretty boy Richard Bone thinks he knows who did it. He doesn’t want to get involved, but his loudmouthed war vet friend Alex Cutter decides they’re going to take the guy down. Unfortunately, they're com

(Film) NOIR: L.A. Confidential (1997)

Mar 08 2024 62 mins  
Is L.A. Confidential a neo noir masterpiece... or a total snooze? Was director Curtis Hanson a hack who got lucky? Or just a hack? Were players like Danny DeVito, Russell Crowe and Kevin Spacey well cast? Or wasted? The hosts are divided in our most contentious episode of the season. Will the pod survive?