Podcast Summary: New Books Network – Gabriel Tallent, "Crux" (Riverhead Books, 2025)

Date: February 24, 2026
Host: Chris Holmes (Burned By Books)
Guest: Gabriel Tallent

Episode Overview

This episode features a conversation between host Chris Holmes and acclaimed novelist Gabriel Tallent about his highly anticipated second novel, Crux. The discussion delves deep into the world of rock climbing, the lexicon and culture around it, and especially the story of an extraordinary teenage friendship between Dan and Tama in the Mojave Desert. Tallent discusses his approach to literary language, the challenges of portraying technical worlds accessibly, the nuances of friendship and risk, and the parallels between climbing and the pursuit of meaning in life. The episode is peppered with vibrant readings from the book and lively discussion, providing both literary insight and personal storytelling.

Key Topics and Insights

1. Introduction to Gabriel Tallent and Crux

Timestamps: 00:05–04:25

• Crux is Tallent’s sophomore novel, following My Absolute Darling, and is set among teenage rock climbers in the Mojave Desert.
• Themes echo his debut: friendship, hardship, and the search for meaning against natural beauty and a backdrop of familial disappointment.
• Chris Holmes describes Crux as “a love letter to the climbing world… a thriller… but its heart lives in acts of generosity and selflessness that do not happen on a boulder.”

2. Climbing as Lifestyle and Literary Terrain

Timestamps: 04:27–10:58

• Tallent shares his lifelong but humble relationship with climbing and his move to Utah, where the sport became central to his social life.
• He discusses how Crux channels detailed climbing knowledge without alienating non-climbers.
• He cites his admiration for literature that immerses readers in technical worlds (e.g., Moby Dick) but aims to avoid bogging down the narrative with exposition.
• Quote [09:24] – Tallent on climbing lit tropes:

  "The hyper masculine protagonist has to leave women and children behind to seek self-actualization on the mountains of France… the vanity and narcissism and misogyny of that is not what I love about the sport."

3. Crafting a Language of Friendship

Timestamps: 10:58–21:50

• Tallent and Holmes dive into the lightning-fast, sardonic, and deeply idiosyncratic dialogue between Dan and Tama.

• Holmes asks Tallent to read a vivid, raucously funny section of Tama’s sprawling monologue (see Notable Quotes).

• Tallent explains his approach is not strict realism but a form of hyperrealism – distilled, heightened, and celebratory of the inside jokes and repetitive storytelling that bond friends.

• Quote [19:19] – Tallent on great dialogue:

  “I just write down the dumb skanky things my friends say.”

4. Character Construction: Tamma vs. Turtle

Timestamps: 21:52–24:44

• Discussion draws comparisons between Tama (of Crux) and Turtle (of My Absolute Darling).

• Tallent notes key contrasts:

  "Turtle is silent… careful… meticulous and Tama is a risk taker… vampy and funny and a lesbian… compulsively friendly." [23:48]

• Tamma’s dialogue and behavior are an affectionate riff on climbing culture’s “countercultural streak,” characterized by raunchy humor and breaking social norms.

5. Nature: Awe, Love, and Danger

Timestamps: 27:18–30:19

• Tallent reflects on the interplay of awe and fear in nature, asserting it must be “larger than ourselves”—danger is part of its glory.

• He resists the notion that “safety” is a goal, advocating instead for encounters with the wild as essential to a meaningful connection with the world.

• Quote [28:42]:

  “You're not entitled to a harmless world… you want to go out and find out what kind of place it is that we live in… its dangers are part of its glory.”

6. The Unlikely, Intimate Friendship of Dan & Tama

Timestamps: 30:19–34:47

• Their bond is deep, platonic, and often more intimate than many sexual relationships—anchored in loyalty, bodily familiarity, and mutual respect.
• Tallent points out the cultural importance but literary rarity of taking risks for friendship, versus the well-trodden paths for risk in romantic or career narratives.
• The characters challenge climbing’s traditional archetypes—Dan fits the ideal; Tama, with her emotional volatility and outsider status, subverts it.

7. The Crux: Risk, Decision, and Meaning

Timestamps: 37:06–47:46

• Title “Crux”: in climbing, it refers to the hardest section—the decisive moment. In life, it connotes all-or-nothing crossroads.

• Tallent describes how climbing serves as both literal and metaphorical crucible for Dan and Tama.

• The narrative resists simple heroism: risks can destroy as well as ennoble, and both action and inaction entail hazards.

• The story is also in conversation with climbing and adventure literature’s tendency to valorize lone, heroic (often male) figures who “leave everyone behind."

• Tallent is skeptical of the quest for greatness when it comes at personal cost; he advocates for a redefinition of meaning and success as rooted in connection, responsibility, and presence.

• Quote [42:25]:

  “If you don't fight for the things that are important in your life, you can end up with a joyless life… [but] there is risk on either way.”

8. Writing Craft and Reading Recommendations

Timestamps: 47:46–49:52

• Tallent reflects on channeling his own drive to write into his characters’ drive to climb.
• He recommends Exhibit by Ro Kwan and Margo's Got Money Trouble by Rufy Thorpe, both exploring art, struggle, and meaning.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tama’s Monologue – Read by Gabriel Tallent [13:05–17:30]:

  “Kendra is raising her first baby girl. Patrick is welding up sculptures in the yard. Lawrence comes into the diner. It's love at first sight, says my mom… Hella handjob, nay sucks cockwell. He sees her and he's all like, oh, lovely Alexandra. Splendiferous as an eagle, golden as the dawn…"

• Tallent on Friendship [31:36]:

  “These are things that can be essential about your life and which people will tell you that you have to leave behind in the process of growing up…taking a risk for a friendship is so much more tenuous…”

• Tallent on Risk in Climbing and Life [38:01]:

  “If they don't do it, what is there for them? So you're trying to bring that into relief… the trick of the crux is to commit through it. But the next move is so tenuous…”

• Tallent on Meaning over Greatness [46:51]:

  “The quest after greatness I have only ever seen destroy people. I have seen people reach the summit of their careers and end up empty and alone and not alive to any of it, wanting nothing but more.”

Key Timestamps

• 00:05–04:25: Introduction & setup of Crux
• 05:10–10:58: Tallent's personal climbing story & language in fiction
• 13:05–17:30: Read-aloud of Tama’s monologue
• 21:50–24:44: Comparisons of main characters across Tallent's novels
• 28:42: Reflection on nature’s awe and danger
• 30:19–34:47: Discussion on the unique nature of platonic friendship
• 37:06–47:46: Meaning of “crux,” metaphor of risk, and meaning in life
• 47:46–49:52: Recent reading recommendations and closing thoughts

Tone and Style

The conversation is erudite yet informal, filled with humor, warmth, and deep insight. Tallent and Holmes repeatedly pivot from jokes into earnest reflections, mirroring the energy, wit, and emotional stakes of Tallent’s fiction.

For Further Reading

• Crux by Gabriel Tallent (Riverhead Books, 2025)
• Exhibit by Ro Kwan
• Margo’s Got Money Trouble by Rufy Thorpe

This summary encapsulates the key elements, arguments, and spirit of the episode while maintaining the tone of the conversation. Listeners are recommended to explore the full episode for the immersive dialogue sections and nuanced literary discussion.