A new novel from Karen Russell is a sprawling story set during the Dust Bowl

Summary

NPR's Book of the Day Episode Summary

Episode Title:
A New Novel from Karen Russell is a Sprawling Story Set During the Dust Bowl

Release Date:
March 17, 2025

Hosts and Guests:

• Host: Scott Simon
• Guest: Karen Russell, celebrated novelist and MacArthur Fellow

---

Introduction

In this engaging episode of NPR's Book of the Day, host Scott Simon welcomes renowned author Karen Russell to discuss her latest novel, The Antidote. Set against the harrowing backdrop of the Dust Bowl in 1930s America, Russell delves into the intricate narratives and profound themes that define her sprawling new work.

---

Overview of The Antidote

The Antidote transports readers to Black Sunday, a day marked by catastrophic dust storms that sweep across the Southern Plains, altering the lives of its inhabitants permanently. The story is narrated by Antonina Rossi, a woman endowed with a unique gift that allows her to store and manage the memories of her community.

Notable Quote:
Karen Russell describes Antonina's initial experiences during Black Sunday:
"Before anybody knew to call it Black Sunday, I woke up in the jailhouse to a sound like a freight train tunneling through me, an ear splitting howl that seemed to shake the stone walls... I was nothing but the fear of floating off."
(00:17 - 02:04)

---

Character Deep Dive: Antonina Rossi

Antonina is portrayed as a vessel for collective memories, a role that becomes central to the novel's exploration of loss and resilience. Her ability to harbor memories stems from a personal tragedy—her baby's removal to a home for unwed mothers—which opens a void she fills by storing others' memories.

Notable Quote:
Scott Simon highlights Antonina's abilities:
"She puts them in a vault of her subconscious, doesn't she?"
(03:00 - 03:45)

Antonina's subconscious acts as a repository where memories are kept beyond the surface of her consciousness, influencing her perception and interactions with the world around her.

---

The Role of Photography and Cleo Alfrey

A pivotal character in The Antidote is Cleo Alfrey, a fictional photographer equipped with a "special sight." Cleo's camera doesn't merely capture images; it reveals layers of time, showing events from the past and glimpses into potential futures. Her photographs uncover the presence of native communities that predate European settlers, highlighting the enduring legacy of indigenous cultures on the prairie ecosystem.

Notable Quote:
Russell explains Cleo's photographic abilities:
"Her camera has what I'll call a special sight... Maybe yesterday, maybe 500 years in the past, maybe in some hypothetical future."
(04:26 - 04:55)

---

Inspirations and Themes

Karen Russell draws significant inspiration from the renowned photographer Gordon Parks, whose work against social injustices resonated deeply with her. Parks' belief in the camera as a weapon against poverty and racism influenced Cleo's character and her mission in the novel.

Notable Quote:
Russell shares her inspiration from Gordon Parks:
"He said two things that really struck me. And one was I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs... to draw other kinds of worlds into focus."
(05:39 - 06:30)

The novel grapples with the intertwining of past, present, and future, emphasizing that history is not merely a sequence of events but a living force that shapes contemporary and future realities.

Notable Quote:
Discussing the persistence of history:
"The past is certainly not safely in the past. Right. That it cohabits with the present and continues to shape it."
(06:30 - 07:12)

Russell emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and reconciling with history to envision a more just and peaceful future, avoiding the pitfalls of apocalyptic thinking.

---

Exploration of Memory and Responsibility

The Antidote delves into the complexities of memory—both personal and collective. Antonina's role as a memory keeper raises questions about the responsibilities that come with holding others' histories and the ethical implications of memory manipulation.

Notable Quote:
Russell reflects on memory's limitations and responsibilities:
"It's humbling to write a book about the gaps in people's memories... illuminating what possibilities and responsibilities we might be missing."
(07:21 - 07:49)

---

Conclusion

In this insightful conversation, Karen Russell presents The Antidote as a narrative that intertwines personal loss with broader societal issues, all set against the tumultuous era of the Dust Bowl. Through rich character development and profound thematic exploration, Russell invites readers to reflect on the enduring impact of history and the power of memory in shaping our collective future.

Final Exchange:
Scott Simon wraps up the discussion:
"Karen Russell, her new novel, the Antidote. Thank you so much for being with us."
(07:49 - 07:55)

Russell responds warmly, expressing her gratitude for the conversation and the opportunity to share her work.

---

About Karen Russell

Karen Russell is a celebrated novelist known for her imaginative storytelling and profound exploration of human emotions and societal issues. Her previous work, Swamplandia!, received critical acclaim for its unique narrative and rich character development. As a MacArthur Fellow, Russell continues to push the boundaries of literary fiction, blending reality with fantastical elements to create compelling and thought-provoking narratives.

---

This summary provides a comprehensive overview of the NPR Book of the Day episode featuring Karen Russell's discussion on her novel, The Antidote. For listeners seeking a deep dive into literary works that challenge and inspire, this episode is a must-listen.

Transcript

[Andrew Limbong]

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. I love hearing artists talk about being inspired by a medium other than their own. You know, musicians inspired by books, filmmakers inspired by architecture, that sort of thing. On the pod today, Karen Russell, the writer of the hit 2011 novel Swamplandia, talks about being inspired by photography. Her new novel, the Antidote, takes place during the Dust bowl crisis in America. And she talks to NPR's Scott Simon about the great photographer Gordon Parks influenced not just one particular character, but the entire worldview of the novel. That's coming up.

[NPR Sponsor]

This message comes from Sony Pictures Classics presenting the Penguin Lessons, a new comedy starring Steve Coogan as a teacher whose life is upended after he rescues a penguin from an oil slicked beach. Starts March 28th. Only in theaters. This message comes from Intuit. TurboTax now taxes is matching with an expert backed by tech to get you the most money [e-mail] experts only available with TurboTax Live. See guarantee [e-mail] guarantees.

[Scott Simon]

Karen Russell's sprawling new novel begins on a day called Black Sunday. Set during the Dust bowl storms in the 1930s. The story is told by Antonina Rossi on Black Sunday.

[Karen Russell]

Before anybody knew to call it Black Sunday, I woke up in the jailhouse to a sound like a freight train tunneling through me, an ear splitting howl that seemed to shake the stone walls. My body trembled like a husk on the cot. My fingers clawed into the mattress. For those early moments in the dark, I was nothing but the fear of floating off. What had happened to me while I slept? It felt as if a knife had scraped the marrow from my bones. Something vital inside me had liquefied and drained away. And in its place was this new weightlessness.

[Scott Simon]

Karen Russell's new novel is called the Antidote. And the celebrated novelist in MacArthur fellow joins us now from Portland, Oregon. Thank you so much for being with us.

[Karen Russell]

Thanks for having me, Scott.

[Scott Simon]

What's happening on this Sunday?

[Karen Russell]

This Sunday begins ordinarily, you know, blue skies around 3pm it looks like it's, you know, midnight. There are these apocalyptic clouds of dust that really swallow the sun and sweep, you know, hundreds of tons of exposed fertile topsoil across the Southern plains. They reach as far as D.C. you know, they famously dump on Congress. This was, you know, a stretch of time where these droughts and, you know, poor agricultural practices resulted in the dirt raining down, you know, from the heavens.

[Scott Simon]

Tell us about Antonina because she has a she has a gift, if that's quite the way to phrase it, doesn't she?

[Karen Russell]

She does. Antonina was sort of the beginning of this novel for me. I got an image when I was finishing my first novel quite a long time ago now of a woman holding an ear horn. They look sort of like gramophone horns, these antique hearing aids, while a man was whispering a secret to her and sort of leaving his consciousness and entering her body. So she has a gift for sort of swallowing the past and holding it in storage for people. Her baby was taken from her at a home for unwed mothers. And this loss in this novel, it sort of dynamites a space inside her that she is renting out as storage for the memories that people can't stand to remember or bear to forget.

[Scott Simon]

She puts them in a vault of her subconscious, doesn't she?

[Karen Russell]

Yes, exactly. They're sort of beyond the waterline of her waking consciousness. She herself doesn't even know what these people are whispering to her. And they can come and make withdrawals too. They read their deposits, slip backwards and it leaves her and re enters them. But she says, just like a vault, she doesn't know what she contains. On the Black Sunday reference, she sort of wakes up in that jailhouse to that terrible weightlessness. Everything she's stored for this town for 15 years has been whisked out of her body.

[Scott Simon]

There's a photographer who's dispatched to capture the crisis. Her camera has what I'll call a special sight.

[Karen Russell]

There's a photographer, she's not, you know, she's fictional. Her name is Cleo Alfrey. And she's sent really to document rural poverty. And with this camera that has special sight, she starts to take pictures that feel inexplicable, of things that seem to be happening on a piece of ground, you know, Maybe yesterday, maybe 500 years in the past, maybe in some hypothetical future.

[Scott Simon]

Her photographs disclose the fact that people were there before people we call immigrants ever got there.

[Karen Russell]

Yes. So some of the photographs are showing that long before Europeans come to this region, there are other communities, the dozens of native nations that have been successfully living on and with this prairie ecosystem for millennia. And so some of what she's seeing is sort of a past world of flourishing. And then she's also sort of able to conjure both hell worlds, but also, you know, blue skies, places where buffalo are kind of migrating out of the past and into the future. And that felt important to me, one of the inspirations for Cleo's character. You know, I learned a lot from Gordon Parks and his books.

[Scott Simon]

Gordon Parks, the great photographer. Yes.

[Karen Russell]

You know, he said two things that really struck me. And one was I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera. And I found myself with this particular camera with its unique long range. We have these things installed in us in birth, and they're our imaginations. And we can do this incredible thing, conjuring these future worlds that maybe they don't exist today, but they could, and making those real. And right now, I think it's really easy for a lot of us to extrapolate from what's happening today to a really bleak vision of tomorrow. And so I think part of what I try to do in this book is, is use my imagination to draw other kinds of worlds into focus.

[Scott Simon]

Well, you have a discussion between a couple of locals at one point, and somebody says it's a shame, but it's over and done with.

[Karen Russell]

Right. And I mean, if there's anything that this novel taught me, it's that the past is certainly not safely in the past. Right. That it really cohabits with the present and continues to shape it. And I really wanted, as I mentioned, to try to envision a future that was not apocalyptic. Right. A future world that felt more just and more peaceful, you know, with shared abundance for all. And to do that, I think we can't do that unless we return to our nation's history and try to reckon with it.

[Scott Simon]

And life isn't a certain amount of strategic forgetting. The antidote, if you please, to. To just going on.

[Karen Russell]

Yes. I mean, it's humbling to write a book about the gaps in people's memories. While I'm very aware of many in my own, Scott, you know, I don't think we can hold the entire secret cargo we each carry. It can't always be present to us. Right. And certainly this book isn't a full 360. Right. It's not so much about like filling in all the holes as sort of illuminating what possibilities and responsibilities we might be missing.

[Scott Simon]

Karen Russell, her new novel, the Antidote. Thank you so much for being with us.

[Karen Russell]

Thank you, Scott. It was a pleasure.

[NPR Sponsor]

This message comes from Schwab at Schwab. How you invest is your choice, not theirs. That's why when it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices. You can invest and trade on your own, plus get advice and more comprehensive wealth solutions to help meet your unique needs. With award winning service, low costs and transparent advice, you can manage your wealth your way at Schwab. Visit schwab.com to learn more.

This message comes from Scholastic with the novel Iceberg. From the number one New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen, a young stowaway onboard the Titanic, will need all her courage and wits to stay alive. Iceberg, Available in paperback wherever books are sold. This message comes from Warby Parker. What makes a great pair of glasses at Warby Parker? It's all the invisible extras without the extra cost, like free adjustments for life. Find your [e-mail] or visit one of their hundreds of stores around the country.