An Interview with Pam Houston

Stuck in a dead-end relationship, this fearless narrator leaves her metaphorical baggage behind and finds a comfort zone in the air, “feeling safest with one plane ticket in her hand and another in her underwear drawer.” She flies around the world, finding reasons to love life in dozens of far-flung places from Alaska to Bhutan. Along the way she weathers unplanned losses of altitude, air pressure, and landing gear. With the help of a squad of loyal, funny, wise friends and massage therapists, she learns to sort truth from self-deception, self-involvement from self-possession.

At last, having found a new partner “who loves Don DeLillo and the NHL” and a daughter “who needs you to teach her to dive and to laugh at herself” — not to mention two dogs and two horses — “staying home becomes more of an option. Maybe.”

During this week's program, Chérie Newman talks with Pam Houston about her book Contents May Have Shifted, a novel which Houston admits is about 87% true. So why didn't she publish it as a memoir? Newman wants to know. The answer has to do with the public's perception of truth and, of course, publishing industry lawyers.

During this interview, Pam mentions a piece she wrote titled "Corn Maze." Here's a link to that essay: http://www.hungermtn.org/corn-maze/

Find out more about Pam Houston and her books, and listen to the program on the radio or online.

• Thursday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
• Sunday, April 28 at 3 p.m. on KSJD 
• Sunday, April 28 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
• On demand audio
• Via the MTPR podcast

Martin Etchart, author of 'The Last Shepherd'

Mathieu Etchiberri wants nothing more than to leave his family’s Arizona sheep ranch and go to college, but his father insists that he take over the ranch instead. Then his father is killed in an accident, and Matt discovers that he is not the heir to the ranch. So he travels to the French Pyrenees from which his father and grandparents came to settle the questions about his legacy. Instead, he discovers a vast Basque family and a mystery that drove his father to America and still festers in the mountain village. As Matt resolves the mystery of his family, he also discovers his Basque roots and learns the nature of love of family, responsibility, and the tension between individual desires and the needs of a community. Matt’s journey to manhood takes place in a vividly depicted landscape populated by lively, memorable characters.

The Last Shepherd is the powerful story of a young man’s search for an identity that encompasses two cultures and one complex, scattered family.

“This is a beautiful and compelling novel. Its focus on Basque culture, while compelling and authoritative and interesting in itself, also serves as a thematic underpinning for the larger questions that concern the novel. The writing is beautiful throughout, evocative of landscape and weather and animal life. One of the best novels I have read in several years.”

-- Mary Clearman Blew, author of Jackalope Dreams

Find out more about Martin Etchart, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

• Thursday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
• Thursday, March 14 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
• Sunday, March 17 at 3 p.m. on KSJD 
• Sunday, March 17 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
• On demand audio
• MTPR podcast

Marjorie Smith, author of 'Making Up Amelia'

In Making Up Amelia, Montana author Marjorie Smith has created three different characters, in three different decades, who find their fates entangled with the mysterious disappearance of the American flier, Amelia Earhart.

In 1983, an idealistic journalist makes a sentimental journey that turns into an alarming encounter with her past.

In 1967, a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy goes on a weekend visit to friends and discovers a passion for flying and for a certain island bush pilot.

In 1936, a South Dakota teenager accepts a stranger's invitation to see the world, then finds out it comes with a high price.

Their three intertwined stories come to a dramatic conclusion on Guam, the island that likes to say it is "Where America's Day Begins."

Find out more about Marjorie Smith, and listen to the program, on the radio or online.

• Thursday, February 21 at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
• Thursday, February 21 at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
• Sunday, February 24 at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
• On demand audio
• MTPR podcast