Episode 194 with Ruth Madievsky, Brilliant Tactician of Plot, Humor, and Nuanced Profundity, and the Writer

Episode 194 Notes and Links to Ruth Madievsky’s Work

 

    On Episode 194 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Ruth Madievsky and the two discuss, among other things, her early relationship with Moldova and the former Soviet Union, her bilingual journey, formative and transformative writers and works, her sensibility as a poet and novelist, and prominent themes and issues about and surrounding her book, such as generational trauma and its effect on families and individuals, sexual violence, homophobia, codependent relationships, and dark humor that comes with pain and trauma. 

 

 

   Ruth Madievsky is the author of a novel, All-Night Pharmacy (Catapult, July 2023), an instant national bestseller. An Indie Next Pick, All-Night Pharmacy has been named a Best/Most Anticipated 2023 Book by over 40 venues, including NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Vulture, and Buzzfeed.

 

Her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry appear in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, Harper's Bazaar, GQ, Tin House, Guernica, them, Ploughshares, The American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection, Emergency Brake (Tavern Books, 2016), was the winner of the Wrolstad Contemporary Poetry Series and spent five months on Small Press Distribution's Poetry Bestsellers list. She was the winner of The American Poetry Review's Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize, The Iowa Review's Tim McGinnis Award for fiction, and a Tin House scholarship in poetry. She is a founding member of the Cheburashka Collective, a community of women and nonbinary writers whose identity has been shaped by immigration from the Soviet Union to the United States.

 

She has recently completed a second poetry collection. Originally from Moldova, she lives in Los Angeles, where she works as an HIV and primary care clinical pharmacist.

She tweets her existential longings at @ruthmadievsky.

 

 

 

Buy All-Night Pharmacy

 

Ruth's Website

 

Review of All-Night Pharmacy from Kirkus Reviews

 

Article about All-Night Pharmacy in The Los Angeles Times

 

Conversation and Article with Adrian Florido on NPR’s “All Things Considered”

At about 2:50, Ruth discusses her mindset in this time immediately after two milestones-the birth of her daughter and great success for All-Night Pharmacy

 

At about 4:25, Ruth shouts out Skylight Books as a great place, among many, to buy her book-also, Book Soup

 

At about 5:00, Ruth talks about her family’s history with the Russian language and their Jewish identity in the former Soviet Union and reasons for emigration 

 

At about 8:10, Ruth talks about communities of those who spoke Russian and those who shared her love for reading and writing and storytelling 

 

At about 12:15, Pete asks which books and writers were formative and transformative for Ruth

 

At about 14:20, Ruth talks about the “contradictory, complicated” Los Angeles of her youth and beyond

 

At about 16:00, Ruth shouts out Richard Siken, Marie Howe, Terrance Hayes, Bryan Washington, Raven Leilani, as inspirational and challenging writers

 

At about 17:35, Pete compliments the book’s “arresting” last image

 

At about 18:30, Ruth describes why she’s “a poet writing novels,” in relation to recent fun viral posts

 

At about 20:15, Ruth highlights a fun “deleted scene” article from Guernica

 

At about 22:55, Pete highlights the book’s epigraph and an early strong characterization of Debbie

 

At about 24:10, Ruth gives a characterization of Debbie

 

At about 26:00, The two juxtapose the narrator and Debbie and shout the “earnest” Ronnie

 

At about 28:50, Ruth gives background on the “cursed bar game”-“Wealthy Patron” and the bar Salvation 

 

At about 30:30, The two discuss Ronnie as “stable” in light of Debbie and the narrator's troubled parents 

 

At about 31:30, Ruth talks about traumas and how they inform the actions of Debbie and the narrator’s mother

 

At about 33:20, Generational gaps are highlighted, particularly among Debbie and the narrator’s grandmother and them; the larger idea of Jewish and other immigrants and ideas of hardship are discussed

 

At about 35:05, Ruth responds to Pete’s question about what one does to “live up to” their forebears’ sacrifices; she points to the narrator’s guilt/conflicted feelings and trying to “honor”

 

At about 37:15, A heavy and darkly humorous party from the book is highlighted

 

At about 37:45, Ruth speaks to the ways in which the sisters acted out in connection to their father as “mostly a nonentity”

 

At about 39:15, Ruth discusses the knife and statue and ideas of agency in the narrator's life

 

At about 42:10, The two discuss touch and “cutting” and the transference of pain

 

At about 43:00, Ruth discusses ideas of “being a victim,” particularly in the ways in which Debbie and her sister deal with their sexual abuse

 

At about 47:00, The two discuss the codependent relationship between sisters, as well as Sasha’s 

 

At about 50:00, Ruth talks about the contrast between the narrator’s relationship with Sasha in the US and Moldova and how their relationship evolved 

 

At about 52:50, Pete quotes some meaningful lines from the book that deal with generational traumas 

 

At about 54:00, Pete wonders if Ruth has plans to further explore issues and characters from All-Night Pharmacy in future projects

 

At about 56:30, An article in Full Stop that cites a reason for the book’s title is mentioned 

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   Please tune in for Episode 195 with Jessica Cuello, whose book Liar was selected by Dorianne Laux for The 2020 Barrow Street Book Prize; her latest book is Yours, Creature, a creative and stirring look at the life of Mary Shelley. 

The episode will air on July 28.