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Today's Guest: Louie Cronin, novelist, "Everyone Loves You Back," former radio producer, "Car Talk"
Bob Boland, at middle age, is a mess. Fortunately for him, the life-long bachelor and radio station engineer has hit a sweet spot where every woman he’s been meeting lately wants to fix him and make him all better. His co-worker, Irene, for example. And his neighbor, Leonie.
But Bob is just shuffling through life at this point, indecisive, indifferent, f-able but ultimately ineffable. Bob is at the core of Louie Cronin’s first novel, the Cambridge, Massachsetts-set story, Everyone Loves You Back. It’s a charming, easy read and I daresay we all probably have a Bob Boland in our lives. Making Everyone ever more interesting is its workplace setting: an FM radio station in the throes of conversion from jazz to an all-news format. That’s particularly compelling because the author spent 10 years as the producer of “Car Talk” the long-running NPR show host by Tom and Ray Magliozzi. More recently, she is a technical director for PRI’s “The World.” She must have been taking a lot of notes over the years!
Key interview moments:
• 5:05 First-time novelist Louie Cronin talks about how her writing group helped her get the inner voice of the book's male lead character correctly;
• 16:10 As a long-time producer for public radio's "Car Talk with Tom and Ray Magliozzi," Cronin was asked to make a Sophie's Choice between the brothers;
• 25:10 That time her writing coach told her that if she was going to write literary fiction, she better not quit her day job.