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My name is Spike DiMartino, and I've been writing, off and on, ever since my eighth grade English teacher told me that I did it well. In this podcast, I'll be reading from my novel, "Primary Tourist," which is about the link between the New Hampshire Primary and my life, and how mythology permeates the lives of everyone, from Presidential Wannabes to Wannabe Artistic Icons and everybody in between, and how Myth does its damnedest to shape truth, even when, hell, especially when you live in a nursing home which you don't have to be crazy to mistake for an asylum. I hope you enjoy it.
The primary is over; Spike still wants you to decide which memories deserve to become myth.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A hazy morning of coffee, farewells, dreams, and hindsight turns comic memory quietly painful.
Primary Tourist's Chapter 36 follows the foggy morning after Tamara's visit as it turns into a loose, rueful meditation on memory, leaving, and the odd gap between an ordinary day and what it later becomes.
A sharp meditation on myth, intimacy, and the damage done by people who refuse to see what is nearest them.
Primary Tourist frames myth as both refuge and indictment. The host starts with John Edwards and the public shame around Elizabeth's plea that he does not see her, using that wound to argue that self-importance can make a person miss the one standing closest.
A winter routine, a bad landlord, and Sid's memory give this episode its bruised comic warmth.
Primary Tourist settles into the uneasy overlap between winter escape and rough domestic fallout. Early Saturday drives with Karina and Kara start with coffee in Tilton, where a routine stop becomes a marker of skiing's pull and the narrator's chase for the great white from…
A rueful New Hampshire comedown where writer's block, political aftermath, and the logistics of leaving blur together.
Primary Tourist chapters 30 and 31 find their narrator in the ragged aftermath of Primary Day 2012, with writer's block, political tallying, and the need to leave New Hampshire all pressing at once.
Primary Tourist chapters 38 and 39 recount the narrator's October 3, 2012 stroke, delayed emergency-room visit, hospitalization at Rhode Island Hospital, and transfer to Kent County Rehab.
Primary Tourist Chapters 36 and 37 jump from a New Hampshire Music Festival joint in Timmy's van to Barack Obama's 2004 convention moment.
John Edwards, Trayvon Martin, and the Florida stand-your-ground law drive the sharpest political section of Primary Tourist Chapter 34.
["Primary Tourist chapters 32 and 33 move from January 2012 ski runs through Tilton with Karina and Kara to a Rhode Island apartment with a hole in the bathroom window and an un-welded railing.", "A Providence snowstorm, a text that says 'Tilting,' and a walk through India Point Park keep pulling the narrator back toward New Hampshire, Cannon, and the mountain.", "The housing thread becomes a fight with a slumlord over a $150 balance, while radio mentions of Fred Karger, Mitt Romney, John Edwards, Ron Paul, and the 'not-Romneys' keep the 2012 campaign in view.", "The chapter closes on the May 24 Bob Dylan tribute at the Met, where Jenny from The Accelerators and a dance on the floor turn music and touch into the clearest emotional scene."]
Primary Tourist chapters 30 and 31 put Spike in New Hampshire on Primary Day 2012, where Mitt Romney's win, Obama's weak field, and the 'great white' he keeps trying to coax out frame the day.
The author reads Chapter 12 of his novel 'Primary Tourist,' reflecting on a difficult time in March 2008 when a friend was hospitalized and in pain.
The author reads a chapter from his novel 'Primary Tourist,' blending personal narrative with reflections on mythology and the New Hampshire Primary.
The author reads Chapter 6 of his novel 'Primary Tourist,' reflecting on the 2012 presidential race and the role of myth in politics.
The author reads from his novel about the New Hampshire primary, blending political analysis with personal narrative and mythology.