Book Review Podcast: Chris Ware\'s \'Building Stories\'

Illustration from “Building Stories”

This week in The New York Times Book Review, Douglas Wolk reviews Chris Ware's “Building Stories.” The graphic novel, which follows the residents of one building in Chicago, comes in the form of 14 different elements in a large box: a hard-bound volume or two, pamphlets and leaflets, a huge tabloid and more. Mr. Wolk writes:

The organizing principle of “Building Stories” is architecture, and - even more than he usually doe s - Ware renders places and events alike as architectural diagrams. He's certain of every detail of these rooms, and tends to splay their furnishings out diagonally to show how they fit together. Every visual observation of bodies or nature is ruthlessly adjusted to the level of symbol, rendered in a minimal number of hard, perfectly even, perfectly straight or curved lines.

On this week's podcast, Mr. Ware talks about “Building Stories”; Parul Sehgal has notes from the field; Dexter Filkins discusses Mark Owen's “No Easy Day”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.