By Rich Fisher
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-900428.mp3
Tulsa, Oklahoma – On this edition of our show, we listen back to an interview from July of last year. At that time, we spoke with Reif Larsen, whose debut novel, "The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet," was already one of the most talked-about books of 2009. Wonderfully illustrated, vividly detailed, and engrossing from page one, this novel is now out in paperback. And the author, Mr. Larsen, will appear at a Book Smart Tulsa event tomorrow night (Friday the 7th) at the Garden Deva Sculpture Studio here in Tulsa. (The studio is located at 317 South Trenton Avenue. The event begins at 7pm.) One critic, writing in Library Journal, has summarized Larsen's remarkable novel like so: "Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet is a mapmaker whose highly accomplished drawings have appeared in exhibitions at the Smithsonian and have garnered him the coveted Baird Prize, for which he is asked to come to Washington, DC, and deliver an acceptance speech. Unbeknown to everyone, T.S. Spivet is a 12-year-old boy who lives on a Montana ranch with his cowboy father, scientist mother, and bored teenage sister. Unwilling to forgo his award by revealing his age, T.S. secretly hops a freight train and travels to DC. Among the bizarre and impractical items he brings along is his mother's notebook, in which she has written a partially fictional account of their ancestor Emma Osterville, who struggled to be a scientist in a misogynistic environment. Emma's story in some ways parallels T.S.'s, as they both battle narrow-minded thinking in the world of science. Debut novelist Larsen's writing is as detailed and absorbing as a map. . . . [This is] a delightful and poignant adventure."