Describing America’s deeply unsettling current politics, at age eighty-one Thomas Farber (English) explores personal accountability, impending second childhoods, mortality, and the hunger for immortality. Weighing the functions of satire and the meaning of art, his short takes illuminate, debunk, commiserate, and celebrate by rejoinder.
Reckonings (El León Literary Arts/Manoa Books, 2026) is framed by two insights: no one chooses to be born, and no one can help being what they are. Reckoning with democracy in crisis, aging and mortality, his career, the role of the writer, and the fate of books, Farber reflects on endings with curiosity, honesty, wit, and compassion. Reckonings is the latest in a series of remarkable creative memoirs he has written over the past decade, coming to terms with life and its limits.
Farber is joined by Sam Otter (English). After a brief discussion, they respond to questions from the audience.
