Books That Matter: Rickey Fayne on SONG OF SOLOMON by Toni Morrison

Welcome to the FictionMatters Podcast; this is Books That Matter. In this series, I’ll speak with writers I admire to learn about their lives as readers and deep dive into the books that matters to them.

Today, I’m joined by Rickey Fayne. Rickey’s debut novel The Devil Three Times is currently shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and one of my personal favorite debut novels of the year. In this episode, Rickey and I talk about the value of reading classic literature, the books he returned to when he started thinking he wanted to write, and why Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is the book that matters to him. Then we get into his novel The Devil Three Times. Rickey shares where he began with his expansive project, why he isn’t a short story writer, and how a planned dissertation influenced the novel he eventually wrote.

You can listen to today’s episode without having read either book. There is one moment where Rickey worries he’s giving away the end of Song of Solomon, but I promise it’s too vague to be a real spoiler! This episode is overflowing with books so be sure to check out the book list and links in the show notes and then pick up your copy of The Devil Three Times at your favorite bookshop.

Books Mentioned

• Loca by Alejandro Heredia

• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

• Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

• Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

• Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

• Summer by Edith Wharton

• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Marukami

• Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

• A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

• All of Hagar’s Children by Edward P. Jones

• The Known World by Edward P. Jones

• Jane Austen

• Charlotte Bronte

• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

• Sula by Toni Morrison

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

• The Black Book by Middleton A. Harris

• On Morrison by Namwali Serpell

• Toni at Random by Dana A. Williams

• The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne

• Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

• The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

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