Novelist Stephen McCauley Embraces Life On A 'Small, Everyday Scale'

Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, editor of the website TV Worth Watching, sitting in for Terry Gross. Today's guest, Stephen McCauley, is the author of the novel titled "My Ex-Life," which just came out in paperback. When it was first published in 2018, our book critic Maureen Corrigan described it as a smart comedy of manners about McCauley's signature subject - namely, the disconnect between erotic desire and intimacy and the screwball paths that people take on the way to finally arriving home.

Stephen McCauley is the author of six previous novels, including "The Object Of My Affection," which was adapted into a film comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. McCauley's new novel centers around two people, David and Julie, whose brief marriage ended when he came out. Thirty years later, they're brought together when Julie and her second husband are divorcing, and their seemingly unambitious daughter isn't moving forward with her college applications.

David's business is counseling students on how to get into college, so Julie calls him for help. When they meet again, they find they still have a deep connection, but one with sexual intimacy out of the picture. There's a lot of comedy and perceptive writing about gay and straight relationships, friendships and marriages, college application essays and the kind of trouble an insecure teenage girl can get into through male flattery and her own desire to be daring. Terry Gross spoke to Stephen McCauley last year.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

TERRY GROSS, BYLINE: Stephen McCauley, welcome back to FRESH AIR. I love the novel, and I want to start with a reading from the very beginning of it. Would you read the beginning of "My Ex-Life"?

STEPHEN MCCAULEY: I'd love to.

(Reading) No, it was not the happiest moment of David Hedge's life. Soren, his partner of five years, had left him. He'd gotten fat. And somewhere in the midst of that, he'd woken up one day and realized he was no longer in his 20s or his 40s. The last person he expected to hear from was Julie Fiske. He and Julie had a history, albeit an ancient and complicated one. They hadn't seen each other in almost 30 years, hadn't spoken in more than 20, and David assumed that their story, like a few other things in his life - his desire to visit Petra, his vow to study the piano, his sexual relevance - had ended. This didn't diminish her importance to him. His memories of her lingered, faded by the years in flattering ways. In his mind, they were still best friends.

(Reading) He heard of Julie Fiske infrequently through a few mutual friends and an occasional late-night computer perusal when he was feeling maudlin. Oh, Julie. He'd pieced together scraps and had come to the conclusion that she had a happy life, a husband or second, a teenage daughter, a large house on the ocean north of Boston. She taught art at a private school for kids with learning problems - not what she'd imagined for herself in her younger incarnation, but who was he to judge?

(Reading) It appeared things had finally gone well for her. He was delighted. There had been years when he worried that she'd been set on a path of bad choices and bad luck by the mistake of her brief, misguided first marriage to him.

GROSS: That's Stephen McCauley reading for the opening of his new novel, "My Ex-Life." Of course, Julie's life is nothing like what David imagines. Her marriage is ending. Her home by the ocean is falling apart. She wants to buy out her husband's half and can't afford to. (Laughter) It's, like, everything is a mess in her life.

So when they come back together again because he's going to help her daughter with her college application, they redevelop the closeness they had when they were married, but without the pretense of a sexual relationship. What made you think about an ex-marriage becoming a different sort of partnership, one of deep friendship that is in some ways even more comfortable and enduring than the romantic, sexual loves that they've had in their lives?

MCCAULEY: You know, I think there were several things that made me think about that. I mean, one is just that it seems to me all relationships evolve as time goes on, even for people who stay together as a couple and even if the relationship remains sexual, essentially, that as you get older, needs change. Needs for intimacy change and companionship change. And I wanted to have these people begin to re-examine what really worked in their relationship - the friendship, the closeness - and try to adapt it for, you know, needs later in life that are maybe less restless, less hormonal. And...

GROSS: Are you saying less sexual?

MCCAULEY: Less sexual, yes.

(LAUGHTER)

MCCAULEY: But also, you know, several years ago there was a - and this is kind of a - but maybe a funny source of inspiration for a novel that's essentially comic, and I hope it comes off as being optimistic in tone. But several years ago, there was a piece in The Sunday Times Magazine about a woman who - and this is as I remember, and I may be getting some of the facts wrong. But she was in her 60s, and she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

And it was very important to her that she control the last years of her life, and also that she be absolutely in control of the means and the timing of the end of her life. And in order to negotiate all of that, she had to call on friends. And the person that she called on was her ex-husband, who - they hadn't spoken to each other for many years. He was gay.

And I was really struck by - I mean, you know, there's no Alzheimer's in my book. There's no end-of-life issues. There's a lot of middle-of-life issues. But I was really struck by the incredible friendship and trust that must have been between these two people despite all the years of distance, and despite disappointment, and I'm sure a lot of anger and so on. And I found that really moving, and I wanted to explore it in a completely different context.

GROSS: Do you see there being certain burdens of a relationship that are lifted, like, when they come back together not in a marriage relationship, but just in a deep friendship relationship?

MCCAULEY: I think so. I think one of the struggles, for me, personally throughout my life with close relationships has been this fear of losing a piece of your identity because you're making - you know, it's inevitable that you make compromises when you're in an intimate relationship. And I think that's a good thing, but it also can be very frightening. And I don't think they need to do that in this case. There's a sense that they're - they can continue pursuing other relationships if they want to and that they're not as bound to each other by this - the demands of kind of sexual intimacy.

GROSS: And there's a certain type of jealousy that will not be a part of their relationship.

MCCAULEY: In theory.

GROSS: (Laughter).

MCCAULEY: You know, I don't know if you can ever get rid of that entirely.

GROSS: Yeah.

MCCAULEY: You know, there's a scene in the novel where one of them - I can't remember, actually, which one it is, but I think it's Julie - goes off to see someone who she may or may not be having an affair with. And, you know, David is completely supportive of this, and he encourages her to do it, and - but at the same time, he's kind of waiting for her to come back from this date. And, you know, he experiences a little bit of jealousy that's a bit more amorphous than it might be if they had a sexual relationship but nonetheless is there.

GROSS: Since the premise of the novel is a marriage that ended 30 years ago because the husband came out as gay, then these two people reunite as very close friends and teammates, you know, partners in a different kind of way, do you know a lot of marriages that ended because one partner came out?

MCCAULEY: I do. I know a surprising number of marriages that ended that way. At one point - I can't remember - it was probably 20 years ago, I was in a running group, you know, that would meet twice a week and go for a run around the river in Boston. And I forget how many men there were in it. But at a certain point, you know, someone came out and said, well, I had been married 20 years - and this was a gay men's running group, by the way. And someone said, oh, I had been married earlier.

And, you know, it was like there were at least a dozen people in that group who had had that experience. And I'm not sure what the connection was and why there were so many in this particular group, but there it was. I think it's not at all uncommon in my experience.

GROSS: Were these people of different ages?

MCCAULEY: There were people of different ages. Mostly they were, you know, somewhere in the 35 to 55 range, I would say.

GROSS: I'm wondering, you know, if it's easier for couples like that to stay friends afterwards because the divorce wasn't necessarily based on, like, you hurt me or you wronged me or I can't get along with you. It's like, oh, I realize I'm gay. You know? So I could see the door remaining more open in a situation like that. And I know relationships where the door has remained very open and the couple has remained friends even though the marriage dissolved, you know, where one partner came out as gay.

MCCAULEY: Right. My observation is that that's often the case. And this group that I'm talking about, there were a number of people who had remained extremely close friends with their ex-wives. There is the other experience, which is that a lot of times the wife - or I suppose the husband - feels betrayed, that, you know, you should have known this sooner. You should've told me sooner. And those can be incredibly acrimonious separations.

GROSS: Well, let's take a short break here, and then we'll talk some more. If you're just joining us, my guest is Stephen McCauley. And his new novel is called "My Ex-Life." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. And if you're just joining us, my guest is novelist Stephen McCauley, who's probably best-known for his novel "The Object Of My Affection," which was adapted into a film that Jennifer Aniston starred in. His new novel, "My Ex-Life," is about a couple who had been married 30 years ago until he - the husband, David - came out as gay. Now, for several reasons, they've come back together but this time as good friends and as allies. And what's brought them together is that he's a college adviser, and he's been asked to help the daughter, Mandy, with her college application and her college essay application.

So the daughter in the novel, Mandy, is one of the girls who thinks that she's not really attractive. She's not popular. She has a lot of doubts about herself. And one of the characters speculates, like, this is the kind of girl who gets herself into trouble. And this is the kind of girl who a boy or a man can exploit. And that turns out to be true. What can you tell us that you feel comfortable giving away about how she is taken advantage of?

MCCAULEY: Well, Mandy, as you describe her, is someone who feels that - as many of us do, I think - that somewhere within us, we have this undiscovered talent and quality that makes us unique and makes us stand out. But she doesn't know what it is. And so when a man who is in his late 20s comes along and tells her that, you know, he sees something in her that other people don't, she's very susceptible to that. And she gets involved in something that has the potential to be dangerous and have dire consequences for her involving the Internet.

I mean, you know, right there - that probably tells as much as you need to know. And so she becomes - was very vulnerable to his attention.

GROSS: So have you had experiences with students or young women who - or your friends, or the daughters of your friends who've done that and have - or have nearly - gotten themselves into trouble, or into a dangerous situation or, you know, been exploited in a way that, you know, was really damaging to them?

MCCAULEY: You know, one of the things that is attractive about it to Mandy is that it allows her to be a different person when she is chatting online with anonymous men. It allows her to enter into a different kind of character, to be confident, to be sure of her body and so on.

And I - many years ago, I had a student who was an incredibly bright, talented young woman. And I had her over to my house for dinner with a few other students who I was working on honors projects with. And she began talking about the job that she'd had the previous summer, which was working on a phone sex line, which tells you how long ago it was.

And it was all very funny. And she felt that it somehow was a creative endeavor, and it allowed her to take on this other persona and so on. And for a while, it seemed to be that way. And then - I don't know - maybe a year or so later, I heard from one of her other friends that it - doing this had had dire consequences for her because she had kind of crossed the line between, you know, being an anonymous person and meeting one of these guys that she was talking about.

And that risk is in the novel for Mandy. And I think it's kind of a risk in general with social media, where the lines between what is considered, even by mothers with their daughters, empowering and body positive - to post pictures of oneself in a bathing suit or some kind of skimpy attire and, you know, without thinking about the consequences that might have when you put it out and is available essentially to millions of people - and when it becomes dangerous, when it becomes inappropriate and pornographic.

GROSS: You know, some of the men who chat with Mandy on the Internet, they want to talk about their illnesses...

MCCAULEY: (Laughter).

GROSS: ...With diabetes being at the top of the list.

MCCAULEY: Yeah (laughter).

GROSS: Where did that come from? Have you heard that that happens a lot?

MCCAULEY: You know, I've heard - well, I heard from this student who worked on a phone sex line that a lot of times, you know, men just wanted to kind of talk about their problems and their issues and, albeit in a occasionally inappropriate way or sort of, you know, crossing into something that sounded more lecherous, but that they wanted to reveal the thing that they were most ashamed of about themselves or most troubled by to her and have - and be accepted by her as this character on the other end of the phone.

And somehow, when I was writing those scenes with Mandy, it just felt like, well, that probably happens a lot, that people begin talking about their lives and their problems with someone who's willing to listen and be supportive and caring.

GROSS: Another issue in your novel has to do with renting out rooms. (Laughter) Julie wants to buy out her husband's half of the mortgage on their big, rambling, falling-apart, 19th-century home that was allegedly built by a sea captain, and she wants to rent out rooms. And the book jacket - the author bio on the book jacket of your novel "My Ex-Life" says you have several properties listed on Airbnb (laughter) in New York and Massachusetts. So what's your situation?

MCCAULEY: (Laughter) My situation is changing because regulations around short-term rentals are changing in Massachusetts, for example - in certain cities in Massachusetts. But, you know, I was very lucky. A few of my novels were turned into movies. And in a couple of instances when I got an unexpected influx of cash, I bought a piece of property, thinking that I was going to use this as a place to go, right? And because - it seems as soon as I consider someplace, you know, my domain on some level, I'm incapable of writing there. The writing retreat aspect of it just faded into oblivion, and I began renting out properties short term.

And I'm just - I'm fascinated by - I feel as if we're living in a time when people are obsessed with privacy because there's so much that people put online at the same time they're obsessed with privacy. And I was driving with a friend around Boston - I don't know if this is true across the country, but around Boston, I've noticed that in the last few years people rarely use their directionals when they're driving and it makes me crazy.

And I was with a friend who wasn't using his directionals. And I said, why aren't you using your directionals? And he said, you know what? It's nobody's business which direction I'm turning.

GROSS: Whoa (laughter).

MCCAULEY: And so there's that attitude. And at the same time, people are renting out rooms in their houses to complete strangers and sharing their most intimate spaces with them - their kitchens and their bathrooms. And, you know, they put them in their bedrooms. And they go and sleep on the sofa in the living room. And I just find this dichotomy just incredibly interesting. And from a writer's point of view, of course, it gives you the opportunity to be bringing new people into the scene constantly with new problems and new pleasures, perhaps.

GROSS: Of course, the reverse of that is true, too. The people who rent are putting themselves - especially if they're renting like a room in a family's home while the family is there - you're putting yourself in the hands of these people you don't know.

MCCAULEY: Yeah. No. I mean, and that's the way I travel, actually, because what's so crazy is that I bought this real estate to use it as a place to go write. Then I can't write there, so I have to rent it out. And then I go rent random places elsewhere to, you know, to write. And you never know. Although, I mean, I have to say, honestly, both as a renter and as a landlord, I've had very few really negative experiences.

GROSS: Why can't you write in a place that you're familiar with like your home or one of your properties?

MCCAULEY: I know. I wish I knew, Terry. You'll have to talk to my shrink about that, but I don't think he knows either because he isn't able to help me. But I don't know. I think I have a very nice study in the place where I live. And it's very quiet. And it's got a great desk. And it's perfectly set up to write. And I can not write a sentence there. I think I just associate the place where I live with other things like obsessive house cleaning and, you know.

GROSS: (Laughter).

MCCAULEY: But just, you know, I like having a separation between where I work and where I kind of relax, I suppose.

BIANCULLI: Author Stephen McCauley speaking to Terry Gross in 2018. His latest book, titled "My Ex-Life," has just come out in paperback. After a break, we'll continue their conversation. Also, rock critic Ken Tucker will review "Father Of The Bride," the first album in six years from Vampire Weekend. And I'll review Hulu's new miniseries adaptation of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22," which premieres today. I'm David Bianculli, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF GILAD HEKSELMAN'S "DO RE MI FA SOL")

BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, in for Terry Gross, back with more of Terry's 2018 interview with author Stephen McCauley. His latest novel, called "My Ex-Life," has just come out in paperback. His earlier novel, "The Object Of My Affection," was adapted into a film comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd. Stephen McCauley co-directs the creative writing program at Brandeis University.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

GROSS: The first time we talked in 1996, we talked about how one of your characters - your main character - always felt like he was either too young and then he felt like he was too old. And he never felt like he was the right age. And you talked about how when you started teaching, you felt like you were too young to be an authority figure. And then at some point, you felt like you were too old in the sense that you had kind of bypassed the common reference points that you used to have with your students. Where are you now?

MCCAULEY: I'm at the I-don't-care phase, you know, which is kind of a great phase to be in. I mean, I feel as if I actually feel - I mean, Terry, I hate to be so positive, but I feel as if I do have something to say to students. And I think in the same way that, you know, I stopped trying to be Tolstoy or Flaubert, whoever - that, as a teacher, I just feel like, OK, I have something to offer. And I'm going to offer it in a very authentic and - way that is true to me. And I don't worry about that kind of attitude quite so much.

GROSS: So you came out in the 1970s, when you were in your late teens.

MCCAULEY: Yes.

GROSS: And there are so many issues relating to, like, sexual orientation and gender identity that have changed over the years in terms of how they're expressed and how people identify themselves. And you're seeing that not just as, like, a person in the world but also as a professor at a university. And having been at universities for years, you've seen, like, you know, generations of students come and go and define themselves in different ways.

There's a character in your new book, who's a college student, who goes by the name D - the letter D - and wants to be referred to as the gender-neutral they instead of he or she. That's a relatively new phenomenon - and, you know, the idea of, like, gender-neutral names and gender-neutral identity, and I'm wondering how you're processing that.

MCCAULEY: That's a really good question. Its a really big question right now in academia, especially...

GROSS: I know.

MCCAULEY: Yeah. I mean, I guess, you know, for me as a teacher, I am really happy to call my students whatever pronouns they want to be called by. I had a student recently who wanted to be called it. And I said, OK, I'll try it, you know? And, you know, whatever makes people feel accepted and seen the way they want to be seen is fine with me.

At the same time, I find it a little bit confusing sometimes when people talk about the binary - the gender binary - because it seems to me - my experience of coming out in the '70s was that the joy really of coming out as gay was that you didn't have to think in terms of strict male and female roles - that you could define yourself as a man in any way you wanted to. And I never had any interests that were particularly traditional in terms of masculinity.

And when I began reading particularly feminist writers like Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer, it was very liberating. It was like, well, you can define yourself as a man and still be a man but have the interests that you want in, you know, 1920's music instead of rock ’n’ roll or whatever it happens to be. And I guess my - the students that I'm seeing now take a different approach to that where they are embracing it more as being gender-neutral. And so I'm trying to understand it more and be sympathetic to it.

GROSS: So in addition to your novels written under your name, Stephen McCauley, you've written a couple of yoga novels under...

MCCAULEY: (Laughter).

GROSS: ...The name Rain Mitchell.

MCCAULEY: Yes.

GROSS: I've seen them referred to as yoga novels. I'm not sure what a...

MCCAULEY: Yeah (laughter).

GROSS: ...Yoga novel is. Is the main character a yoga instructor?

MCCAULEY: That's it. That's what makes it a yoga novel. There are two novels and - that Rain Mitchell wrote. And they're set at a yoga studio in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. And most of the main characters - in fact, all of the main characters either teach yoga there or practice yoga there.

And it was a project that was brought to me by an editor who wanted to publish these books. And she knew that I did and do a lot of yoga as she did and does. And so it seemed like a good fit. And the novels came - there was something incredibly liberating to me about writing under a pseudonym. In certain ways, it was the most fun writing experience I've ever had.

GROSS: Why is it more liberating?

MCCAULEY: There's a complete lack of self-consciousness about anyone reading it and judging it, even though I knew that, you know, some people would know that I had written it. And - I don't know. I think I just kind of tapped into a different persona somehow when I was using that pen name.

GROSS: Was it also...

MCCAULEY: One of...

GROSS: Yeah, go ahead.

MCCAULEY: Well, one of the things that I always struggle with is that I kind of resist writing big events in my novels - you know, deaths and big actions. I like to keep things on a very kind of small, everyday scale. And in those yoga books, you know, I've got people jumping out of windows. I've got people dating...

(LAUGHTER)

MCCAULEY: ...People who are like, you know, dating a stand-in for Derek Jeter...

GROSS: (Laughter).

MCCAULEY: ...I mean, you know, auditioning for a Beyonce video. You know, and I just kind of went into this, you know, without any hesitation. And it was really fun to do. And when I finished that project, I tried to bring some of that spirit into my own work. And I'm not - I didn't go that extreme with this novel, but I think, for instance, it helped me have the confidence to imagine myself into the mind of a, you know, 17-year-old girl who is about to graduate high school.

GROSS: Why did you choose the name Rain Mitchell as your pseudonym?

MCCAULEY: (Laughter) I think because - well, first of all, the publisher wanted something that could be male or female. And...

GROSS: Wait. Wait. Why was that important?

MCCAULEY: I don't know - because, very quickly, they changed it to, OK, Rain Mitchell is a woman. And, you know, I had to write all these blog posts as Rain Mitchell...

GROSS: (Laughter).

MCCAULEY: ...And about her experiences and her life. And she kind of had like the ideal family life and the supportive mother who encouraged her to...

GROSS: (Laughter).

MCCAULEY: ...Write and to read. And so, you know, basically everything that I didn't have, you know, I gave to this character, essentially, that I was creating. And I've always been a huge fan of Joni Mitchell, so Mitchell comes from that. And the Rain is just sort of like new-agey (ph), I suppose, sounding or something.

GROSS: What are the covers like?

MCCAULEY: They vary greatly from, you know, like, someone doing yoga in high heels on a yoga mat because the idea behind the books was "Sex And The City" at a yoga studio. You know, five women in a yoga studio.

GROSS: So I want to end with some music. I'm always interested in the music that your characters like in your novels. I remember talking about - talking with you about Lee Wiley, the jazz singer from the '30s through, I guess, the '50s, who one of your main characters from an earlier book really loved. And in your new novel, "My Ex-Life," one of the main characters loves French singers including Francoise Hardy. I thought we'd end with something from her.

My introduction to her was in the film "Moonrise Kingdom," the Wes Anderson film because the two kids who are the main characters from that movie run away together. And there's a scene on the beach where they have a portable record player, and they're playing the Francoise Hardy song "Le Temps De 'Lamour."

And as they play it, they dance and then kiss. And they've never really kissed before, so it's a really - it's a lovely scene. What's your favorite Francoise Hardy track that you'd like us to end with?

MCCAULEY: I think my favorite is called "L'amitie," which is - means friendship. And it has some of those same qualities of kind of being wistful and melancholy but at the same time joyful. And because it's about friendship, you know, that's really what my novel is about. So maybe that's appropriate.

GROSS: Good. Let's end with that. Stephen McCauley, it's been great. Thank you so much.

MCCAULEY: Thank you, Terry.

BIANCULLI: Author Stephen McCauley spoke to Terry Gross last year. His novel, "My Ex-Life," has just come out in paperback.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "L'AMITIE")

FRANCOISE HARDY: (Singing in French).

BIANCULLI: Coming up, rock critic Ken Tucker reviews "Father Of The Bride," the first album in six years from the band Vampire Weekend. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF VAMPIRE WEEKEND'S "M79")

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. It took the band Vampire Weekend five years to release its first three albums. Six years have gone by, and now the band has a new album, "Father Of The Bride." It's also their longest album with 18 new tracks. Rock critic Ken Tucker says the band, led by songwriter and vocalist Ezra Koenig, introduces new themes and a new ambition. Here is Ken's review.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HARMONY HALL")

VAMPIRE WEEKEND: (Singing) We took a vow in summertime. Now we find ourselves in late December. I believe that New Year's Eve would be the perfect time for their great surrender, but they don't remember. Anger wants a voice. Voices want to sing. Singers harmonize till they can't hear anything. I thought that I was free from all that questioning, but every time a problem ends, another one begins. And the stone walls of Harmony Hall...

KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: A very good little pop record that's not so little, "Father Of The Bride" is Vampire Weekend's new demonstration that tidiness and concision are pathways to greatness. Each of its 18 tracks contains a keyboard or guitar hook that snags your ear. Each yields up one or two or more neatly turned lyric phrases, and whether the composition is under two minutes or in excess of five, each song seems pretty much exactly as long as it needs to be. This is craftsmanship so polished you might not take in at first all the roiling emotion going on just beneath the surface.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THIS LIFE")

VAMPIRE WEEKEND: (Singing) Baby, I know pain is as natural as the rain. I just thought it didn't rain in California. Baby, I know love isn't what I thought it was 'cause I've never known a love like this before you. Baby, I know dreams tend to crumble at extremes. I just thought our dream would last a little bit longer. There's a time when every man draws a line down in the sand. We're surviving. We're still living. Are we stronger?

TUCKER: In the past, Vampire Weekend's best-known songs have either been about very specific items, such as the Oxford comma, or about very broad topics, such as the passage of time. The title of this new collection, "Father Of The Bride," is a tip-off that this one is concerned with relationships as they flourish or wilt over extended periods.

In the song I just played called "This Life," vocalist-songwriter Ezra Koenig tucks an anguished lyric about cheating and being cheated on into a chipper melody. On this song, called "Married In A Gold Rush," Koenig and his duet partner Danielle Haim play a complicated couple striving hard to work things out.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MARRIED IN A GOLD RUSH")

VAMPIRE WEEKEND: (Singing) Something's happening in the country, and the government's to blame. We got married in a gold rush, and the rush has never felt the same.

DANIELLE HAIM: (Singing) Shared a moment in a cafe. Shared a kiss in pouring rain. We got married in a gold rush, and the sight of gold will always bring me pain.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND: (Singing) I don't want to hear the rumors. Please don't say it loud. I just want to go out tonight and make my baby proud.

HAIM: (Singing) Boy, who's your baby?

VAMPIRE WEEKEND: (Singing) Girl, if you don't know by now, there's two seats on the midnight train. The gold won't weigh us down.

TUCKER: Vampire Weekend has expanded its sound on this album with periodic guest stars such as guitarist Steve Lacy from the band the Internet. Danielle Haim from the sister trio act Haim sings frequent duets and harmonies with Koenig. The result is that on a song such as "We Belong Together," they really do sound as though they belong together as a central part of what the band is now trying to do.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE BELONG TOGETHER")

VAMPIRE WEEKEND: (Singing) We go together like sound and sight, black and white, day and night. We go together like left and right. Oh, we go together.

HAIM: (Singing) We go together like give and take, pains and aches, real and fake. We go together. Don't be opaque. It's clear we go together.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND AND HAIM: (Singing) We belong together. We belong together. Baby, there's no use in being clever. Baby, it don't mean we'll stay together.

TUCKER: The initial take on Vampire Weekend a decade ago was that this was a cadre of Columbia University preppies who parlayed privilege, indie rock and an English Lit degree into hipster idolatry. Now there's nothing undergraduate about them. Vampire Weekend's light touch with heavy topics sounds like mature control even as it never denies some wild emotions. The band's new hardheaded realism has rejected self-absorption in favor of a vital engagement with everyone who might be listening.

BIANCULLI: Ken Tucker reviewed "Father Of The Bride," the new album from the band Vampire Weekend. Coming up, I review the new miniseries adaptation of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22," which premieres today on Hulu. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm TV critic David Bianculli. On Friday, Hulu presents a new six-part miniseries adaptation of Joseph Heller's classic 1961 anti-war novel "Catch-22." George Clooney is one of its stars, directors and executive producers, and the longer miniseries form works to the story's advantage but also allows for a drama that ultimately is much less comic than viewers might expect. The history of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" is one that by now may be entirely unfamiliar to the youngest generation of viewers who regularly get their TV from streaming sites. For older viewers, just the name of Hulu's new miniseries "Catch-22" conjures up not only a novel but a movie, an attitude and an era.

Heller's novel, set in the final years of World War II, came out in 1961 and instantly became iconic as shorthand for bureaucratic red tape and a general disdain for authority. Mike Nichols made a big-budget movie of it in 1970 starring Alan Arkin as the central character, nonconformist Army bombardier John Yossarian. Arkin was perfect, and the movie had some fabulous scenes and performances, but too much of the original novel's story and message was missing. This new "Catch-22," at six hours, has time to correct that particular failing, and that's exactly what it sets out to do.

Christopher Abbott stars as Yossarian, but this time, Yossarian is as much observer as protagonist, as in the original novel. Two of the executive producers of Hulu's "Catch-22" are George Clooney and Grant Heslov, movie and TV production partners who direct two episodes apiece and also give themselves roles in this new miniseries. Clooney plays General Scheisskopf, who's a riot - all bluster and anger like a Tex Avery cartoon character - and Heslov plays Doc Daneeka, the squadron physician who can't grant Yossarian's request to be grounded from future bombing missions because there's a catch.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CATCH-22")

CHRISTOPHER ABBOTT: (As Yossarian) Is Orr crazy?

GRANT HESLOV: (As Doc Daneeka) Oh, he sure is.

ABBOTT: (As Yossarian) Can you ground him?

HESLOV: (As Doc Daneeka) I sure can. But first, he has to ask me to.

ABBOTT: (As Yossarian) Then why doesn't he ask you?

HESLOV: (As Doc Daneeka) Because he's crazy. He'd have to be crazy to want to keep flying combat missions. Sure, I can ground Orr. But first, he has to ask me to.

ABBOTT: (As Yossarian) And that's all he has to do to be grounded.

HESLOV: (As Doc Daneeka) That's it. Just let him ask.

ABBOTT: (As Yossarian) And then you can ground him.

HESLOV: (As Doc Daneeka) No, then I can't ground him.

ABBOTT: (As Yossarian) Why not?

HESLOV: (As Doc Daneeka) Catch-22 - anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy. Catch-22 specifies that a concern for one's own safety in the face of danger, real and immediate, is the process of a rational mind.

ABBOTT: (As Yossarian) What?

HESLOV: (As Doc Daneeka) Orr's crazy. And therefore, he can get out of flying combat missions. All he has to do is ask. But as soon as he asks, he's no longer crazy. And so he has to fly more missions.

ABBOTT: (As Yossarian) What?

HESLOV: (As Doc Daneeka) Orr would be crazy to want to fly more missions and sane if he didn't. But if he's sane, then he has to fly them. If he flies them, then he's crazy. And so he doesn't have to. But if he doesn't want to, then he's sane. And so he has to.

ABBOTT: (As Yossarian) That's some catch, that Catch-22.

HESLOV: (As Doc Daneeka) It's the best there is.

BIANCULLI: Many of the conversations in this TV series sound like Marx Brothers bits or "Who's On First?" Abbott and Costello routines because that's exactly the way Heller wrote them. Yossarian was just as much anti-authority and anti-everything as Groucho. And many of the exchanges between characters are intentionally outrageous, like the time Colonel Cathcart, played so wonderfully by Kyle Chandler, mistakenly gives a sergeant the responsibilities of a senior officer because of his name. The name, as the soldier tries sheepishly to explain, is Major Major Major.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CATCH-22")

LEWIS PULLMAN: (As Major Major) Sir, like I told the fellow, well, my father was something of a practical joker. He named me Major Major - first name Major, middle name Major - behind my mother's back on the birth certificate. And my surname's Major too, as you already know.

KYLE CHANDLER: (As Colonel Cathcart) Well, that is a hell of a practical joke. Isn't it, son?

PULLMAN: (As Major Major) He was a piece of work, sir.

BIANCULLI: From these clips, Hulu's "Catch-22" may sound like a comedy romp, but it's a lot more than that. Yossarian gets more and more frustrated as Cathcart keeps raising the number of missions the men are supposed to fly. And as more missions are flown and the war progresses, Yossarian's circle of friends continues to shrink. And he becomes more convinced he's going to die. On screen, a running tally is kept of the missions required. And as it and the death toll slowly rise, the tension during the bombing missions becomes anything but funny. In fact, they're so ominous and claustrophobic they're more like the underwater World War II missions in the movie and mini-series "Das Boot." The length of the drama and the way the time is utilized becomes a big asset here.

In addition to adding more seriousness and drama, this new "Catch-22" adds lots more profanity - a defensible change, given the subject matter and the more relaxed standards between the novel's publication and today's TV streaming sites. It makes room for some small but soaring set pieces, like Giancarlo Giannini's brief appearance as an old, Italian man giving the young, American soldiers a lesson in wartime relativity.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CATCH-22")

GIANCARLO GIANNINI: (As Marcello) The Germans have been driven out now as you so correctly observed. In a few months, you'll be gone too. And we will still be here.

AUSTIN STOWELL: (As Nately) Oh, amen to that.

GIANNINI: (As Marcello) You see; Italy is really a very poor and weak country. And that's what makes us strong. Italian soldiers are not dying anymore. But American and German soldiers are, no? I call that doing extremely well. (Laughter) Italy would survive this war and still be in existence long after your own country has been destroyed.

BIANCULLI: And finally, this new "Catch-22" presents a classic story of war in the military and when it's not only advisable but necessary to question authority. Clooney, as a TV producer, explored this territory before in a terrific live TV production of "Fail Safe" in the year 2000. And almost a generation later, with an ambitious and darkly satisfying "Catch-22," he's done it again.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOBBY SANABRIA MULTIVERSE BIG BAND'S "PROLOGUE")

BIANCULLI: On Monday's show, cult director and self-professed filth elder John Waters returns. His new book is "Mr. Know-It-All." In it, he thanks his parents for modeling the good taste he could rebel against.

JOHN WATERS: My mother would always say - her favorite thing is, who is that creature? - she used to say about friends that, I gathered, she didn't approve of.

BIANCULLI: Hope you can join us.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOBBY SANABRIA MULTIVERSE BIG BAND'S "PROLOGUE")

BIANCULLI: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham with additional engineering support from Joyce Lieberman and Julian Herzfeld. Our associate producer for digital media is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. We're closing with the Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band from his album "West Side Story Reimagined," a tribute to Leonard Bernstein's classic score. For Terry Gross, I'm David Bianculli.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOBBY SANABRIA MULTIVERSE BIG BAND'S "PROLOGUE")