Volume 1 contains readings by James Baldwin from Giovanni’s Room and Another Country, exploring the dilemmas of being black and gay in mid-twentieth century America. Willliam Styron reads about a disabled child finding brief moments of joy in Lie Down in Darkness, his novel about a troubled Southern family. James Jones reads the most famous passage from his celebrated World War II novel, From Here to Eternity. And Philip Roth does a hilarious comic turn in a bizarre scene from his early novel, Letting Go.