{"id":1665490,"date":"2026-03-18T17:54:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T21:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/18\/\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T17:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T21:54:07","slug":"richard-hell-reads-from-godlike","status":"publish","type":"daily","link":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/18\/richard-hell-reads-from-godlike\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Hell Reads from <i>Godlike<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In this episode of&nbsp;<em>Private Life<\/em>, Richard Hell reads from his novel&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyrb.com\/products\/godlike?_pos=1&amp;_psq=godl&amp;_ss=e&amp;_v=1.0\"><em>Godlike&nbsp;<\/em><\/a>(2005), which was reissued last month by NYRB Classics with a new afterword by Raymond Faye.&nbsp;<em>Godlike<\/em>&nbsp;tells the story of a poet perambulating downtown Manhattan in the 1970s and pining for a young poet who probably won\u2019t love him back, closely mirroring the doomed romance between the nineteenth-century French&nbsp;<em>po\u00e8tes maudits<\/em>&nbsp;Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/share.transistor.fm\/e\/4c91d749?color=990101\"><\/iframe><br><p class=\"color-gray mb-0 text-label font-ivar text-center mt-xs-1 img-caption d-none d-lg-block\">Click the \u201cSubscribe\u201d link in the player above to follow this podcast on your favorite listening platform.<p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard Hell is a writer and former musician best known as a pioneer of the punk rock scene in 1970s New York. Some of his books include&nbsp;<em>The Voidoid&nbsp;<\/em>(1996),&nbsp;<em>Artifact&nbsp;<\/em>(1990),&nbsp;<em>Hot and Cold&nbsp;<\/em>(2001),&nbsp;<em>Go Now&nbsp;<\/em>(1996),&nbsp;<em>I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp&nbsp;<\/em>(2013), and&nbsp;<em>What Just Happened&nbsp;<\/em>(2023).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This reading accompanies the&nbsp;<em>Private Life&nbsp;<\/em>episode featuring Hell discussing his novels, poetry, and creative process. To find Richard Hell\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Godlike<\/em>&nbsp;and other NYRB Classics, visit our book imprint at nyrb.com. Subscribe to&nbsp;<em>The New York Review of Books<\/em>; in addition to twenty print issues a year, a subscription provides online access to our full archive going back to 1963.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Episode 6 of Private Life<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1665491,"template":"","categories":[18758,18757],"tags":[31385],"daily-type":[20612],"coauthors":[16405],"class_list":["post-1665490","daily","type-daily","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-literature","tag-private-life","daily-type-conversations","author-roles-by","author-cap-richard-hell"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/18\/richard-hell-reads-from-godlike\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Richard Hell Reads from Godlike","url":"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/18\/richard-hell-reads-from-godlike\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/18\/richard-hell-reads-from-godlike\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/PL-HellGoldikeReading-FeaturedImage-1600.jpg?w=125","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/PL-HellGoldikeReading-FeaturedImage-1600.jpg"},"articleSection":"Fiction","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Richard Hell"}],"creator":["Richard Hell"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The New York Review of Books","logo":""},"keywords":["private life"],"dateCreated":"2026-03-18T21:54:06Z","datePublished":"2026-03-18T21:54:06Z","dateModified":"2026-03-18T21:54:07Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Richard Hell Reads from Godlike\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.nybooks.com\\\/online\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/18\\\/richard-hell-reads-from-godlike\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.nybooks.com\\\/online\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/18\\\/richard-hell-reads-from-godlike\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nybooks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/PL-HellGoldikeReading-FeaturedImage-1600.jpg?w=125\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nybooks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/PL-HellGoldikeReading-FeaturedImage-1600.jpg\"},\"articleSection\":\"Fiction\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Richard Hell\"}],\"creator\":[\"Richard Hell\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"The New York Review of Books\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[\"private life\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2026-03-18T21:54:06Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-18T21:54:06Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-18T21:54:07Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nybooks.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily\/1665490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/daily"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily\/1665490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1665494,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily\/1665490\/revisions\/1665494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1665491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665490"},{"taxonomy":"daily-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily-type?post=1665490"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1665490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}