Iris Smyles Is Trying to Be a Human Again

Iris Smyles Is Trying to Be a Human Again

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

In Iris Smyles’ new book “Dating Tips for the Unemployed,” the main character ‘Iris Smyles’ embarks on a personal journey (modeled on Homer’s “Odyssey”) that involves plenty of emotional shipwrecks and failures to launch. The source material is closely drawn from the author’s own off-center life. Smyles tells host Alec Baldwin about her preternaturally early interest in classic literature, details how and why she indulged her self-destructive streak, and explains why the five years she lived like a typing monk were the best of her life. “Who wants to be moderate at anything?” says Smyles, “That’s so boring.”