Geoff Dyer on Tarkovsky, Cinema, and Life

The incredibly versatile author and novelist Geoff Dyer is known for his novels (Paris Trance; Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi), his essay collections (Otherwise Known as the Human Condition), his genre-defying books of observation-reportage (Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It), and his column in The New York Times Book Review. Along with his infectious humor, a common thread in his work is his gleeful obsessiveness with delving into a subject of awed interest, such as music, travel, culture, or film. His new book Zona applies all that devotional seeking to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, a film that has haunted him since he saw it 30 years ago. In a circuitous scene-by-scene analysis, Dyer merges his journey through the ZONE with digressions into his personal life and his love of cinema.