I recently had a conversation with Rufi Thorpe about her book, The Knockout Queen . At its most basic level, it’s a book about friendship. But that’s just one of the many themes we could have explored. It's also about sexuality. It’s about fitting in. It’s about how we don’t always do the right thing. And then there’s Thorpe’s writing. Somehow it’s simultaneously accessible and sophisticated. She has a way of respecting people's desires and fragilities as legitimate. There are so many things to unpack here, just as there were when we started our conversation. So I’m going to start as I did that day. Here’s Rufi Thorpe giving me the elevator speech for The Knockout Queen . - The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe is published by Knopf. Marginalia was produced at KMUW Wichita. If you like this podcast, please consider leaving a rating or review on Apple Podcasts . Engineers: Mark Statzer and Torin Andersen Editor: Lu Anne Stephens Producer: Beth Golay Follow Beth Golay on Twitter @BethGolay .