Chekhov’s Mistess

Letter from BookExpo

Oh that one would hear me!
behold, my desire is, that the
Almighty would answer me, and that
mine adversary had written a book.

- The Book of Job 31:35 (KJV)

BEA began for me as I walked out of the elevator onto the 23rd floor of the German Consulate. Austerely elegant, the German House overlooks the East River and the UN, appropriate for a party celebrating “Reading the World.” If you don’t know it, Reading the World is a collaborative effort on the part of some publishers and booksellers to promote literature in translation, which as you do know is a woefully under-represented segment of the U.S. book market.

It was nice to be treated so royally, and I felt as though I was back in my days of finance when suited events were more regular for me. Back then I wasn’t always comfortable at posh cocktail parties, but here there were many friendly faces, including Dan Wickett who runs the Emerging Writers Network, Tess Lewis who writes for the Hudson Review, and Jeffrey Lependorf who runs the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (and, I learned, the excellently pragmatic Literary Ventures Fund). Lest I sound too much like a vanity fair (which I will anyway) I won’t name everyone, but there were plenty of other good friends there too. After a few words from the hosts, including Chad Post who has some interesting projects in the works, I picked up my grab bag of books and headed downtown with Megan and Amanda (both from the Harvard Bookstore) to Kettle of Fish where the Litblog Co-op put together a big party.

There I met bunches of people – everyone who Ed shuffled over, including Janet who likes my blog (music to my ears), Katherine Weber, who wrote Triangle, a novel that I’ve heard nothing but goodness about, Josh a writer, and the usual suspects like my pals Ami Greko and Levi Asher, Susan Chi of KGBBarLit, Max and his Millions and Richard Nash of Soft Skull and Edwin Frank of NYRB Books. I also met the novelist Colson Whitehead there for the second time (met, not there) and for whatever reason both times I’ve met him I’ve gone into some long silly dialogue about Brooklyn and I couldn’t stop despite boring even myself when I probably should have told him that I really enjoyed The Intuitionist.

So, friends kept buying me drinks at the LBC party, but until Carolyn’s offer for a Maker’s Mark I had kept fairly moderate. Why I let myself drink whiskey the night (by then morning) before I was to speak publicly, I don’t know, and despite asking myself that very question over and over, I never figured it out.

Nonetheless, things worked out. I did most of the work for my BEA Conference panel in advance by choosing great people (Lizzie Skurnick, James Marcus, Anne Fernald, and Dwight Garner) as panelists and once we got underway I forgot my petty pains. Besides, I think the lack of sleep made my voice deeper and that’s always good for speaking into a microphone. With my new friend and client Min Jin Lee there for support, among others, I knew I had to wipe the sweat off my brow and just talk, which I did. I survived, the hour went quick, much too quick (as I reported a while back, my last conversation on this topic with WBUR’s Bill Marx went for over three and a half hours). I can’t be objective about the panel, so I’ll let others comment (although I did reply to one particularly thoughtless commentator who seemed to be looking for a smackdown), and hope that we at least paved the way for more discussions.

Our room for the panel was crowded and hot, but nothing compared to the crowd at the NBCC’s panel on ethics in book reviewing, which had an all-star group, including Christopher “Hitchens here” Hitchens and Francine Prose. The ethics panel was not terribly controversial and the panelists were mostly in consensus on the issues at hand (the same things have been said of my panel), but I personally enjoyed the perspectives there, particularly John Leonard who brought us a literary veteran’s crankiness – “Frankly, I think ethics questions when it comes to book reviews are such small potatoes when it comes to the corruptions of the culture at large.”

Of course, Hitchins’ presence on the panel can’t go without remark. He’s the most confident speaker I’ve seen since P.J. O’Rourke, yet when he told his story of a book he wanted to pan (because it’s author had panned him) but couldn’t because it was one of the best he’d ever read, he became something more than the smart-aleck in the back of the class. When he told the world to kiss his ass if they didn’t like him reviewing the book of someone he knew, he seemed to – judging by their later comments – to speak for the entire panel. In good form, Hitchens – recent author of “God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” – even quoted from The Book of Job. Bravo. I briefly met John Leonard and Francine Prose, and I let her know how much I enjoyed Reading Like a Writer, particularly the chapter on Chekhov.

I left the ethics panel a wee bit early (a case of SRO heat exhaustion) and had to run home for most of the afternoon, but showed up again late in the day just in time to meet Jeff Parker at the Tin House booth (around 4pm on Friday many booths start serving drinks). They’re publishing his first novel Ovenman in September. In that general vicinity, I happened into a conversation about blogging with David Ulin, editor of the LA Times Book Review, and his predecessor, Steve Wasserman (and Ed, Sarah and Carolyn). This conversation was in some ways a follow up to our panel in the morning. In a few words their attitude is nothing like those we’ve seen in print lately and they believe that good writing stands on its own no matter the forum. I don’t want to speak for them so I’ll leave it at that, but it was refreshing to hear that among people who care about books and matter in book reviewing there are those not closed to the new voices of the blogoshphere. Two years ago I had a similar conversation with the books editor for the San Diego Tribune, but I think we were still in the curiosity stage then.

I won’t dwell on Friday night’s Brooklyn Indie party because all I did while there was lean my ear close to the face of whoever was talking and nod. Not a place to get to know anyone, I stuck with familiar faces, made short declarative statements and squeegeed the sweat from my face. It was so loud that when I saw Jeff Parker there we had to resort to text-messaging one another (that’s not true). Nonetheless, even though I gave up early, reports are that a good time was had by all and I even missed a password protected party where there where good eats to be found.

Saturday morning, Refreshed after a splendidly quiet breakfast at Provence en Boite here in Brooklyn (where the croissants are the richest this side of the Rue de Something or Other), I hit the BEA floor. My friend Laura at Moleskine said that the first morning she was hit with a mad rush of people (literally) scooping samples, so their place was sparse and quiet. I still got a freebie of their new city guide for being a BEA speaker (mine even has a logo). Of course, since I live here I don’t need a city guide, but what’s a convention without freebies.

BEA has a reputation for being something of a dog-and-pony show, but for me, with no exact business goals, it’s a chance to meet and see some people I wouldn’t otherwise. Being a fan of the Indy presses, I spend my time in those areas, always visiting Molly at Coffee House Press and Caitlin at Unbridled Books, who I almost didn’t find because their booth was Antarcticly distant from the center of activity. I also introduced myself to Laurie at New Directions, declaring my love for their books, many of which I already own and covet. Booty – New Directions t-shirt, which I will wear until the pits fall out.

I think the most fun conversation for me at BEA was talking about books and blogs with Michael Dirda. You know some people as a name, a byline, and then you meet them and it turns out that they’re actual human beings. In Mr. Dirda I found a book lover concerned about the fate of print journalism (he’s been dismissive of blogs in the past), but receptive and open. I don’t have much to say about print journalism because I don’t know anything about it, but I find myself as a willing blog advocate when I find an ear. As with other conversations on the topic, including the NY Times’ Dwight Garner who participated in my panel discussion, I’ve concluded that we may be turning a corner from just a year or two ago in awareness, but overall quality seems to be the number one issue (still, a change from a couple of years ago when all that linking was what people couldn’t get a handle on).

BEA was over for me Saturday afternoon. Before leaving, I ran around for the irresistible thrill of free books, but even with my Reading the World booty I came away with a selective batch of less than 20 titles, with not more than two or three irrational it’s-a-book-just-put-it-in-your-bag selections. The only time I regretted not having a business card (which I haven’t for years as the singular protest of a corporate refugee) was when I saw the drawing for the OED at Oxford University Press’s booth. I had lunch with Sarah and Rebecca (the official blog editor) from OUP (as well as Mark Sarvas) and got to hear about their wonderful archives in London, including original plates from one of my favorite books, Alice in Wonderland.

I passed on the Saturday night parties to come home and wrastle with my three year-old and in the wee hours write this post while all these details are in my head. This post was little more than naming names, but I guess that’s basically what BEA is about: Books and the people who love them and the people who love the people who love them.

Lastly, I’ll mention I’ve been reading Dumitru Tsepeneag’s Vain Art of the Fugue through the blear as I’ve shuttled between Brooklyn and BEA and it’s so good I’ve started my write-up on it already because it makes thoughts flow through my brain at a rapid clip. I also hope to have some video footage of the Ethics panel soon. Whew.

comments

Loved hearing about it, Bud.  What a whirlwind!

    – amcorrea (06/04  at  01:24 PM)

I thought you did a great job, especially considering that you were out late the night before. I only wish I could have stayed longer. There are always too many things going on at once at BEA. But I was at least able to stay through the initial presentations by each of the panelists.

Looking forward to seeing you moderate other panels in the future. A good moderator can be a rare thing.

    – Mary (06/04  at  04:44 PM)

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: June 03, 2007
• Filed Under:
  Reading Railroad: Events

Tags: BEA

• Comments:2
• Links to this Post: Technorati

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