The National Book Critics Circle Awards reading tonight was long, too long, but still good because unlike most readings I attend it was in a proper space with an amazing sound system and it wasn't too hot or noisy and we didn't have to fight for seats and people didn't end up shitty drunk by the end of the night.
I sat across the aisle from Tobias Wolff, who is a surprisingly foxy old guy. I watched him take tiny little sips of water from his plastic cup all night long. I could tell he really wanted more but he was the last reader of the night and how would it have looked if he had gotten up during someone else's reading? I guess he thought rude, becaue he made his quarter cup of water last TWO AND A HALF HOURS. Propriety is so interesting to me, since I don't know much about it. Anyway, his reading was great.
So was Nick Hornby's contribution. I heard one of the other nominees whisper,"He's really famous," to someone they were sitting with. He was definitely the rockstar of the night. I should mention that he was dressed exactly like Hugh Grant in About A Boy, and he made everyone laugh a lot.
Click for a pic of Nick Hornby. He came with Dave Eggers, natch.
Click here for a pic of the majestic Tobias Wolff, author, most recently, of Old School.
Also of note:
Blake Bailey, who wrote a book about Robert Yates (A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates), recounted a story about Yates watching a "Seinfeld" episode based on him. Apparently Larry David dated Yates' daughter, Monica, and the character of Elaine was based on her. It's the ep where Jerry and George meet her father, a famous writer, who is cranky and yells at Jerry for wanting to turn his new suede jacket inside out during a snowstorm. Blake went into full detail on the episode and did his Yates impression and it was kind of an easy shot, a crowd-pleaser, and everyone laughed. Earlier in the night he walked around with a stack of books by most of the authors and got autographs. I thought he was sweet and great and I probably would have done the same thing.
Tony Hoagland's poetry reading was fantastic. I'm thinking of buying his book now - What Narcissism Means to Me. The rest of the poets were kind of duds, but it's kind of hard to please with poetry.
Monica Ali can't read worth shit even though she is glamorous and has that great Brit accent. I expected more for all her buzz.
Richard Powers was stiff but I still want to read his book, The Time of Our Singing, which Mac claims is better than Middlesex.
Carol Loeb Schloss, who wrote a book about James Joyce's daughter, Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake, sounded like a freaking loon. I went outside and made phone calls after listening to her ramble for a minute. Seriously, I think she was high and not in a fun and interesting way either.
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, sounded nervous but the part she read was really good and I think I'll probably get that book too.
All in all a pretty great reading. It's not too often you get that many wonderful authors under one roof and for free! I'm going to try to hit the awards ceremony tomorrow but the big Hold Steady rock and roll show might win out, and I think that's just fine.