Jancee Dunn, aging gracefully

Former MTV VJ Jancee Dunn chased a fairly serious novel (2008's DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME) with this collection of essays about getting old that can't help but keep bubbling up to the comic surface. Even when Dunn and her friend Lou are blankly contemplating their parents' eventual demise, they do so with the backdrop of a series of terrible Lifetime movies, as is their tradition, after snarking on the other shoppers at Whole Foods.

Dunn has more than made her peace with age; she tells her best friend explicitly in ...GETTING A TATTOO that she's prepared to embrace it, albeit in a gentle hipsterish way. Not for her the Red Hat Society; it's more about leaving boring dinner parties earlier and going on better vacations. And one thing she really does well in this collection is capture conversations like those -- I think there are three chapters of straight conversation. This device could be so tedious even for the most empty-eared eavesdropper, yet each one in the book feels authentic and revealing, not artificial or insidery. If two characters were having that dialogue in a fictional context, it would be entirely believable. (Was she taping? ...Hmm, unlikely.)

I found it interesting, in the department of publishing nerdery, that the paperback edition of this book is blurbed by Sloane Crosley, because Dunn is more of a prefigure to Crosley. Her first memoir, about her adventures in music journalism, came out in 2006; since then she's flown just below the radar, popping up now and then in magazines. What separates ...GETTING A TATTOO from Crosley's books is the unity of theme displayed here; having used her linear anecdotal material, here she hovers around a theme.

Origin note: I spotted this book in the Biography/Memoir section of my branch library while I was looking for something else. I knew Dunn had come out with a second memoir, and had enjoyed the first one BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME when I snagged a copy for free while visiting Dunn's publisher in 2006.

The Someone-Help in action: Sloane Crosley, an author we otherwise like, writing for the Independent about how she's trying a $65-a-day juice cleanse even though she "fits easily through the average hallway," after a paragraph about how hard it is for women to go on a diet publicly. (What?) If you do not fit through the average hallway, this blog suggests you call 911, not purchase expensive articles of junk science.

Like, we have so much in common!

"I also like to work at the library and spill things on myself!"

Unsurprise of the Week

Sloane Crosley is finally quitting her day job to write full-time. And yeah, I do give her credit for hanging on this long, considering that she was publicizing her own books on her off time from publicizing other people's books, essentially doing the same job over and over. (The more times you write "publicizing," the more you become convinced you're spelling it wrong.)

Depending on your perspective she's either living the dream of many in book publishing, or got extraordinarily lucky on her professional connections. I like her writing, so I'd say she's definitely living her dream (I hear not everyone in publishing wants to be a published author... maybe it's just a rumor). Working inside the machine undoubtedly helped her, but if she had shirked her work no one would have taken her seriously. Best of luck, Ms. Crosley!

Stray Thoughts on the Brooklyn Book Festival, 2010

Books I most want to read from having seen their authors live: 1989 by Joshua Clover and A FORTUNATE AGE by Joanna Smith Rakoff.
Books I brought with me: 3. Uh, it's a long train ride? One of them was short?
Books I bought: 0, but not for want of selection! I was pleased to see Greenlight as one of the featured sellers -- they didn't even exist this time last year!
Funniest author not appearing on the "Finding the Funny" humor panel: Per Petterson (OUT STEALING HORSES, I CURSE THE RIVER OF TIME) who was additionally challenged by working in a second language with troublesome microphones.
Funniest author appearing on the "Finding the Funny" humor panel: He faced stiff competition, but the award goes to John Hodgman for acting in a way that, were it any other panel, would make him look like an absolute asshole. He interrupted the moderator and tweaked meek "Daily Show" writer Rich Blomquist (co-author with Kristen Schaal of THE SEXY BOOK OF SEXY SEX) endlessly, true, but he also dismantled a VIP row before the show so a few more people could sit down in the audience. He was on a roll, and it was incredible.
Panels I made it to: 6 (and a tiny bit of a 7th). I was bummed not to end the day on the main stage, the way I did last year, but given that it was still raining then I was happy to be inside the spacious (if slightly creepy) St. Francis College building.
Biggest regret: Not getting myself together to hit the Jennifer Egan/ Colson Whitehead/ Steve Almond panel at 10AM.
Second biggest: That I hadn't cloned myself so I could wait for a Salman Rushdie ticket and watch the humor panel at the same time.

Best literary T-shirt:



That's an Orin Incandenza Cardinals jersey. The number is right. The number is even right. And yes, I followed him outside from the humor panel and creepily snapped his photo. Personal Hero, I will make amends to you.

Best person to call me a dork for attending: Comedian Mike Birbiglia, who himself has a book out next month (SLEEPWALK WITH ME AND OTHER PAINFULLY TRUE STORIES). I saw his one-man show twice so his tweet at me really backfired; I'm probably getting it framed.

Author I saw twice in one weekend which probably puts me on some watch list: Rob Sheffield, who participated in one of the "Bookend" events new to the fest this year aimed at extending the event to Friday and Saturday nights. (Awesome idea, by the way.) Before his music panel (with Clover and Ta-Nehisi Coates) on Sunday, Sheffield read from TALKING TO GIRLS ABOUT DURAN DURAN and DJ'd at the Bell House in Brooklyn. He read a section of his book about getting terrible advice from Morrissey, which was sadly fitting considering the deserved hot water Moz is in this week for saying something racist.


Best unexpected moment of clarity: This was my fourth year attending (didn't write about 2007 but see '08, '09) and more than ever, I felt like I was seeing familiar faces even though I couldn't have named the people I saw. It's not an unpleasant feeling but a little disconcerting to see and recognize your sub-subculture in the flesh. I guess this is why people go to professional conferences? At the same time, these moments are somewhat rare in my world as I inch ever further away from "recent college graduate" status. Back then I took it for granted that I would always have people around me who were engaged with books and ideas; I didn't realize that sometimes you have to scrabble to find those people. And, as I let my alternate hippie personality really play through in this paragraph you've all stopped reading, I was grateful not only for the people I saw or ran into (including a girl I lived across the hall from in college! Small world!) during the day but even for the strangers who were sharing my enthusiasm, just so that I knew that they were out there.

Whew. Well, if you've bothered to read this far, sneak preview: Gonna write my review of FREEDOM and post it tomorrow. Additionally, for those of you who have also finished the book, there will be a post specifically so in the comments we can talk about the book with spoilers. (Don't worry, it will be extremely well marked if you wish to avoid it.)

As Heard At The 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival

Six panels and two fun events later...

"I'm not even sure people are reading INFINITE JEST now."
--Lev Grossman, getting his BHD status revoked for never having heard of Infinite Summer. This was only the third most insane thing I heard at this panel on David Foster Wallace and John Updike, actually.

"If there are people out there who want me to co-write a vampire or zombie novel, I'm down."
--T Cooper: Novelist whose work I most want to get into after hearing him speak.

"When people get ahold of technology, they're bound to do something stupid with it."
--Keith Gessen of n+1 (who backed up this claim with an example from Philip Roth, so at least he was keeping the brow high). Same panel as T Cooper, and unfortunately they were both mowed down by a fellow panelist who used the opportunity to complain that she wasn't a famous best-selling author yet. Sorry, guys!

"It's the difference betwen having sex with a person and having sex with a piece of technology."
--John Freeman of Granta on e-books. Freeman was incredibly insightful on a panel moderated by blogger Maud Newton, but this analogy is questionable on a few levels.

"Bonobos laugh when they see something weird -- as if to say, 'That's weird, but it's okay now.' Satire is the opposite. It's seeing something perfectly normal and it scares the hell out of you."
--Jeffrey Rotter (THE UNKNOWN KNOWNS*) holding his own against seriously funny co-panelists Sloane Crosley and Gary Shteyngart.

"I think in five years this will be the Brooklyn Blogging Festival."
--Rabbi Simcha Weinstein is probably right, but that is still sad.

"We should start blogs. We could get famous through our blogs."
--girl behind me at the Crossroads coffee stand. It's already starting! Noooooooooo... (She went on to say, "I have a burlesque blog"--pause while I struggle mightily not to turn around, 'cause wouldn't you?--"but I haven't been to any performances recently." A burlesque review blog! The world is so full of a number of things.)

"I have never kissed a man onstage."
--David Cross checked that one off his list at the Happy Ending event with the help of Jonathan Ames. Just thought the Internet should know one way or the other. And there is video (not shot by me).

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*Correction: I incorrectly referred to the title of Jeffrey Rotter's book earlier as THE KNOWN UNKNOWNS. Sorry, Mr. Rotter.