Banville takes the Booker, surprising some bookies and making one blogger very very happy.
Closer to home, award-winning novelist Tayari Jones and our favorite internet pal Lauren Cerand send us a sharp, funny, and well-observed Friend of the Happy Booker Report about the fancy-shmancy PEN/Faulkner Gala in DC last week. At $400 per ticket, we were not able to attend the fabu goings on at the Folger Shakespeare Library, but as Tayari and Lauren tell it, it's almost like being there…
FRIENDS OF THE HAPPY BOOKER REPORT: PEN/FAULKNER GALA
Lauren Cerand: Well, first up, the cocktails. You said that the Folger Shakespeare Library was stunning, and I was still impressed. I got there a few minutes before you did…
Tayari Jones: Well, I was late because I lost one of my stilettos…
Lauren: Lots of people talked to me. Of course, having elaborate henna designs on my hands was a conversation starter, too.
Your dress was exquisite, and I know it wasn't your first. What made you choose it, and who designed it? Or as they say in the glossies, who were you wearing?
Tayari: Who designed it? Don't laugh. The name of this designer will take you back to your prom years. Try not to scream. It is a Jessica McClintock. I know, I know. I think they are making more grown up styles.
Lauren: It is gorgeous. I especially liked the sparkly ruching in front and the unusually flouncy, asymetrically ruffled skirt. Very chic.
Tayari: It took me forever to find a dress. The invitation said black tie. I know that my writing is very metaphorical, but when it comes to invitations, I tend to be pretty literal. They said formal, I went formal. I think this is an important difference between men and women. The men acted like it would somehow compromise them to wear formal wear. But the women were delighted at the opportunity.
Lauren: Rick Moody's outfit was very expressive and sharp. I liked the polka dot tie with the pinstripe suit. The somber palette made it elegant.
How did you feel knowing you were going to be up on stage at a swish black tie affair? And were you nervous about reading (and writing) a commissioned piece on the evening's theme, "Lost and Found"?
Tayari: I had never written a commissioned piece before. I have tried but I could never write to an assignment. And also, I have never written flash fiction. Short fiction (as in twenty page short fiction) is hard enough. I actually wrote that piece when I was in San Francisco at a family reunion from hell. I was up in the middle of the night after I found out it would cost a zillion dollars to change my plane ticket. I had all night to think about the assignment, and I was able to draft the piece before morning.
Lauren: It was a really great story, Some Thing Blue. It definitely made an impression on people. I know you didn't get to hear all of the readings, since you were backstage until they got to "J", but I loved how each writer interpreted the theme so differently.
Let's see….Ha Jin read some poetry, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston talked about discovering the story of Rapunzel in a copy of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales left on a discarded mountain of books at an internment camp for Japanese Americans during WWII…
Tayari: And didn't Jane Hitchcock write a scorned woman who about losing her keys while killing a philandering husband?
Lauren: Yes, and David Gates did a clever reversal of the theme and pointed out that it should have been, Found and Lost, as that's often the case in life. Every story was unbelievably moving, and there were so many! What was it, fourteen? Stanley Crouch, David Anthony Durham, David Gates, Jane Hitchcock, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Ha Jin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Richard McCann, Rick Moody, James Salter, Scott Simon, Elizabeth Swados, and Hilma Wolitzer were all on stage at some point as well.
Tayari: The thing that was really lovely was the way the more seasoned writers really took care of the younger writers. There was no pulling of rank, no hierarchies. I want to write forever. I want to be Hilma Wolitzer when I grow up: wearing my shoes that are BACK in style, writing gorgeously, living graciously... Since I was on the program, I was on stage or back stage the whole time. What was the energy like in the audience?
Lauren: People were thrilled to be there. $400 tickets = jazzed crowd.
Tayari: I have to tell you, Lauren, I love Washington, DC. I'm going to be a visitor at George Washington University in January. I can't wait. I love the way that DC is a literary town, but there aren't so many writers that everyone is so over writers. Yes, I am comparing it to New York!
Lauren: I liked it when Richard McCann - whose piece about a gay bar called Lost and Found - complete with flickering on-and-off neon sign - and a lost, recently departed love, nearly moved me to tears - told us both that we each had the best "date".
Tayari: We had a great table, too. Deborah Tannen is on the P/F board these days. I love her work about the ways the men and women communicate. And the best part was her husband, Michael. He's a major scholar in his own right, but he couldn't hide his enthusiasm for her work. We were seated at table twenty, which was a drag when I was making my way to it in my fancy shoes, but it turned out to be the best table because nobody could leave without passing us first!
Another good thing about this night is that no one was afraid to be caught having a good time in public. You know how sometimes you go to literary events and it's like a competition to see who can be the moodiest, who can starve most elegantly.. etc. Well, everyone had a good time. I thought there could be a bit of a scuffle over the last of the risotto. Every woman at our table had dessert! Amazing. When I went to New York once for a literary lunch, it seemed like all the women were in a competition to see who would eat the least and still claim to have had lunch!
Lauren: Women in New York at those kinds of affairs just lick their cell phones for sustenance.
Tayari: But this was like having dinner at a friend's house.. albeit a very rich friend with a very big house!
Lauren: Exactly the kind of friends a writer needs.
Up at 5 to grade papers, this is an especially delightful transport to a more glamourous world. Thanks! What fun!
Posted by: Anne | October 12, 2005 at 05:51 AM
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful evening! "lick their cellphones" a classic!
Posted by: Stephanie | October 13, 2005 at 01:36 PM