Jhumpa Lahiri at the Strand

Did I say that the Strand was dead to me? I...lied. Sort of. We're still on a break, but I can go when there's a cool event, right? Like a reading by Jhumpa Lahiri, who's been a favorite writer since aught-three.

Having discovered recently that we have the exact same taste in books, Sheryl and I took our book buddy-ness to Union Square after work for the reading. We were way early (it's always so hard to tell when the suffocating literary mob will show up for these things), and after snagging some good seats, we amused ourselves in the children's/YA book sections. Between the old-school books and the fun conversation, good times.

Lahiri's on tour for her new book, Unaccustomed Earth. The reading itself was very professional, if a bit joyless. She read a story that I haven't gotten to yet in the book, but remembered vaguely from The New Yorker a few years ago. Lahiri's public demeanor is interesting. She's not a smiler, and it was hard to tell if she's done this so much that it's boring, or if she's got that jaded Boston-New York thing going on. Anyway, she didn't play up to the crowd, but it worked well with her low-key writing style. And she did thank her editor, which was cute. More people need to thank their editors, and stop squeezing them for money or complaining about deadlines.

Also, she was a good sport about the usual bad Q&A (paraphrased for maximum brutality):

"Clearly, every single one of your Indian-American characters is completely autobiographical. How did you manage to write a character that has a penis? You don't have one."

"Doesn't immigration make you sad?"

"Here's a bad review of your new book that I just read...."

*sigh* People ask the lame questions because they can't ask the ones they really want to know, about the author's personal life. Like, "Do you live closer to Kate or to Sheryl in Brooklyn?"

Anyway, it was a fun night, and I'm looking forward to the next one: David Sedaris!