The readings for Last One In are off to a great start. So far I’ve read at Politics & Prose in Washington with a young writer named Ben Dolnick, at the Olsson’s in Arlington, Va., and at the Barnes & Noble on Astor Place in New York. If you missed those, I can still be found nervously reciting passages Thursday July 12th at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn, and in Boston and Los Angeles the following week.
Each reading was completely different, but also notable. Reading with Ben was a cool way to kick things off. We hung out in the little office at Politics & Prose as we waited to start. Even though he’s about seven years younger he was much more seasoned at the reading game and gave me some advice about how the swift pages would translate to long, yawning minutes out loud. The place was packed, partly with my friends and family, but by a large margin the Dolnick crew won the day. He grew up in the neighborhood and had even worked at the very same store. No competition there.
His book, Zoology, which I’m now halfway through, is funny, touching look at a young man who hasn’t quite found his place in the world. After dropping out of college he’s working at the Manhattan zoo while he figures out if he’s really cut out for playing the saxophone. He doesn’t practice much but finds plenty of time to obsess over a beautiful young woman:
“The girl had thick brown hair, and it wasn’t that she was fat (but she wasn’t skinny), it was that she was just big, much taller than me, maybe heavier. If a lumberjack had a beautiful daughter, I thought, this could be her.”
The Q&A was particularly fun because there was another person to chat with rather than a lonely inquisition (an exaggeration, of course, but still). For a first reading, two authors seemed like the perfect way to ease into it. Maybe that’s just because Ben and I got along so well.
The reading at Olsson’s on Monday was an absolute hometown crowd for me. Friends from high school, college, parents of pre-school friends I hadn’t seen in closer to three decades than two. Once again it was standing room. Everyone seemed happy, though the Q&A was more political and less about the craft of fiction writing. You write a book set during the Iraq invasion and you end up with questions about the Iraq War. No way to duck that. Thanks to Ama for hosting me there.
Finally, the reading at B&N Astor Place was really special for me. I used to live in the East Village, back in 1996 (insert totally accurate but also repetitive “not like back-in-the-day” comment here). I would sit in that B&N, reading Faulkner and Ibsen and Chandler. I have a physical memory of being young and voracious and happy to sit on the floor if necessary. Maybe it was just the air-conditioning. We didn’t have any and that summer was one of the hottest ones, if memory serves.
They’re closing that branch and opening a new one in Tribeca. The very kind writer and employee Carolyn Hughes introduced me. She was great if anyone has the chance to work with her at the Tribeca store.
The crowd wasn’t quite as big, mid-summer in New York and all, but I want to thank everyone who came to that reading and the others for a great time. Hearty thanks.

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