We’re sitting in a roundtable at the moment with Nicole Krauss, Colson Whitehead, Deborah Eisenberg and the “moderator” David Eddie. I’m a little disappointed with the benign nature of the questions and the conversation, billed as a investigation of the lines between fiction and non-fiction, and they are stumbling in the mire of such over-discussed issues in the publishing world like James freaking Frey.
I do applaud the authors, especially Nicole Krauss, who had some very enlightening things to say around the idea that the novel is an exchange between the reader and the writer that should be authentic, which is an interesting way to look at a book in terms of both the writer and the reader. And as Zesty put it so eloquently, would her husband really be getting the questions about what’s it’s like to live with her great talent, somehow, I think not. She’s pretty astute, that Zesty. Enough of who Krauss is married to, how about you let her work stand for itself?
But man, after the glowing brilliance of Sarah Waters and Rosemarie Sullivan, the ineptitude of this poor moderator is painful.