this week in literature

TRIANGLE FIRE TRIBUTE: 100th ANNIVERSARY EVENT

Centennial tribute honors victims through music and poetry

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Sunday, March 27, $15-$20, 3:00
212-219-0302
www.eldridgestreet.org

On March 25, 1911, a devastating fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory at 29 Washington Pl. took the lives of 146 garment workers. The fire in the Asch Building led to significant changes in labor laws and to the creation of the American Society of Safety Engineers. There are special memorial events being held all over the city in conjunction with the centennial, including a commemoration on March 26 at the Museum at Eldridge St. that will include live music by Deborah Strauss and Jeff Warschauer, poetry inspired by the tragedy, and actors portraying the 146 victims, who were primarily Jewish and Italian immigrants. The event will be moderated by Caraid O’Brien and is cosponsored by the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition and the National Yiddish Book Center.

TWI-NY TALK: JENNIFER EGAN

National Book Critics Circle Award winner Jennifer Egan will be celebrating the release of the paperback edition of A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD with a series of very different events in New York City in the coming weeks (photo by Pieter M. Van Hattem/Vistalux)

It’s almost impossible to overstate just how accomplished a writer Jennifer Egan is. Born in Chicago, raised in San Francisco, and based in Brooklyn, Egan has penned the short story collection Emerald City (1993) and the novels The Invisible Circus (1995), Look at Me (2001), The Keep (2006), and A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) in addition to numerous articles and cover stories for the New York Times Magazine and other publications. Her fiction writing and journalism have garnered a host of honors, the latest being the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award, which she won March 10 for A Visit from the Goon Squad, out in paperback today (Anchor, $14.95). Goon Squad is a swirling delight of a novel, jumping through time and space from chapter to chapter, each narrated by a different character and built around two engaging protagonists, kleptomaniac Sasha and record producer Bennie Salazar. Organized like an interconnected collection of short stories that can stand on their own, Goon Squad is a literary tour de force, a thrilling symphony that leaves readers breathless with anticipation at the conclusion of each chapter. Just before winning the NBCC Award, Egan talked to twi-ny about obsession, affection, obscurity, and chemistry.

twi-ny: Considering the daring experimental structure of Goon Squad and the tendency for works in progress to periodically threaten to fall completely to pieces, what helped you stay with this project through the years, especially during times when you may have been doubting it?

Jennifer Egan: The primary thing that held me steady as I worked on Goon Squad was an ongoing curiosity about—you might even say obsession with—the characters. They were in my head pretty much all the time. Also, since one of my goals was to make every chapter completely self-sufficient, I had a sort of built-in Plan B: If the whole construction didn’t combust in the way I was hoping it would, at least I’d have a solid story collection to fall back on. That was my hope, and although my goal was definitely higher than that, it was consoling to think that I would end up with some kind of book either way.

twi-ny: The novel is told from multiple POVs, with multiple narrators. Which one did you find most challenging to write from, and which was easiest? Which was your favorite, or did you have one?

Jennifer Egan: The character that came to me most easily was probably Bennie. I’m not sure why that is, but I had a special affection for him, and I also kind of identified with him—though I’m happy to say that we’re not alike! The most difficult character was probably Lou, because he has a lot of bad qualities, and there was a danger of his seeming like a monster, rather than a human. Personally, I feel a lot of sympathy for Lou—I see him as a tragic figure—but not all readers share that view, so it may be that I didn’t completely succeed at humanizing him.

twi-ny: You’re nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in the Fiction category with Jonathan Franzen, David Grossman, Hans Keilson, and Paul Murray, none of whom were finalists for the National Book Award. (You were previously a National Book Award finalist for Look at Me.) How do you feel about book awards in general, and how they relate to your career specifically?

Jennifer Egan: Being a finalist for the National Book Award saved Look at Me from complete obscurity (it came out the week of 9/11, when most fiction disappeared without a trace), so I know how helpful those little medallions can be! I’ve also been a judge of the National Book Awards (2009), and I think that probably cured me of any sense that awards are personal. It’s all chemistry; how a particular group of people’s tastes interact, individually and together, with a gigantic body of work published in one year. Judges are judged themselves on their choices, and I think they generally agonize in their effort to do a responsible job. When I think about last year’s National Book Awards, my first thought is not that I wasn’t a finalist but that they did us all a huge service by honoring someone of enormous talent—Jaimy Gordon [Lord of Misrule]—who was not widely known. I envied them for having pulled that off.

Jennifer Egan will be at BookCourt on Monday, March 28, at 7:00 (free), for a discussion and signing; at Symphony Space on Wednesday, March 30, at 7:30 ($15-$25) for a Thalia Book Club event with Siri Hustvedt and Margot Livesey revisiting Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina; at BAM on Thursday, March 31, at 6:30 ($50) for an Eat, Drink & Be Literary dinner moderated by Deborah Treisman; at the April 14 Westchester Libraries Author Luncheon at Abigail Kirsch’s Tappan Hill at 12 noon ($75-$1,250) with David Shenk and Diane Mott Davidson; and at the New York Public Library also on April 14 at 7:00 ($25) for the Live from the NYPL program “Jennifer Egan in Conversation with Laura Miller.”

NEW YORK: A PHOTOGRAPHER’S CITY

New York is the most photogenic city in the world, serving as the subject of many of the greatest photographs ever taken since the advent of the art form in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. From its rising skyscrapers to its fast-moving denizens, New York offers picture takers an ever-changing, always engaging canvas. “Through all the ways it articulates itself, through its incomparable density of feeling and meaning, New York City remains a singularly vibrant place — and subject — that continues to captivate the eye, the mind, and the soul,” Steve Hamburg writes in the introduction to the new book New York: A Photographer’s City (Rizzoli, March 2011, $45). Collecting more than two hundred images from more than one hundred artists, the book features contemporary photos taken in a post-9/11 world, examining “New York’s shift from the centralized and vertical to the outward and horizontal,” Hamburg notes.

Larry Racioppo, “Sunbather and Giglio,” chromogenic color print, 1998) (courtesy the artist / © Larry Racioppo)

Meanwhile, in the foreword, Elisabeth Sussman looks at another development that makes these photos different from the iconic images of the past: color. “Previously, New York’s image had always seemed tethered to the beauties of black and white, to the chiaroscuro of the grayscale, as if lack of color was the equivalent of the grim, the dour, the tough, the architectural, the contrasts between night and day that became trademarks of the city’s psychology and geography,” Sussman explains. “The images collected here are a revelation of a very special sort because they force the viewer to register the hues of light, weather, night, day, streets, and stone, and the cacophony of products, signs, and building surfaces that constitute the kaleidoscope of urban experience.” Edited by Marla Hamburg Kennedy, the deluxe hardcover features photographs by a who’s who of the contemporary art world, including Jenny Holzer, Roe Ethridge, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Vik Muniz, Tony Oursler, Jeff Mermelstein, James Welling, Andreas Gursky, Wolfgang Tillmans, Catherine Opie, Lucas Samaras, Doug Aitken, Thomas Struth, William Wegman, Abelardo Morell, Ryan McGinley, Joel Sternfeld, and many others. The book is organized thematically, grouped into series of photos depicting bicycles, hands, masses of people seen from above, architectural structures, solitary figures, yellow panoramas, and “for rent” signs.

Among our favorites are Pascal Perich’s “Seungling on the Manhattan Bridge,” a portrait of a young woman looking out over a barely visible city; Spencer Tunick’s untitled print of the top half of a man sticking out of a pothole in the middle of the street; Vincent Laforet’s “Coney Island, June 18th” and “Bryant Park, May 31st,” overhead shots of people relaxing on the beach and the grass, respectively; Andy Freeberg’s “Pace Wildenstein,” a shot of the nearly all-white front desk of the gallery, the top of an employee’s head just peeking out from behind a computer; Timo Stammberger’s “Underground #11 (New York City),” taken deep in the subway; and Richard Galpin’s trio of illustrative peeled photographs. One of the best things about New York: A Photographer’s Eye is that it eschews the obvious, instead compiling unusual and unexpected works that will appeal to native and adopted New Yorkers as well as tourists and other visitors.

JOE BOYD AND ROBYN HITCHCOCK: CHINESE WHITE BICYCLES

LIVE AND DIRECT FROM 1967
(le) poisson rouge
158 Bleecker St.
Friday, March 11, $25-$30, 6:30
212-228-4854
www.robynhitchcock.com
www.joeboyd.co.uk
www.myspace.com/lepoissonrougenyc

Since the mid-1970s, acerbic singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock has been regaling the world with philosophical, intellectual, and downright funny tales as a solo performer and with such bands as the Soft Boys, the Egyptians, and the Venus 3. His live shows, documented in Jonathan Demme’s 1998 documentary, Storefront Hitchcock, are always unusual and immensely entertaining, anchored by his often hysterically rambling between-song chatter in addition to his immense talent at writing a damn good tune. Always up to something different — in June he’ll team up with the Imaginary Band to play a one-off UK tribute to the recently deceased Captain Beefheart, performing the seminal album Clear Spot in its entirety — he’ll be at (le) poisson rouge on Friday night with longtime friend Joe Boyd, the legendary American producer who has worked with everyone from the Incredible String Band, Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, and Kate and Anna McGarrigle to Toots and the Maytals, Richard Thompson, Billy Bragg, R.E.M., and ¡Cubanismo! Hitchcock and Boyd are in the midst of a brief tour dubbed “Chinese White Bicycles: Live and Direct from 1967,” in which Boyd reads passages from his recently rereleased memoir, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s (Serpent’s tail, December 2010, $14.95), Hitchcock plays songs by the groups mentioned in the book, the music that influenced him when he was growing up in London, and the two just talk about stuff. “Joe had a hand in creating a world that revolutionised mine,” Hitchcock notes on his website. “If he is Dr Frankenstein, then I’m his monster. Or one of them…” Get ready for what should be one very groovy night.

Robyn Hitchcock gets down to the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “What a Day for a Daydream” at (le) poisson rouge show with Joe Boyd (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Update: It did indeed turn out to be one groovy night, as Joe Boyd told great stories about hanging out with such seminal figures as Zal Yanovsky and Joe Butler of the Lovin’ Spoonful, Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer of the Incredible String Band, Paul Butterfield (with Boyd suggesting he add Mike Bloomfield to the Blues Band), Nick Drake (not looking forward to his songs being overproduced), and Fairport Convention (as they decided to eschew American folk rock and turn to the English tradition after fearing they could never create something as special as the Band’s Music from Big Pink). He talked about putting together a Syd Barrett tribute that ultimately involved Pink Floyd, about losing out on a one-night stand to Bob Dylan, and about Maria Muldaur and Eric Muldaur falling in love. He gave the show a decidedly New York bent, mentioning many of the haunts they used to go to that were just around the corner from (le) poisson rouge; “This is the beating heart of the sixties,” he said of the city. He also apologized for convincing LPR that he and Robyn Hitchcock should perform in the round, resulting in their backs to much of the audience, which boasted Rufus Wainwright. After each tale, Hitchcock introduced and played a song by the respective musicians, including the ISB’s “Way Back in the 1960s,” Dylan’s “All I Really Want to Do,” the Spoonful’s “What a Day for a Daydream” (flat on his back), Fairport Convention’s “Reynardine,” Drake’s “River Man,” and the Floyd’s “Bike.” The encore was a riveting tale of Boyd being at the center of Dylan going electric at Newport, as the evening concluded with Hitchcock offering up Bob’s spiteful “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” followed by Boyd and Hitchcock signing books, CDs, and posters. (For a slideshow of the event, click here.)

FIRST SATURDAYS — TIPI: HERITAGE OF THE GREAT PLAINS

Lyle Heavy Runner (Blackfeet), design owner and painter; Naomi Crawford (Blackfeet), tipi maker, “Blackfeet Tipi,” canvas, latex paint, wood, Great Falls, Montana, 2010 (photo: Jenny Steven)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, March 5, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The new Brooklyn Museum exhibit “Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains” is the focus of the institution’s March First Saturdays program, a free night of art, music, talk, film, literature, and dance. The party begins at 5:00 with singer/songwriter/activist Martha Redbone’s unique blend of soul, R&B, and traditional Native American music. At 5:30, the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers will perform. James McDaniel’s 2003 film, Edge of America, set at a high school reservation, will screen at 6:00, the same time Brooklyn artist Yatika Fields will discuss the “Tipi” exhibit. The Hands-On Art workshop (6:30-8:30) will teach children and adults how to make the Native American pouch called a parfleche. At 7:00, Nancy Rosoff will lead a tour of “Tipi,” followed at 8:00 by a Young Voices talk in which student guides will venture through the exhibit. DJ Frame of the Redhawk Arts Council will be behind the turntables for the always smokin’ Dance Party (8:00 – 10:00). At 9:00, visitors have the choice of continuing to dance up a storm, checking out Joseph Marshall III talking about his latest book, To You We Shall Return, or participating in an interactive dance performance with the Redhawk Arts Council. In addition, the galleries remain open until 11:00, giving everyone ample time to check out such exhibits as “reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio,” “Thinking Big: Recent Design Acquisitions,” “Lorna Simpson: Gathered,” “Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera,” “Sam Taylor-Wood: Ghosts,” and “Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets.”

FESTIVAL OF NEW FRENCH WRITING: FRENCH & AMERICAN AUTHORS IN CONVERSATION

NYU Hemmerdinger Hall, ground floor
Silver Center, 100 Washington Square East on Waverly Pl.
February 24-26, free
www.frenchwritingfestival.com

Earlier this month, Austrian, German, and Swiss authors came to town for Festival Neue Literatur; now it’s France’s turn to bring over some of its best young writers. The second annual Festival of French Writing, sponsored by the Center for French Civilization and Culture at NYU, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and Institut Français, will pair seven French-language authors with seven English-language authors in conversations about literature, each one moderated by a different cultural critic. Curated by Un livre un jour host Olivier Barrot and NYU professor Tom Bishop and held at NYU’s Hemmerdinger Hall, the free discussions begin on tonight at 7:15 with Geneviève Brisac (Une année avec mon père) and Rick Moody (The Four Fingers of Death), moderated by Open Letter Books director Chad W. Post, and will be followed at 8:30 by novelist Stéphane Audeguy (The Theory of Clouds) and New Yorker European correspondent Jane Kramer (The Politics of Memory: Looking for Germany in the New Germany). Friday kicks off at 2:30 with philosopher Pascal Bruckner (The Tyranny of Guilt) and essayist and humanities professor Mark Lilla (The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West), moderated by Adam Gopnik; graphic novelists David B. (Nocturnal Conspiracies: Nineteen Dreams) and Ben Katchor (Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer) will get together at 4:00, moderated by New Yorker art director and RAW cofounder Françoise Mouly; and at 7:30, French-Afghan writer and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi (The Patience Stone) will team up with Russell Banks (The Sweet Hereafter), moderated by Le Monde journalist Lila Azam Zanganeh. Saturday’s duos start at 2:30 with Laurence Cossé (A Novel Bookstore) and Arthur Phillips (The Song Is You), moderated by NYU French professor Judith G. Miller, followed at 4:30 by writer-director Philipe Claudel (I’ve Loved You So Long) and A. M. Homes (This Book Will Save Your Life), moderated by Harper’s publisher John R. (Rick) MacArthur. It should all make for some interesting and enlightening examinations of form and style, method and methodology, and cross-cultural connectivity.

CAROLE BOUQUET: LETTRES À GÉNICA

Carole Bouquet will be reading Antonin Artaud’s letters to Génica Athanasiou in special FIAF presentation (photo © Fuerte)

French Institute Alliance Française
Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Thursday, February 24, $50, 8:00
212-355-6160
www.fiaf.org

French actress and model Carole Bouquet, who has starred in such films as That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel, 1977), Blank Generation (Uli Lommel, 1980), For Your Eyes Only (John Glen, 1981), and Lucie Aubrac (Claude Berri, 1997), will be making a rare stage appearance in New York City on February 24 for a one-night-only presentation of Lettres à Génica at the French Institute Alliance Française. Bouquet will be reading love letters sent from innovative poet, actor, mystic, and Theatre of Cruelty provocateur Antonin Artaud to his girlfriend, Romanian actress Génica Athanasiou. Artaud, who suffered most of his life from psychological problems, and Athanasiou teamed up on such projects as 1928’s La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman), which was written by Artaud and starred Athanasiou; directed by Gemaine Dulac, it is considered to be the first surrealist film. Bouquet will read the letters in French, with English supertitles. Tickets are $50, but FIAF is offering a special two-event package for $85, pairing Lettres à Génica with the March 3 New York premiere of Francis Huster’s La Peste, in which the French actor presents his one-man performance of Albert Camus’s 1947 novel, The Plague.