In good company

On the fair west coast, the LA Times runs my review of The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta today. The New York Times is all over this book, with a hefty (cover?) review by Liesl Schillinger, another review — by Michiko Kakutani — that ran Tuesday, plus a Perrotta profile last weekend. I admit, I wasn’t looking forward to the comparisons, but I think I came out OK here — I say The Abstinence Teacher is “a kind, gentle satire” while Michiko Kakutani calls it “sad-funny-touching.” Has she begun writing for the Lifetime TV set?

(Schillinger, on the other hand, calls Perrotta “the strong, silent type on paper.” Now that I wish I’d written.)

In other book review-laden news, Ellen Litman read here in Pittsburgh on Thursday in Squirrel Hill, the neighborhood at the center of her book The Last Chicken in America (my LA Times review). Petite and soft-spoken, she struggled to read loudly enough to satisfy the elderly audience. When one attendee’s cell phone rang the woman took it to the front of the room, answered, and carried on a leisurely conversation as Litman continued bravely reading from her story “Dancers.” Yikes. It made later questions like “Where did your sister go to middle school?” and “You speak English so well!” seem polite. But there were a few seasoned literary types in the crowd — Irina Reyn, who reviewed the book for the Moscow Times, and the legendary Bob Hoover, the man who writes about books for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Today the New York Times runs their review of Litman’s book — “warm, true and original” — by the most excellent Maud Newton.

About the author

I like sitting in Jack Webb's booth.