Last night Ed Park read from his novel Personal Days at Book Soup in West Hollywood. West Hollywood is a teeny part of Los Angeles, teeny, that is, as long as you’re not running across it in heels and officewear on the hottest day of the year. That’s the way to make West Hollywood feel laaaarrrrge.
Personal Days is in three parts, and Ed, not to spoil anything for the audience members who hadn’t yet read it, stuck to the beginning. His understated, conversational reading style really brought out the book’s humor, and the audience was tickled. At one point Park remarked that a certain line hadn’t gotten a laugh yet on the book tour. But it was funny. We laughed.
In other news: in reading a months-old New Yorker, I discovered T Cooper. I’m late to the table on this, but damn, that’s some great writing. Right here.
And moving ahead in time, I finished The Urban Hermit, a memoir by Sam MacDonald that won’t be on shelves until December. Sam was the only one of my Pitt classmates who had a book deal while in grad school, I think. He was certainly the only one writing a book while teaching, taking classes and raising twins. And if you think that sounds a little crazy, you should read about his stint urban hermiting. Come December, that is.
[...] Photo and short report on Ed Park’s “Personal Days” reading [...]