junot diaz reading

for those of you who couldn’t make the reading tonight, i sincerely hope that at some point down the line you have the opportunity to hear junot diaz read. the brief wondrous life of oscar wao is probably my favorite contemporary fiction novel of the last five years, so today’s date has been triple circled on my calendar for weeks in anticipation.

diaz did not disappoint. after a glowing intro of his accolades (several honors, most notably a little award you may have heard of—the pulitzer) he took the stage and said “it’s always hard to live up to those introductions.” the crowd laughed nervously. he cocked his head toward us and said “i hear that nervous laughter, you’re like, you better live up to it motherfucker i waited in LINE.”

while he chose not to read from the brief wondrous life of oscar wao, he read from a short story and a novel in progress about cyborgs (?!) that he was first to admit is a very rough idea he is kicking around.

laura www.52books.tumblr.com and i hung around afterwards to get our copies of the book signed. he graciously signed our books and while we chatted she and i mentioned that we both have book blogs. he asked what we had recently discussed on our sites (laura—the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay, me—the satanic verses. he recommended that we read murakami next and suggested one for each of us to cover. coming soon—sputnik sweetheart by murakami, as suggested by the one and only junot diaz.