Lethem? I just met him! Much has been written about the fact that Brooklyn has more writers per square block than any other place in America (though not more than County Donegal in Ireland; all named McCourt) and it follows that a Brooklyn book festival would have more known writers per panel discussion than any other book festival in America! The home team is really turning out, folks, so prepare for mass intellectual insemination! You’re gonna get a faceful of Jonathan Lethem, A.M. Homes, Francine Prose, Jonathan Safran Foer, Stephen Carter, George Saunders, our new writer-crush Joshua Ferris, Uzodinma Iweala and Dave Eggers (who will present a slideshow of his trip to Sudan. Very cheeky). Though it’s hard to believe, the festival is only in its second year (seriously, no one thought of this sooner?), but that doesn’t mean it won’t be packed with potential sexual partners for those among you who don’t mind when your bedmate awakens at 3 a.m. and stares at you for a solid hour with big bug eyes while you sleep. Also in literary happenings (the intelligentsia is back from Truro), Lawrence Wright (New Yorker writer, Pulitzer winner, ho-hum) will discuss his very cool and very scary book on Al-Qaeda, The Looming Tower, at the 92nd Street Y. See? People really are smarter in the fall.
[Brooklyn Book Festival 2007, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Brooklyn Borough Hall (Court and Joralemon Streets); Lawrence Wright at the 92nd Street Y, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Avenue, 7:30 p.m.]
