Colson Whitehead at Brooklyn Public Library
Today, February 14, is a day for expressing love, according to the greeting card companies anyway. In honor of them, we'd like to express our love for two things: New York, and Colson Whitehead. A few weeks back, we were killing time in Prospect Heights, waiting for a restaurant to open. Chilled, we walked into the Brooklyn Public Library, where we poked around the fiction section for a while, then settled into the reading room's comfie chairs. An announcement broke our reverie: Colson Whitehead was getting ready to read downstairs. We looked at each other and got up, wordlessly. Here was an only-in-New-York moment for the ages: hanging out in the library, only to have one of our favorite authors just show up.
In an hour-long talk with Leonard Lopate, Whitehead read from and discussed his latest novel, Zone One, about zombies in New York City. Having read the book, we walked in liking it, but we left loving it, largely due to Whitehead's intelligent answers and pithy one-liners: "For me, a zombie is a person who's stopped pretending that they're not a monster," "New York, even after the world has ended, is prime real estate," "Growing up in [the city], I thought The Warriors was a documentary." The very first comment from the audience essentially accused Whitehead of cribbing, and not very well, from I Am Legend. "I'm sorry to have disappointed you," Whitehead responded, "but I appreicate your taking the time to come down here to cut me down." The entire rest of the audience laughed and cheered.
Colson --- can we call you that? --- you'll never disappoint us. We heart you.
Photo: thanks
In an hour-long talk with Leonard Lopate, Whitehead read from and discussed his latest novel, Zone One, about zombies in New York City. Having read the book, we walked in liking it, but we left loving it, largely due to Whitehead's intelligent answers and pithy one-liners: "For me, a zombie is a person who's stopped pretending that they're not a monster," "New York, even after the world has ended, is prime real estate," "Growing up in [the city], I thought The Warriors was a documentary." The very first comment from the audience essentially accused Whitehead of cribbing, and not very well, from I Am Legend. "I'm sorry to have disappointed you," Whitehead responded, "but I appreicate your taking the time to come down here to cut me down." The entire rest of the audience laughed and cheered.
Colson --- can we call you that? --- you'll never disappoint us. We heart you.
Photo: thanks
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