My dear friend Pamela Petro presented her new book, The Long Field, at Books & Books on Friday evening, having come all the way from Massachusetts. It is a masterful work – published first in the U.K., it was picked by both The Telegraph and The Guardian as one of the best travel books of the year – that manages to be, as I said while introducing Pam, both profound and entertaining.
I had posted on social media about the event, and sent emails to people I thought might be interested: other writers, former students, a few friends. Some wrote back that they had other commitments, some said that they’d try to make it, some never responded. How are friends like editors? Both ignore emails.
It was a very small crowd, brightened by the appearance of one of my old students, that grew during the talk to about 16. This wasn’t great – considering the quality of the book, and Pam’s talk about it – but it wasn’t humiliating. Over the years I’ve discovered that people who say they can’t make your reading never change their minds, while those who say they will make it, often do. My only hope is that those in the latter group this past weekend will now try to make up for it by coming to hear me on Dec. 13.
