Interviewed in yesterday’s New York Times Book Review, Wally Lamb recounted a meeting with Gay Talese. The young writer (Lamb) told the famous writer (Talese) about the novel he was working on, to which the latter responded, “Oh my.” “He was polite,” said Lamb, “but clearly not interested.”
I had a somewhat similar experience with Talese at the book festival in Fort Lauderdale many years ago. I told him that my family used to spend a week every summer in Ocean City, NJ – his hometown – and he barely acknowledged me, talking instead to a fellow author about possibly catching a spring training game that afternoon. Of course, when you dress as he does it’s probably hard to be down-to-earth.
