You heard me. Oh which brother? Surprise! It's not the one who usually seems a little bit 'tarded.
My brother Adam is an idiot.
Exhibit: Adam
Why?
He recently got a full page review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review and didn't even mention it on his blog.
Why?
Well maybe because his novel had already been reviewed in the NY Times two weeks before and he felt an embarrassment of riches.
Or maybe, he's busy working on that TV show he's doing. Or maybe he feels his NPR-addled* fans only want to hear about how Bush is an idiot (for the umpteenth time in every flavor).
Or maaaaaaayyyyybeeeeeee...
HE'S JUST AN IDIOT!
(I report, you decide.)
In other novelists-I-know news, Kiran Desai, a woman I went to college with, just won the Man Booker prize. She is the youngest woman ever to do so.
Exhibit: Kiran
Holy crap, right?
Kiran and I spent the most time together when we were the two Bennington students lucky enough to land two overpaid jobs at the Getty Center in Santa Monica. During the two months I spent in Los Angeles I was mugged (the guy got about 5 dollars), carjacked at gunpoint (a friend's car, and they almost drove away with me still cowering in the back seat) and I found myself living with a crack-addicted Bennington alum in a rat-infested crack house before a call to my mother that merely hinted that my surroundings weren't perfect led to my being swiftly taken in by my Beverly Hills Aunt who I had met about three times in my life during her brief sweeps into NYC.
Back to Kiran...
I have not been in touch with her since college. But I can say she was truly one of the nicest people you could ever know, very bright (but unlike the rest of Bennington kind, she didn't feel the need to wear a sandwich board declaring it) and lurking behind the nice introverted girl with impeccable manners was a wicked sharp sense of humor.
So successful, so young... you wish she was a female Franzen, right?
Sorry, but no. I couldn't be happier for her. Incredible and inspiring.
*I really enjoy NPR. I went to an ultra-liberal college in Vermont with no TV reception, no desire for TV reception and NPR was my constant companion. That being said, I think people who listen to too much NPR have their brains rotted as nicely as those who watch too much Fear Factor. The only sticky difference is that the TV addict knows it's junk, but the NPR addict comes away from their 'tainment feeling superior. And when the NPR listener is separated from their radio for too long they start composting anything within arms reach and their version of the DT's is repeatedly scratching their scabies and snottily telling you they don't watch TV. I know because that was me. So when I encounter a NPR freak I go all NRA and want to invade lots of countries just to see them sweat.
