Free drinks, great music, commentary from the world’s foremost pencil sharpener, and a hyper-chouette book about Paris. We’ll be there; you should come too!
(RSVP information below)
gq:
You Do Not Want To Miss This: Rosecrans Baldwin
We’re fired up to announce the latest installment of the FSG/GQ “Originals Series,” featuring author Rosecrans Baldwin and Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces. In April, we excerpted Baldwin’s new book, Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down—and rapped about his 18 months living and working as an American expat in France. There will be at least a few rounds of free drinks, and a whole lotta hilarious conversation stoked by moderator David Rees.
Here’s the important stuff:
Monday, June 25th, 6:30 pm
Studio X
180 Varick Street, NYCSpace is limited, so RSVP at:
http://originalsevent3.eventbrite.comWe last got together in early May at an “Originals” event featuring author Amelia Gray and the band Hospitality. Our friends at FSG have cut this very excellent video, which you can see here: FSG/GQ Originals Series: Amelia Gray and Hospitality
Also, tonight (Wednesday, May 16th) in NYC: Rosecrans Baldwin in conversation with Sloane Crosley at McNally Jackson Books (7PM, 52 Prince Street)
Last night at Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Rosecrans Baldwin discussed his memoir, Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down, the story of his time spent living in the French city. He spoke of the comparisons between the two peoples and what a place is like once you’ve settled in and gotten to know a few locals.
While in Paris, Rosecrans, a self-described Francophile, couldn’t get enough and proceeded to read a bunch of books about his new home. Here are four books Rosecrans recommends:
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
“It’s a wonderful, screwy take on 1950s Paris. The narrator’s voice just rampages.”
You can listen to Rosecrans talk about this novel on NPR.
The Bathroom by Jean-Philippe Toussaint
“A novel in which nothing happens, and what does happen takes place in a Parisian bathroom for the most part. And yet: gripping, revealing, entertaining, and all in very few pages.”
The Friend of Madame Maigret by Georges Simenon
“It’s hard to pick one Simenon—I love so many. This one’s set in the Marais, where I used to live, so it’s a sentimental selection.”
Paris Stories by Mavis Gallant
“These are set around Europe in addition to Paris, so it’s a continental treat. Gallant has won all sorts of awards and she’s still underrated, I think. Effortlessly moving.”
You can listen to Rosecrans discuss Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down with WNYC’s Leonard Lopate as well as with Brad Listi on the Other People podcast. You might also want to read an excerpt at Salon. Rosecrans is also on Twitter at @rosecrans.
In keeping with this wanderlusting, here are our suggestions for books with a great sense of place:
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal
Edmund de Waal is a world-famous ceramicist. Having spent thirty years making beautiful pots—which are then sold, collected, and handed on—he has a particular sense of the secret lives of objects. When he inherited a collection of 264 tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings, called netsuke, he wanted to know who had touched and held them, and how the collection had managed to survive.
And so begins this extraordinarily moving memoir and detective story as de Waal discovers both the story of the netsuke and of his family, the Ephrussis, over five generations. A nineteenth-century banking dynasty in Paris and Vienna, the Ephrussis were as rich and respected as the Rothchilds. Yet by the end of the World War II, when the netsuke were hidden from the Nazis in Vienna, this collection of very small carvings was all that remained of their vast empire.
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz
Two centuries after James Cook’s epic voyages of discovery, Tony Horwitz takes readers on a wild ride across hemispheres and centuries to explore the Captain’s embattled legacy in today’s Pacific.
Recounting Cook’s voyages and exotic scenes — tropical orgies, taboo rituals, cannibal feasts, human sacrifice — Horwitz relives Cook’s adventures by following in the captain’s wake to places such as Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef to discover Cook’s embattled legacy in the present day.
Peter Robb’s A Death in Brazil: A Book of Omissions
Deliciously sensuous and fascinating, Robb renders in vivid detail the intoxicating pleasures of Brazil’s food, music, literature, and landscape as he travels not only cross country but also back in time—from the days of slavery to modern day political intrigue and murder.
Now in paperback for the first time at the end of this month, Land’s End: A Walk in Provincetown by Michael Cunningham
“Cunningham rambles through Provincetown, gracefully exploring the unusual geography, contrasting seasons, long history, and rich stew of gay and straight, Yankee and Portuguese, old-timer and ‘washashore’ that flavors Cape Cod’s outermost town… . Chock-full of luminous descriptions … . He’s hip to its studied theatricality, ever-encroaching gentrification and physical fragility, and he can joke about its foibles and mourn its losses with equal aplomb.” —Chicago Tribune
For more stops on Rosecrans Baldwin’s tour, click here.
Our French Connection, by Rosecrans Baldwin
In which Rosecrans Baldwin (author of PARIS, I LOVE YOU BUT YOU’RE BRINGING ME DOWN) visits U.S. towns called Paris to ask people what they think of France.
Calling all Photoshoppers and MS Painters!
(by Judson Frondorf)
Our cover remix contest is under way! Join us for a chance to win a copy of Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down.
