By Menachem Wecker
An award-winning author’s ability to draw crowds is good news for the GW community.
New Yorker contributor and National Book Award winner Jonathan Franzen was originally slated to read from his new book Freedom and to take audience questions and sign books at the bookstore Politics & Prose.
But the store recently announced that it would be moving the free Sept. 24 event, which will begin at 7 p.m., to Lisner Auditorium. Tickets are not required, and doors open at 6.
An e-mail from the bookstore cited several reasons for the change in venue, all stemming from the publicity surrounding the book, including a rave review in The New York Times, news that President Barack Obama was reading a copy and a Time magazine cover.
“We at Politics & Prose realized that it would not be possible to accommodate the expected attendees,” the store said.
Journalist and blogger Deb Filcman, B.A. ’02, who remembers hearing Mr. Franzen read from his book The Corrections at Politics & Prose as a student at GW, won’t be able to attend the event, because she is based in Boston.
“When he reads, his voice oozes irony and sarcasm,” she says.
Rebecca Wanek, director of development at the School of Business, calls The Corrections “one of my favorite novels of all time.”
“He is a brilliant wordsmith and keen observer of the human condition, who forces us to examine our own backgrounds and origins,” says Ms. Wanek. “I am thrilled that he is speaking on campus and hope to secure a seat in what I image will be a packed auditorium.”