Dana Vachon’s Mergers & Acquisitions
The advent of Dana Vachon on the American literary scene in 2007, with his novel Mergers & Acquisitions (Riverhead, 2007), was a case of spooky synchronicity. His satirical debut novel, a tale...
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Anton Sword’s Valentine’s Tracks
Anton Sword is a romantic of the old school. His Twitter profile describes him as a songwriter and flaneur from “Brooklyn and sometimes Berlin”. His first album, A Sentimental...
read more“Do You Think I Should Do A Human Interest Story?”: Steve Coogan, Martin Sixsmith and Philomena Lee
JANE I think what they did to you was evil. PHILOMENA No I don’t like that word. MARTIN No — evil’s good. (They stare at him) Story wise. You can read Philomena: A Screenplay by Steve Coogan...
read moreBOOKTHEWRITER for the Perfect Book Group
Last month comedian Andy Borowitz lamented the irony that although we now live in an age of free content we sadly don’t live in an age of free food. Indeed, as seems to be the dominant model...
read moreThe Real Count of Monte Cristo
“To remember a person is the most important thing in the novels of Alexandre Dumas,” writes Tom Reiss in the opening pages of his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography The Black Count (Crown,...
read moreSeriously Entertaining Gala Sets Social Pages Alight
“Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice.” — Robert Frost, “Fire and Ice” (1923) So wrote Robert Frost in 1923, eerily prescient in his choice of imagery...
read moreWhy We Fight: Body Counts, Surviving the Plague, and the Angels in America
There’s a poster currently on display in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building advertising a “MASSIVE PROTEST” to “STOP THE CHURCH” at St. Patrick’s Cathedral....
read morePlays with Matches: A Brief Meditation on Fire & Literature
This coming Monday, the House of SpeakEasy’s inaugural special guests — Andy Borowitz, Uma Thurman, Adam Gopnik, Susan Orlean, Simon Winchester and Dar Williams — will be stepping...
read moreCurtain Call: Meet Our Special Guests
It’s now just five days till our opening gala, “Plays with Matches”, and now seems a good time to bring all our hosts and special guests together. So, without further ado… Meet...
read moreSusan Orlean Does Her Own Stunts
Over the last three weeks it’s been my pleasure to introduce you to the line-up for the House of SpeakEasy’s opening gala: comedian and host Andy Borowitz; Hollywood superstar Uma...
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