Monday Nights in BOOKlyn Will Only Get Better
By Britt Yu
Stories of a World War II era familial dispute, unhappy wine making, a teacher’s experience in Japan and the automated prediction of oil futures will fill the summer air at Franklin Park’s monthly reading series when authors Erin Einhorn, Alice Feiring, Alyssa Pinsker and Teddy Wayne read selections from their novels on Monday, July 20.
The Crown Heights literary event, run by local writer Penina Roth, has already featured comedian and National Lampoon contributing writer Dan Fontaine, and authors Rachel Shukert and Felicia Sullivan in previous months.
Erin Einhorn’s The Pages in Between, examines her lineage as she sought out the family who hid her mother, Irena, from Nazis during World War II. What was supposed to be a happy reunion between two families turns into an emotional roller coaster. The oldest son of Irina’s keeper, Wieslaw Skowronski, claims that Einhorn’s grandfather promised the Polish family his home in exchange for hiding Irena. Neither family knows the details of the deal, the author says, as “it was made on a handshake by people no longer alive.” The story was featured on an episode of the NPR show This American Life.
Released in May, Alice Feiring’s The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization is a critical look at modern winemaking. Under the belief that many vineyards are now homogenized, Feiring searches out locales that still carry individual and unique tastes. “I want my wines to tell a good story. I want them natural and most of all, like my dear friends, I want them to speak the truth even if we argue,” she says. Catering only to a very specific group’s tastes, namely Robert Parker’s, would be the very opposite of the diverse palette the writer seeks.
Two forthcoming titles will also be on the docket. First, Alyssa Pinsker, managing editor for Pomp and Circumstance magazine, will read from her forthcoming memoir, Big in Japan, about her time spent in Japan as a teacher. Teddy Wayne will also read from his debut novel Kapitoil for the first time. Set for release in April 2010, the story weaves through the life of Karim Issar, a 26-year-old working for a powerful Wall Street company in the latter half of the 1990s, who develops a computer program that predicts oil futures.
Though the series will be on hiatus in August, it will return September 14 with Susan Shapiro (Speed Shrinking, Five Men Who Broke My Heart), Frank Flaherty (The Elements of Story; New York Times editor), Molly Jong-Fast (Normal Girl, Girl [Maladjusted]: True Stories from a Semi-Celebrity Childhood), and Royal Young (Pomp & Circumstance Magazine).
The series kicks off at 8PM in the big room at Franklin Park, 618 St. John’s Place between Classon and Franklin Avenues.
