Went to the Michael Chabon book signing at the Tattered Cover this evening. Good signing although not quite as good as his interview on XM with Bob Edwards. Obviously the book he was talking about was The Yiddish Policeman's Union. The story got its start when 13 years ago he ran across a Yiddish Phrase book in the language section. For obvious (well not like you can go to a country to speak it...) it stuck him as funny. Well he wrote an essay about it and then felt bad because he hadn't meant to offend anyone but he did find it funny all the same. The funniest phrase was "Is food served on the Plane". Again quite funny as the 1958 book assumed there would be a Yid Air!
Chabon is quite the comedian when talking. Very intimate with the audience...very well spoken...young. He read from the first Chapter...it was interesting that he didn't read it verbatim and in fact he sometimes skipped around. One lady thought that the first line of the 3rd chapter was the most brilliant metaphor she had ever read. Q&A wasn't too exciting...few questions on Kavalier and Clay but nothing great. Another funny question was why Sitka and not Juneau ("Jew, No?").
His tip to all writers was to write, everyday, for a certain amount, day in and day out. Few other interesting tidbits was that all the characters were actually speaking Yiddish and that when they spoke English (which the author notes) the cadences change...that was interesting. Final question was about where he was when he first saw his book in print and it was in a bookstore in Westwood (no longer there), with his brother. Chabon doesn't like to go to stores and spy on people because either his books aren't there or someone might pick it up then put it back!
Overall a good signing...I asked him his favorite baseball team? Giants and Pirates. That since he covers all the American contributions that he should do a book on Jazz next and I also thanked him for the Escapist cross over into the comic book world.