Just out the Van:
Autumn is definitely upon us - time to start wrapping up at home with a good book. Or you could throw caution to the (nippy) wind and head to Book Slam next Thursday to bask in the warm glow of literati (gliterati?) including Sarfraz Manzoor (reading from his memoir "Greetings from Bury Park"), Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Netsayi, and poet Polar Bear...
Next Thursday at Neighbourhood, £5/£6, 12 Acklam Road, W10 5QZ, 6.30 doors open, 8.30 breadings start, open till late.
Fresh Next Week
Yann Martel's Booker Prize-winning novel was one of the most debated books of recent years (the Book Grocer had at least one improptu discussion on a late night tube journey) and with a film, directed by Delicatessen's Jean-Pierre Jeunet, in pre-production due for 2009, The Life of Pi has stayed firmly on our radar. On a rare visit to the UK, Martel is joined by artist Tomislav Torjanac, the winner of an international competition to illustrate a new edition of the novel. In this illustrated talk, they discuss the relationship of words and images, further bringing to life the characters and scenes in the book.
The Illustrated Life of Pi, Tuesday 25 September, £10, 7:45pm, Purcell Room, the Southbank Centre, see website for details.
Try a Bit of This:
Lisa: Look, Steve, look. We can talk about what happened, but I want us to establish right from the start that you have a history of being perhaps a little highly strung with customers, or else we're not really being honest about the situation. Can we agree on that?
Steve: Well, Lisa, I want to co-operate. Like I say, I like my job. I appreciate you doing this disciplinary rather than Crawford. I know you must have had to persuade him not to sack me on the spot. But I don't think I can agree to that. I would describe myself as 'unusually tolerant'.
Lisa: Steve, remember we often have lunch together, remember I'm often there trying to eat my sandwich when you're letting off a little steam, often for the entire hour. Do you remember the guy last week?
Steve: There were many guys last week. Every week there are many guys who come, all looking to make their point with Steve.
Lisa: Right. Well, the guy I'm talking about was the guy looking for the Ray Conniff CD.
Steve: Oh yeah, oh yeah, exactly what I'm talking about.
Lisa: No, this is exactly what I'm talking about. It was not a big deal, you were being paranoid.
Steve: Lisa, he watched me, he watched me take that CD off the rack and put it in the crate to be returned to the company. He watched me do that and then he watched me put hundreds of other CDs in the case on top of it, then he watched me carry that big crate over to the lift and he waits and waits - and then when I'm standing there with my arms shaking with the effort, he asks me if we have The Happy Sound of Ray Conniff by Ray Conniff.
Lisa: Steve, look, I saw the dent in the staff-room wall. You take it all so personally. You had to get your knuckles bandaged after -
Steve: Exactly. I punched the wall, not his face. 'Unusually tolerant'.
Lisa: It suggests a lot of aggression, Steve.
Extract from What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn, finalist on the Booker Longlist.
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