Jonathan Franzen’s Glasses Stolen From His Nose

Jonathan Franzen, wearing his glasses / image © Greg Martin

Continuing perhaps the best week of publicity for a book ever, Jonathan Franzen had his specs nicked off his face at the Serpentine Gallery last night. During the launch party, a gatecrasher grabbed the author’s glasses while his mate handed over a ransom note demanding $100k for their return (or, presumably, the opthamological instrument gets it). On hearing the news, the brilliant Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green listed “Jonathan Franzen’s glasses” on eBay, a move that prompted at least one news outlet to report that it was them wot done it. Bless. (It wasn’t them.)

The face-burglarly comes hot on the heels of the news that somebody haplessly printed an old version of Franzen’s new book, Freedom, causing the entire first run to be pulped. We suspect this would cost significantly more than replacing a pair of glasses, though the cost of the police helicopter called out to track the suspects through Kensington Gardens (we kid you not) might bring the two more onto an equal footing.

For anyone worried about the safety of the specs, one of the thieves was found hiding in a bush and Franzen got his glasses back unharmed.

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