Dude, I'm trying to help

Shalom Auslander is worried that being so brilliant may go to his head.


"A positive review, I tell myself, must have been written by a schmuck, a request for an interview must be a function of a slow news week, a feature on Foreskin's Lament only means George Saunders was busy, or Junot Díaz caught a cold. Or was scheduled to do Jon Stewart. Or was picking up his National Book Award. Me, I'm free.
There are other writers with me in this studio, too. They don't seem concerned. They laugh, they smile, they joke, they kibbitz. They enjoy their moment in the sun, while I chug red wine and worry about skin cancer. The photographer taps me on my shoulder. It is my turn. The rain outside has subsided, and he wants to try to get a few shots of me outside.
That's what they call them in the business, "shots."
Asshole.
What?
"Shots." That's what they call it.
You liked saying it.
My shrink said it was okay.
Your shrink is a whore."

Foreskin's Lament comes out any day now, and his first book is basically being given away in the store right now. In terms of a simple mathematical certainty around laughs per page, no one can touch Shalom Auslander.

Link via Bookslut

Posted by Dave