Lamb: Meeting the author of a great book — sorta

 

Going to an author reading is something I really enjoy doing – especially when I know the author and enjoy the work. Tuesday night I went and saw Christopher Moore, author of Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff Christ’s Childhood Pal and You Suck: A Love Story. He was funny from the outset and kept the humor going through his thirty minute talk.

 

I could’ve picked him out from a crowd of hundreds. Not only because I’ve seen his picture in the back of his books, but because he looks like an author. Tall and gangly with long arms, he has a beard, wears glasses and looks authorly.

 

He didn’t give a reading from the new book because he “doesn’t do readings.” Instead, it was more of an informal chat where he talked about everything from Anna Nicole Smith’s death to the “fucktards” that run Hollywood and are constantly trying to ruin his stories.

 

(Re: Anna Nicole Smith. Moore was talking about how everything has a silver lining. “Except maybe the dead billionaire stripper. What the silver lining there? I just hope that when they build her monument, it’s a big pole.”)

 

Moore rambled on while digging through his notes (3×5 note cards with sticky backs like post-its) and talked about the life of an author, what happens when the option for a story is purchased and the New York Times.

 

Obviously, I don’t know this guy, but watching and listening to him makes me think I may have picked up some sort of insight into what makes him tick. He obviously had an ego – like all writers – that he successfully kept under wraps most of the night. But what was most telling is when he was discussing his characters.

 

For those who don’t know, Chris Moore has a tendency to recycle some of his more popular characters and litter them throughout his books – see, Minty Fresh in A Hard Job, Roberto the Fruit bat in The Stupidest Angel. But the characters that pop up the most are all centered on Pine Cove, Calif. He’s written, to date, either two or three books focusing on these people.

 

The author made a snarky little comment at one point. He said something to the affect of: “I keep writing books with these characters in them because you (the readers) keep asking for them. It’s not, like Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times accuses me, because I’ve run out of new ideas.”

 

He does read the reviews. He is interested in what the culture has to say about his work. I find that interesting. It’s like he builds a railroad and then puts his ear to the track just to make sure he can hear the rumbling of the train.

 

But things went from insightful to comical quickly. After he finished talking about being a shaved author, harping on people like a stand up comedian who were leaving in the middle of his talk and telling us how tough book tour is (“One guy died on book tour last year!”), he opened the floor up for questions. He took about ten questions before shutting it down.

 

Then the real humor started.

 

“Ok, I’ll sign any book you have. If you’ve got one of mine, great; if not, I’ll sign it anyway. Think of the EBay implications. Sure, anyone can find a copy of You Suck signed by Christopher Moore, but how many copies of, say, Tender is the Night signed by Chris Moore are out there? Anyway, did they hand out numbers or are we doing the dog pile method? Dog pile? Great. Bring on the books.”

 

Let me give you a quick description of this scene. Porter Square Books isn’t huge. They always stick the author in the back by the reference section because the stacks form a little alcove which makes a good spot for a podium. There are about 100 people at the reading. Moore is standing with his back to the shelves. When he said ‘Bring on the books,’ 80 people started surging forward. Moore’s eyes got huge and he started to retreat, not realizing he was in an alcove. I saw his back hit the shelves and the books all thrust toward him before I left, laughing the whole way.

Normally, I’d hang around, buy a book and try and exchange a few jokes with the author, but I didn’t. There were just too many people harassing him for his time and I was hungry.

I’ll catch him next time.