Jeffrey Toobin

One evening this past January, we co-hosted a party at Michael’s New York celebrating the winners of the Saturday Evening Post’s Great American Fiction Contest (congratulations again, Lucy Bledsoe!). During the event, Steven Slon, Editorial Director of the Post, leaned over to me, pointed toward the tables in the front of the restaurant, and said, “Do you know who’s out there?” Turns out, we were there at the same time as the Adam’s Round Table, a group of illustrious mystery writers who meet monthly at various New York restaurants. (Some of you may have read Jeffrey Toobin’s recent story about this in The New Yorker.)

Later, as I was leaving our party, I found myself walking directly past this celebrated group.

Jonathan Franzen spent 50 minutes discussing the work of Austrian satirist Karl Kraus and slamming social media and modern technology, particularly Amazon, at his Portland Arts & Lectures appearance Thursday night. The author of "Freedom" and "The Corrections" seemed a little apprehensive and defensive about the content of his lecture, but he needn't have worried.  You might not agree with all of Franzen's arguments, and he sometimes came across as out-of-touch and a scold…

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