Rick Simonson

'A Choice of Accomodations'
April 17, 2008

We don't always make it easy on people, including ourselves, when helping to present authors. This past Monday saw our store (Elliott Bay) presenting Jhumpa Lahiri at, and with, the Seattle Public Library for her exquisite new story collection, Unaccustomed Earth (Knopf). We also had a supporting role (helping promote, selling books) for a simultaneous lecture tour appearance by Marjane Satrapi, ostensibly in support of the much-honored film of her work, Persepolis. 

The scheduling conflict (both share the same lecture agent, and both now share the same publisher) was not our doing. In the case of Marjane S., we were merely along for the ride. Both of these women are storytellers in a big way, carriers of imagination, bridgers of distance and time. One other thing in common, germane to those qualities, and also very particularly to Seattle: in 2006, Marjane's Persepolis books (now also in one volume, The Complete Persepolis, from Pantheon) had been the Seattle Public Library's "Seattle Reads" title. Last year, it had been Jhumpa's The Namesake. Both had come to Seattle for multi-day visits, making the rounds in various venues in various ways. Their books, and others we brought to the offsite venues (other graphic novels and Iranian titles with Marjane, other South Asian diaspora titles with Jhumpa) had all sold exceedingly well, by the boxload. 

Where this Monday was concerned, this wasn't all. At the store, we hosted an author as eminent in her field as Lahiri and Satrapi are in theirs: Maude Barlow is a  compelling Canadian author/activist who has long been looking at all pertinent isses related to water - who controls it, what the supply is, the forces of corporate globalization trying to have their way with it - she was here with her new book, Blue Covenant (The New Press). I have vivid, nearly-decade-old memories of her speaking as part of a teach-in around the celebrated Seattle meeting of the WTO in late 1999.

That Monday night then, in a quasi-feat along the lines of stunts best tried outdoors before being attempted inside, I thought it appropriate to introduce Jhumpa, as I had for her first two books and their readings in Seattle - in 1999 for The Interpreter of Maladies, then in 2003 for The Namesake. It also worked out that the people presenting Marjane, based on someone's referral, thought it would be nice if I introduced her for her thing. 

Jhumpa's reading was to start at 7, Marjane's talk at 7:30. This has been done, it can be done - whether wise or not is another question. Thankfully, Maude Barlow was not on at Elliott Bay at 8, or some perverse temptation might have presented itself (though I  would very much have wanted to be there, introduction or not).

Going into the night there was a teensy bit of apprehension. Lots of other things were also going on in Seattle. Over the years we've built quite a working, always evolving alliance with various South Asian groups - from people at the University of Washington to some of the movers and shakers who've been involved in high tech - some still working in it, some more or less 'retired' from that fray, but active in others, philanthropic, cultural, and otherwise. Many, if not most, of the key people we've known/worked with were this whole time quite involved and tied up with the Dalai Lama's extended (five day) Seattle visit. That Monday had seen proceedings take place at the University of Washington.

Though our university friends had helped with getting out the word for Jhumpa's reading, we knew we wouldn't be seeing them this evening.

Introductory chores aside, there had been other divisions of labor. I took books and staffmembers to the theatre where Marjane would be. Things set up and settled, I then set off for the Library, where colleague Karen Maeda Allman and others would be. It was cold and rainy. Entering I was a little apprehensive, not seeing immediate bustle in the Library lobby. That gave way to surprise. A half-hour ahead, and the auditorium was filling rapidly, a supplemental part of the space being readied. People came and kept coming.

By the time Jhumpa and her mother arrived, the place was packed to the rafters and beyond. We won't go into numbers, should certain authority figures see this. The fire exits were ok. But people were sitting on the floor all about the lectern. My attention while introducing Jhumpa and the book was almost as much about keeping pathways clear as it was about Unaccustomed Earth. While I gave a decent recounting of her books and her near-decade little history with Seattle as a visiting author, I managed to neglect the title story being set here - though I heard later Jhumpa herself took this all up quite movingly.

I missed everything else about the night there - though I had a definite sense or feeling of what was in the air, and would be. In leaving, I was on to more fun, hotfooting it over to the nearby theatre where Marjane, accompanied by her husband, would soon be holding forth. It was good to see her again - two years it had been, since she had done the library programs, I still remember her whirlwind last talk at the Ballard branch library, off she was in a race when it was over, Pantheon's Janice Goldklang, out from New York, there to also see the leavetaking).

This night had a different air - less the rush that comes with a new book out, the various anxieties and excitement attendant to that. This was the lecture circuit - places not on book tours past (Boise) were part of it. All her genius on the page, and now in the movie,  notwithstanding, Marjane is also quite the stage performer. She also had an audience of several hundred - and soon had them eating out of her hand with laughter, both in her monolog opening part and then, when she really could light it up, when she started taking questions. We had seen this in the past.

One thing utterly interesting and linked in what happened this night: as much as each had been here and been here pretty extensively in the recent past, this night drew new people to each appearance. Book sales alone showed that - above and beyond the amazing rush there was for the new Unaccustomed Earth. There was also a rush for The Interpreter of Maladies, for The Namesake.

We've worked hard, with others, at cultivating the South Asian community here with a considerable array of authors - and seen that audience grow. Jhumpa's audience this night brought out yet more - again, with many otherwise at the University for the Dalai Lama, some of the 'regulars' were missing. Here were all these other people, not yet seen at these before. There were, of course, others, too, and many had seen here in past visits.

Similarly with Marjane: her theatre appearance this week drew a varied audience, including many Iranians we hadn't seen before, either in her own previous appearances or for such authors as Shirin Ebadi, Azar Nafisi, Shahrnush Parsipur, or Azadeh Moaveni. Those had all drawn largely and well from the Iranian community here. The sales of her books, too - Chicken with Plums had come out, over a year ago, since her last visit, but there was nothing brand-new. People were buying widely and deeply - multiple copies; a copy of Embroideries, Chicken with Plums, and The Complete Persepolis.

The 'success' of these nights - it's not success that's rested upon, there's work to get back at the next day - if it can be phrased that way, has a lot to do with the perseverance and patience of all involved - authors, publishers, those of us out in the provinces. While both Jhumpa Lahiri and Marjane Satrapi have had acclaim, attention, and sales since their first books, there's still been the evident building of audiences for their work from when they were unknown.

So much these days argues against the patience for such perseverance. Theres's a clamor for instant results, the numbers of the moment. A reckoning can be made from that, but it's a truly limiting one. Seeing well over one thousand people in two halls at one time for two authors, seeing backlist rush into people's hands, seeing smiles and greetings and introductions between people, overhearing talk about the pleasures and virtues of this book or that story - in English, but with bits of Bengali here or Farsi there - you know there are bigger, deeper measures.

'A Choice of Accomdations' is a story in Jhumpa Lahiri's UNACCUSTOMED EARTH.

Posted by Rick Simonson on April 17, 2008 | Comments (0)