My Brother Tod reports on the hilarity and despair of this year’s Las Vegas Book Festival.
The festival itself was held at the Las Vegas Library, which is located Billy
Goat Gruff style just under a freeway overpass. It’s a nice library, actually,
and there seemed to be lots of people hanging around the place. Unfortunately, a
great many of the people milling about were there for the box of free Top Ramen
left out front and the handsome corners and nooks where, if you’re a junkie,
you’re allowed to fix without incident. What the homeless folks could have been
doing instead was hearing a bunch of notable authors talking about books. Aside
from your favorite frumpy Jew, the festival also included Rob Roberge, Steve Almond, Jeremy
Schaap, Neil Pollack, Chris Epting, Glenn Gaslin, Steve
Erickson, Francois
Camoin, another guy named Francois whose name escapes me, Joe Queenan, James McManus, Geoff Schumacher and many, many others
(including poets!). Alas.