Jonathan Safran Foer At AJU’s Sunday Book Fair

Here’s an excerpt of my full report:

Last discussion of the day is Rabbi Robert Wexler interviewing Jonathan Safran Foer.

Joel Stein does the introduction in place of some chick on the side of the stage named Abby. (Listen)

We wait to hear how wonderful Obama is.

I swap outrageous comments with my friends and finally tell them: "Tell us how wonderful he is when he’s herding you into camps and sending you up chimneys."

Robert Wexler of AJU does his homework and is a superb questioner. He’s funny, wise, and empathic.

Jonathan: "The problem with writing only two books is that they are not representative… I wrote these books at very specific times in my life and surrounded by very specific circumstances… I don’t see how I could’ve written anything else for my first book."

He cites "The rhyme is smarter than the poet" to describe his muse.

Dr. Wexler complIments Jonathan on the believability of his nine year old protagonist in "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

Jonathan to Robert: "You did not say, ‘This is crap.’"

Robert: "I’m a rabbi. I wouldn’t say that."

Jonathan doesn’t want to give an opinon on the film version of his book "Everything Is Illuminated" except he said he liked the filmmaker Liev Schreiber.

Abby stands on the side for the whole show. She runs through a dozen different types of smiles. Near the end, she waves at some kid.

Jonathan looks forward to Obama’s reign. He’s someone who cares about words.

Jonathan: "For years my writing felt like a correction to Americanism."

"There are people dying of hunger near where I live. I’m a college-educated person. I’m competent. Shouldn’t I be doing something about it? Instead I’m writing, which seems like the most useless thing."