I first met Emma Forrest back in 2000, when the former London newspaper columnist had just moved to New York after publishing her first novel, Namedropper, and it was a pleasure running into her again last week at the launch party for Damage Control, a collection of essays by women writers about their therapists, hairstylists, and other personal handlers. As we slipped away from the crowd that Social Diva had brought together at Sapa to meet some of the anthology’s contributors, Forrest told me about all the positive feedback Minnie Driver was getting for her essay, including talk of a book deal. That would make her a triple threat, I quipped, and Forrest immediately agreed. “She writes the same way she acts, and she acts the same way she sings,” she observed, “and her emotional honesty is really breathtaking.”
At another party earlier that evening, I got some clear signals that Ben Ratliff‘s forthcoming study of John Coltrane is poised to be one of this fall’s significant titles. Not one, but two high-ranking editors at major houses told me they envied Paul Elie and FSG for landing Ratliff’s book about the legendary jazz musician and his legacy, and they can’t wait to read it. I can already tell them (and you) that they’re in for a treat; I haven’t read music-based cultural analysis this good since Greil Marcus was at his peak.