Helen Simpson (left) is reading at the Union Square Barnes & Noble tonight, which might seem a bit odd at first: That’s one of the venues B&N saves for superstar authors who draw huge crowds, and while Simpson is a wonderful short story writer, well, short story writers aren’t usually known for packing them in for author events. The situation becomes a bit clearer when you realize that she’ll be sharing the lectern with Lorrie Moore (okay, some short story writers draw crowds, you got me there). And then you find out that Simpson has a very special guest star at every stop on her American book tour—Nathan Englander in D.C., Ann Packer in Menlo Park, Susanna Moore in Seattle…
Knopf publicist Sarah Robinson explains the doubling-up strategy: “This is Helen’s first U.S. tour—a real opportunity, and we wanted to make the most of it. She definitely has some devoted fans over here, but with talent this immense she deserves many more.” By putting two overlapping groups of readers in the same bookstore, Robinson hopes that fans of the more widely recognized writers will be won over by Simpson’s work. “I think the the pairs are eclectic enough that we’ll grab different constituencies of readers at each,” she adds, “but by the same token I think they all make sense.”
Debut novelist Ben Dolnick read with Simpson Tuesday night at the Harvard Bookstore, describing the event in an email he wrote earlier in the day as the literary equivalent of his childhood fantasy that Larry Bird would show up at the basketball hoop outside his house and recruit him for the Celtics. “Before I had any idea that what I was writing would become a real sold-in-bookstores book, I read a book review that mentioned Helen Simpson and headed off to the library,” Dolnick recalled. “I checked out Getting A Life and of course loved it—the wit, the concision, the subtly deployed emotional grenades. Over the next year or two I bought and read all the rest of her books, as well as whatever stories of hers I came across in magazines and journals.” Getting ready to share the spotlight with one of his favorite authors, he commented that “whatever energy isn’t needed to keep from dribbling the ball off my foot, literarily speaking, will be consumed in gratitude and wonderment.”