Laurie Graff first came up with the idea for The Shiksa Syndrome back in 1990, she told the crowd at McNally Jackson Wednesday night and, over the years, she’s used the concept—a nice Jewish girl pretends to be a Gentile so she can finally get some attention from Jewish men—as a short story, a dramatic monologue, even as a subplot in her debut novel, You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs. So, when her agent suggested she use it for her next novel, she initially demurred, but her agent convinced her to “just make up a new story,” and here we are! Before the reading began, guests drank the free He’Brew beer (Messiah Stout and Genesis Ale) while Graff posed with celebrity makeup artist Ramy; she was wearing the very “Shiksa Goddess” lipstick she had inspired him to create. We also spotted Jamie Cat Callan, the author of French Women Don’t Sleep Alone, in the audience—she told us that she’s got a mediabistro.com event coming up in March 2009.
Just around the corner, at the Housing Works Used Bookstore Café, debut novelists Hannah Tinti and Kathleen Kent read from their work as part of a pre-Halloween tribute to “Witches, Demons, and Thieves,” curated by Maud Newton. Guests were also treated to a slideshow by visual artist Michael Aaron Lee, and invited to participate in a quiz on Puritans in American literature—test your own knowledge if you dare! Tinti made her own devil outfit, while Kent’s mom designed the Puritan collar with the scarlet A (“for Author,” Kent quipped).