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May102005

Jonathans Are Illuminated: Have you met Miss Jones?

Filed under: Jonathans are Illuminated

Mother Jones lets Jonathan Safran Foer do the talking. Here's the interview.

And a lucky coincidence: Also new, a very nicely written Jonathan Lethem profile from the Bangor Daily News. (Why Bangor? Lethem has a significant Maine connection, explained in the piece.) Just a taste:


"I've always preferred dark horses and underrated things," said Lethem, who will return to Bennington College in Vermont, his almost alma mater, in June for the ultimate drop-out vindication - he's giving the commencement address. "I've been fascinated by lesser writers. It helps you know the writing world, not just the peaks. I thought I'd always be the dark horse. I thought I'd be reprinted out of neglect. When 'Motherless Brooklyn' found its place in the world, I couldn't occupy that stance anymore. I wasn't underrated or neglected. I was kind of in fashion and had an unexpected, pleasurable amount of operating room. I learned there wasn't much to cherish about neglect and struggle. I wondered instead what kind of work lesser-known writers would have done had they been better cared for."

Lethem has long been my personal hero for helping get The Queen's Gambit, unquestionably my favorite novel, back into print. It's by the late Walter Tevis, who also wrote The Hustler and The Color of Money—those were novels first, you know. Lethem wrote this for the new paperback of Gambit, which is the electrifying story of Beth Harmon, a (fictional) chess champion who's an orphan with a penchant for pills: "Beth Harmon is an unforgettable creation—and The Queen's Gambit is Walter Tevis's most consummate and heartbreaking work." Michael Ondaatje has written, "The Queen's Gambit is sheer entertainment. It is a book I reread every few years—for the pure pleasure and skill of it." There's a short excerpt here. I'm jealous of anyone who hasn't heard of it; I may have to spotless-mind myself someday so I can read it afresh again. There's only one screenplay I'd want to write, and it'd be this one. Lethem, of course, would have to help.

Speaking of The Color of Money (the movie), check out these comments from an Easter Egg site. They're responding to this juicy bit of trivia: "Just after Eddie (Paul Newman) wins his first round match at the climactic 9-ball tournament, he walks by the grandstand and shakes hands with a man who congratulates him. The man he shakes hands with is the real Fast Eddie Felson."

magnumbadass writes:
I met the real Fast Eddie at a pool clinic about nine years ago. His last name is not Felson, and says that only about 30% of the movie the Hustler is actually true. He also said that he was on both of the sets as a technical director. He did the famous "everybody's doin' it" trick where Tom Cruise shoots in the eight ball without looking. A nice guy -- and the clinic was free. Whether or not this is the same gentleman that took a polygraph, I do not know, the fast Eddie that I met said that he used many different names in different cities that he toured during his "hustling" days.

Retro Boy writes:
Bollocks.

Fast Eddie Parker writes:
This is a fraudulent "egg". Whomever wrote this "egg" does not know what he or she is talking about! His or her "story" is completely fiction. The REAL Fast Eddie was not in either of the movies written by Walter Tevis: "The Hustler" and "The Color of Money". The REAL, ORIGINAL, Fast Eddie has taken AND PASSED two polygraph (lie detector) tests to PROVE that he is the REAL AND ORIGINAL Fast Eddie. One of the two polygraph tests was published in the billiard publication "The American Cueist". No other human being has ever been willing to take a polygraph test in that regard, because NO OTHER HUMAN BEING WOULD PASS THAT TEST! The REAL Fast Eddie is still alive and performing pool shooting exhibitions throughout the world.

Jon writes:
that's great

I'll say!

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