Michael Chabon recalls his journey from the city of the future to LA to 'Telegraph Avenue'
Following a special appearance by late-night TV comedian Jimmy Fallon, award-winning TV and motion picture actress and author Kirstie Alley hosted a star-studded Book and Author Breakfast at the 2012 BookExpo America convention that included Orange Prize-winning British novelist Zadie Smith, and Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist J.R. Moehringer (stay tuned), beginning with an introduction to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, whom we last saw at the 2004 BEA. Reading an essay he had prepared tracing the inspiration for his new blockbuster Telegraph Avenue (Harper; September, 2012), Chabon began with the earth-shaking, but 'not surprising' O.J. Simpson verdict, in the aftermath of which he realized he had unconsciously become a racist, in stark contrast to his childhood memories of growing up in Columbia, Maryland, a model modern suburban community of sublime racial equality known as the 'City Of The Future', where he had formed a profound connection to black American culture, arts, and friendships. After going to college in Pittsburgh, where he wrote his award-winning first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Chabon recalled, he moved to Los Angeles, where the O.J. Simpson trial was held, and unwittingly fell into the racial disconnect of comfortable suburban life in Los Angeles. Disillusioned, Chabon moved north with his family to Berkeley, California, where he re-discovered his childhood roots in black culture and especially vinyl music in the seemingly utopian world of Berkeley's famous Telegraph Avenue just as it was beginning to be displaced by an influx of chain stores and impersonal corporate commerce characterized in his novel, Telegraph Avenue.
Book and Author Headlines
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Dan Rather gets rather choked up and 'Rather Outspoken' at BEA 2012: Renowned journalist Dan Rather gets emotional and outspoken as he reviews his life as a journalist and news anchor covering the big stories of the last 50 years.
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Bestselling author Mary Pearson autographs the second book in her Fox Chronicles trilogy at BEA 2011.
Michael Chabon recalls his journey from the city of the future to LA to 'Telegraph Avenue'
