introducing readers to writers since 1995
May 31, 2004
Deborah Solomon Meets Her Match
by Ron Hogan
If you're a regular NYT Sunday magazine reader, you've already seen her questions for Plum Sykes, but this exchange, starting with one of the dumbest arrogant questions in the world, is worth sharing:
How can you justify writing a book about these kinds of women with all that is going on in the world?After 9/11, I went out and tried to buy books to take my mind off the tragedy. And I thought to myself that The Corrections was going to make me feel worse. I wish Jonathan Franzen could be a bit more superficial at times. Right now, people really want something that's up. People are interested in high society because it takes them away from the stresses and strains of reality.
Does anyone still care about high society?
What a great question, Ms. Solomon; why don't you ask the newspaper and magazine editors and WB programming executives who shove Paris Hilton and her slightly less naked sister in the public's face whether anybody still cares about high society?
Ann States/NYT
Christ, it's fucking race to the bottom, isn't it? Who's the bigger moron? It's enough to make me want to pitch my MS onto the funeral pyre.
Posted by: TEV at June 1, 2004 01:24 PMI absolutely loved Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes. It was the perfect summer reading and it needs to be adapted into a film très bientôt!! Does Ms. Sykes have a website or some place where adoring fans can send her their comments?
Posted by: Mar at July 19, 2004 12:55 PMI have no objection to light, fluffy, girly chicklit nor do I object to witty insights into otherwise inacessible high society mores. What is intolerable is badly written tripe! Malheuresement, it is nil points for the delightfully high maintenance Miss Sykes.
Posted by: Amanda at July 27, 2004 02:06 PMThanks for including this excerpt; Plum Sykes comes across as professional here while her interviewer does not. How can someone ask someone to justify a certain type of book in a post 9-11 world? That's ludicrous.
Also, she got a $1.2 million dollar advance, somewhere in that ballpark. That's another reason to write this type of book: it pays well!
Posted by: Jim at August 17, 2004 09:01 AMyour PayPal donation
can contribute towards its ongoing publication.
