The man, the myth
On Wednesday night as part of the Writing Lives Series, Nick Hornby, author of About A Boy and High Fidelity had a conversation with Saskia Hamilton. Voracious reader Julia Goodman fangirled.
I had been looking forward to seeing Nick Hornby since the Heyman Center sent out their calendar of events in January. Being a chronically late person, I decided to get there 45 minutes early–and I was still far from the first to arrive. Snagging a seat near the front, I watched the room fill with young women, young men, and more young women. I felt like I had stumbled into a surreal world where everyone is born with a moleskin and plaid button-down, and nobody ages past thirty.
The event began with a brief introduction, explaining how the talk came about. Turns out that Hornby, who wrote a song with Ben Folds called “I’m In Love With Saskia Hamilton,” had emailed Hamilton to ask permission. The idea became that if he came to Columbia, she would be the one to interview him. Describing the email as “one of the nicest emails [she’s] ever gotten,” Hamilton set the tone for the evening. The two were enderingly flustered at first, stepping on each other’s sentences, and I heard a woman behind me whisper, “It’s like they’re on a first date!” It was, indeed, a little like a first date. They were both so taken with each other that the audience couldn’t help but love both even more.
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