Friday, January 12, 2007
Chances are women will swoon over Swofford's 'Exit A' love story
It seems unfair, somehow, that groupies are the sole province of actors, athletes and musicians. After all, if any hot young writer deserves throngs of screaming fans, it is "Jarhead" author Anthony Swofford.
And asked which authors -- dead or alive -- he would love to have a drink with, Swofford quickly named Vladimir Nabokov, the novelist best known for "Lolita," whose work of non-fiction, "Speak, Memory," is arguably the most important literary memoir of the 20th century.
"I was in St. Petersburg this summer and visited the Nabokov museum, where I saw this old BBC interview with him, and he was just amazing ... smart, witty ... and of course wicked and irascible!
"And he had this great list of things he does not do. ... He said, 'I do not pray, I do not worship a god, I do not drink, I do not eat mussels.' "
"Also, I recently discovered this wonderful female poet from the Midwest, Lorine Niedecker. ... She was the daughter of a wealthy family that lost all their money in the Great Depression. She ended up being a maid living alone and dying late in life having written some amazing poems.
"Oh, and how about Sigmund Freud?" Swofford offered, chuckling. "I would ask him if a cigar is always just a cigar."