Take a look, it's in a book!
Mobs of screaming fans, paparazzi following your every move and
a complete loss of privacy might be the accepted reality for the
typical celebrity. But what about authors, people like Sandra
Cisneros or Amy Tan, whose names you’ve grown up with but
whose faces you don’t recognize?Â
Authors are a different breed of celebrity, walking the streets
everyday completely anonymous to the general population. The
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, coming to Royce Quad on April
26 and 27, will play host to an astonishing number of these mostly
faceless superstars as they sign books and chat with the thousands
who flock to this annual literary Lollapalooza. And for the
authors, it will be an opportunity to show the world what
they’re made of, literally.Â
“Unfortunately the only times I get recognized is when I
don’t want to get recognized ““ like when I’m at
the doctor’s and getting some really embarrassing
procedure,” said Amy Tan, author of “The Joy Luck
Club.” “Somebody will say, “˜Did you get your
enema yet?’ Then somebody (else) will say, “˜Say,
aren’t you Amy Tan? Yeah, I saw that movie of
yours!'”
As for Sandra Cisneros, writer of the acclaimed novel
“House on Mango Street,” while people don’t
generally recognize her in person, they do know her name.
“It will be on the phone, when I’m ordering
something (and I give them my name),” she said,
“They’ll say “˜Oh, just like the writer.’
And I’ll say, “˜Well, I am the writer.'”
But come Saturday, myriad fans at the festival will seek these
authors out to meet them as people, not just names behind the
books.
“One of the great blessings is that
people give you stories back,” Cisneros said. “(When
you write) it’s almost as if you put this note in a bottle
and hope that it’ll bless someone. (At the festival) people
come back and bless you with that confirmation.”
And while it may be a thrilling experience to have those few
days in the limelight, it can be exhausting being in the sun for
hours, signing countless books and talking to numerous strangers.
According to Cisneros, it’s hard to get used to because it
just isn’t in the job description.
“People don’t realize that the book fair and the
signing is the opposite of being a writer. What we’re doing
is the showbiz part,” she said. “Being a writer is
wearing your bathrobe and not having anyone talk to you. I have to
explain to people when they say they want to be writers:
“˜Imagine that nothing you write will ever be published in
your lifetime, you won’t become rich and famous and
you’ll be by yourself for hours and hours like a prison
sentence. Could you do it and would you still
write?'”
“In the spectrum of fame we’re like the protozoa.
Not like rock stars or actors, we’re just writers,” she
continued.
But unlike Cisneros, Tan actually will be a rock star at the
Festival of Books this weekend, as she sheds her persona as an
author and steps into some thigh-high pleather boots and grabs a
microphone and a whip.
“I’m only coming as my ridiculous self, not my
serious literary self,” she said.
Along with Dave Barry, Matt Groening, Mitch Albom and others,
Tan will be singing in a band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, a
group of authors who sing and play to raise money for creative
writing programs in inner-city schools. Although it may be a
charity performance, Tan definitely is not playing the saint.
“I had to actually go to the Castro District in San
Francisco among all the S&M shops to get my costume,” Tan
said. “Here I am, this very proper looking person, and I had
to say, “˜Yes, can I try on that leather, studded cuff collar?
How about this with the little straps? And does this whip actually
hurt when you hit someone with it?”
The group will first be having a discussion (or a repartee, as
they call it) with Steve Martin in Royce Hall on Friday, April 25.
While the motley crew of literary musicians has generally charged
$40 a pop (all for charity, of course) on Saturday, the band has
been sponsored so that participants of the Festival of Books can
save their money for the three-dollar water bottles.
There will be some writers at the festival who understand the
celebrity duality of being both a writer and a star (among them,
Cheech Marin, Elizabeth Taylor, Henry Winkler and John Lithgow).
But for Tan, who gets to play rock star for a while, the festival
is still all about the books.
“It’s really an incredible energy-gathering
experience,” she said. “I run into writers that I
already know and also get to meet other writers that I don’t
know but that I admire. You’re immersed in everything that
reminds you what you love about writing and reading.”
Sandra Cisneros will participate in a panel conversation with
Luis Rodriguez on April 26 at noon in Ackerman Grand Ballroom and
will be doing a reading on the Poetry Stage at 3 p.m. Rock Bottom
Remainders will perform on the Etc. stage on April 26 at 4 p.m.
Tickets for the Repartee in Royce Hall on April 25 are available
through CTO (310) 825-2101.
